Cattle handling set-up

Buy more moveable panels than you think you need. Twice as much. I have John Lyons panels- they rock. Bigger and heavier than standard gates and 6 will link up into a nice strong catch pen. Move it to pasture, catch cows, back up trailer to panels, load cows. I’ve done this in many fields among the farms I graze at. I also have some bolted to my barn to make a “maximum security” catch pen with stall access sometimes used as a creep for calves.
I built a roof over my headlocks and a roofed round bale feeder and both have drastically reduced food waste. They are skippable moveable too. Even if you are in a permanent spot it’s nice to be able to move things around as needed.

Try to keep the holding pen without corners if the animals are “rangy”, small panels, hog panels or plywood in corners will keep the animals moving better instead of the stubborn animal putting its head down in the corner and blocking things up.

Erika

Dr. Temple Grandin has transformed the livestock handling and slaughter industry with her work. There is some good information on her website, http://grandin.com/. The key to handling live stock is knowing how your set up will influence their behavior. The website offers information on many topics including animal behavior and handling systems design.

You will notice many pictures of solid walled curvy pens and shoots, this is all done to minimize stress. When you can keep animals calm and moving forward you minimize the stress on the animals and the handlers. I used to work on a sheep farm with 300 head, with minimal panels and baling twine, I constructed a handling system and weighed 150 lambs by myself with ease. You don’t have to have a fancy Preifert equipment (http://www.priefert.com/) to have an effective system. Many of Dr. Grandin’s ideas can be scaled down to any level if you use your imagination and what you have on hand. Best of luck.

Erika

• This reply was modified 8 years, 11 months ago by dominiquer60.