Cattle handling pens

[beltbreaker]

I put in a Rancher system 3 years ago so I could work safely by myself. The reason for the rancher system was it was taller than the IAE equivalent and better built. The forcing pen works well. It has 2 pens one 24x12 and one 12x12 into the forcing pen in a U and back to the crate. The race is narrow enough for 2 or 3 of my cows and bulls if they have wintered well at 75cm wide. An adjustable race would make handling calves easier. Cost I think was £18k including concrete but what price do you put on safety having worked some pretty ropey systems in the past.

Cheers BB

 

[SolwayFarmer]

We built this system from scratch when finishing cattle. Slightly over kill now I’m dairying but still very useful. Dimensions were all based around 3m x 1.5m stockboard with steel panels made to match Bought the steel and paid someone to fabricate it. Massive saving and is much heavier (thicker steel) than iae and the likes use
Can hold about 70 cattle with four way shed once they come out of crush. The pens are 3 metres wide and find it quite easy to hold cattle back if needs be whilst letting other passed. Double gates rather than single gate is handy but want to put chains on (like the mart have) rather than up and over latches.
it’s all concreted in as it used to take a fair battering from fat cattle. Design and angles etc where taken from Temple Gradins designs.