Calving Pen Division Ideas

[mar]

I have a shed that is 13ft wide and 48ft long. I want to divide it up into 3 calving ens. The pens will not be to calve the cow in, only somewhere to keep the cow and calf for a few days after calving.
The pens are going to be 16ft long and 9ft wide with a 4ft wide feed passage up along the wall on the left in the first picture. The shed will be closed up more, I'm putting yorkshire boarding on it at the minute.

I want to hang the gates without cutting a hole in the floor and putting in a post. I have attached drawings showing the gates coloured blue.

I was thinking of making some sort of frame around the outside and bolt it to the upright posts. I have shown the frame in red in the drawings, something similar to that in the last photo.

Has anyone any ideas how you would make the frame and what size steel you would use or any other ideas how you would do it or photos of something you done yourself.

 

[Gibbybox]

Personally I think you’d struggle to get the frame in red ‘just the right size’ to enable fixing at either end and also be easy to install/remove.

Would an alternative idea to be use normal pin-together cattle hurdles for your cross divisions, which should be available at 9ft off the shelf, and buy or make a combined hurdle with gate in frame as shown attached? We use one of them for between calving pens and it works great.

Only downside is you’d have to dismantle to muck out. if that’s an issue I’d be tempted to hang cross divisions off the wall on right hand side and have a line of gates in frame to form your passage with an overhead brace to left hand side where convenient.

 

[mar]

Personally I think you’d struggle to get the frame in red ‘just the right size’ to enable fixing at either end and also be easy to install/remove.

Would an alternative idea to be use normal pin-together cattle hurdles for your cross divisions, which should be available at 9ft off the shelf, and buy or make a combined hurdle with gate in frame as shown attached? We use one of them for between calving pens and it works great.

Only downside is you’d have to dismantle to muck out. if that’s an issue I’d be tempted to hang cross divisions off the wall on right hand side and have a line of gates in frame to form your passage with an overhead brace to left hand side where convenient.

I'm going to make the red frame and just buy a standard 9ft field gate. I'll make the 4ft gate as I want to use it as a feeding barrier and also to block of the passage to direct the cow into the pen. I'm not sure if a standard 11ft or 12ft will fit the rest of the passage.

Have you any pictures of your setup

 

[Agrivator]

Why not just use 13 cattle hurdles (10ft) to make 4 pens.

And with 15 hurdles, two of the cross hurdles could be doubled about 18inches to 2ft apart to allow hay/haylage/silage to be stuffed in to feed the two adjacent pens.

The pens are free standing, stable and easy to dismantle to muck out. The 3ft walkway allows access along the front, and if need be, concentrates and water can be fed on ''hang-on troughs''

 

[mar]

Why not just use 13 cattle hurdles (10ft) to make 4 pens.

And with 15 hurdles, two of the cross hurdles could be doubled about 18inches to 2ft apart to allow hay/haylage/silage to be stuffed in to feed the two adjacent pens.

The pens are free standing, stable and easy to dismantle to muck out. The 3ft walkway allows access along the front, and if need be, concentrates and water can be fed on ''hang-on troughs''

What is 13 and 15 hurdles, I never heard the term before

 

[Agrivator]

What is 13 and 15 hurdles, I never heard the term before

Just plain cattle hurdles - each about 10ft long. You would need 13 of them to make four adjacent pens.

But an extra 2 hurdles would allow you create two double hurdles spaced about 18 inches apart - to feed roughage.

 

[Agrivator]

Something like this?

 

[mar]

Something like this?

I understand now what you're saying, that's a good idea.
I would like to keep the walkway 4ft but definitely no less than 3ft to get in with a wheel Barrow to feed

 

[digger64]

I have a shed that is 13ft wide and 48ft long. I want to divide it up into 3 calving ens. The pens will not be to calve the cow in, only somewhere to keep the cow and calf for a few days after calving.
The pens are going to be 16ft long and 9ft wide with a 4ft wide feed passage up along the wall on the left in the first picture. The shed will be closed up more, I'm putting yorkshire boarding on it at the minute.

I want to hang the gates without cutting a hole in the floor and putting in a post. I have attached drawings showing the gates coloured blue.

I was thinking of making some sort of frame around the outside and bolt it to the upright posts. I have shown the frame in red in the drawings, something similar to that in the last photo.

Has anyone any ideas how you would make the frame and what size steel you would use or any other ideas how you would do it or photos of something you done yourself.

take the concete panels out on the left and replace with cattle hurdles , pin to the stantions or the remaining panels and make pens what ever size you want

 

[mar]

take the concete panels out on the left and replace with cattle hurdles , pin to the stantions or the remaining panels and make pens what ever size you want

The wall on the left and right side is a shuttered wall with steel reinforcing steel in it so not easy to remove