wooden corral

[cleland]

Does any one still use planks to build working pens? I am starting to work on a new set of pens and am considering using wood instead of steel. What are the recomendations for building a good solid wooden set of pens.

 

[novatech]

I would go with 2x6 treated rough sawn. Posts at 6ft. and 4 ft. at crowding tub and chute. Minimum 5 ft.height (excitable cattle goto6 ft.). Boards spaced 5 1/2 in. apart. Solid sides are better on chute and tub. Treated ply. will work for this but planking will last longer. Gates are heavy so use tall posts with a brace cable running out to the end from top of hinge post. Avoid 90 degree corners in corral. Cut corners to make them 45 degrees. Cattle will flow much easier and not tend to crowd up like they would in a 90 degree corner.
Some links for ideas.
http://www.cps.gov.on.ca/english/bc1000/beef.htm
http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/abeng/beefplans.htm
http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/abeng/plans/6230.pdf This is the basic design of a set up I use. Works good.
Things to keep in mind.
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/3740705/Int ... wind-Farms

 

[Bez+]

Small piece of advice for you.

No matter how high you run the boards there are animals that will try them - so we always run a rail down the top of the fence posts and spike them in with one 12 inch ardoch nail into each post. When the animal hits the top board it will break - this way they hit the rail first and they bounce off.

Boards work - steel is better.

Build what you can afford and upgrade through time

Cheers

Bez+

 

[SRBeef]

I used full 2 x 10 rough sawn oak reject boards (had some bark etc) from a saw mill that had been sitting out (and drying) for most of my corral with regular used guard rail for the high pressure areas. I don't think the treated pine sold at lumber yards these days is very strong nor will it last very long. Posts have to be much closer together for pine. I used old telephone pole for corral posts for both the oak and the guard rail. Good luck.

Jim

 

[cleland]

anyone have any sort of pictures

 

[Brute 23]

Small piece of advice for you.

No matter how high you run the boards there are animals that will try them - so we always run a rail down the top of the fence posts and spike them in with one 12 inch ardoch nail into each post. When the animal hits the top board it will break - this way they hit the rail first and they bounce off.

Boards work - steel is better.

Build what you can afford and upgrade through time

Cheers

Bez+

Yup, they break that top board and are gone.

 

[SRBeef]

anyone have any sort of pictures

I'll try photobucket as suggested:

This is my corral/tub/weigh alley/working chute/sorting/loading ramp/feedbunk area. The crowded area has guard rail and as they are sorted off into the tub area it changes to rough sawn oak boards about 6 ft high. In the background you can see a waterer area where I started with treated boards but saw they were not strong enough and went to guard rail. You mention you are building "pens" maybe this is overkill for "pens".

I really like this corral - once they are in here (usually not too difficult because they are used to getting a sweet feed treat in the fenceline bunks in corral) they are going where I want them to go - calmly and safely. And it can be operated by one person.

Also, I've found that limiting sight lines is important in the corral - you can see all of my corral pipe gates have plywood wired to the inside. Keeps them much calmer. If they can't see out they are less likely to get riled and start climbing. jmho.

Jim

 

[msscamp]

Does any one still use planks to build working pens? I am starting to work on a new set of pens and am considering using wood instead of steel. What are the recomendations for building a good solid wooden set of pens.

Yes, there are a number of people around here who still use boards to build corrals/working pens. Most of them use 12' railroad ties set roughly 6' deep instead of posts, though, and they space those ties roughly 8' apart. They also use 2X12's for the actual fencing, and put an extra board on the outside of the ties at the top, and sometimes another one on the outside of the ties about 4' or so above the ground. Most of the feedlots I've seen around here have gone to railroad tie posts, and then use cable and sucker rods for the actual fence. I don't know what the cost would be for that type of fence, but you might want to check into that option, as well.

 

[novaman]

I wouldn't waste my time putting up a wooden fence. If your going to go through all the work of putting up the fence, do it right the first time. Steel is the way to go. All the wood fences put up by the generations before me have or are failing and I am now forced to rip it all out and redo it. As if time isn't short the way it is.

 

[I luv herfrds]

We have started replacing our wooden corral with steel panels.
3rd corral in 3 generations should tell you something.
Also got tired of replacing broken planks.

 

[backhoeboogie]

3 inch tube steel frames 20 feet long and 5 foot tall with sheep panel welding to them are kind of hard to beat. Pin them together. Mine have a top, bottom and mid rail. Verticals every 10 feet. You can configure it just about anyway you want to. Big circles, alley pens etc. Then can be anchored with T posts on the outside if need be. Move them around, clean up the area, move them here to the house etc.

You'll never be stuck with one configuration. You can set up anywhere and make it as big or as small as need be. Or you can just set them up and leave them be. Nothing is ever broken. Never a protrucing nail. Narrow alleys for calves only etc.

They'll never burn down if your neighor sets the whole country side on fire. If you get burned out one time and see years of work go up in smoke, you'll never feel the same about wood again.

 

[randiliana]

Here is a link you can look at. It is our corral setup. We can handle over 150 head in it if need be, although it gets a little tight with that many. The posts are set 8' apart on the main fences. Gates are between 6 and 14 feet, depending what they are used for.

http://ranchersperspective.blogspot.com ... setup.html