Mobile cattlehandling systems ?.

[Oscar]

What's the low down on these ??
I have done quite a bit of research but not actually visited any current users.
Background:
Worked abroad for 18 months on cattle farms , NZ, USA and Australia but 25 years ago. Have been arable on my farm for 22 years but helped with dairy farms and TB testing all through . Anyhow, I am been forced into grass and cattle farming going forward ( HLS scheme) and have no infrastructure for cattle handling . Farm is a round mile long and long and thin with lots of roads so think building three handling pens in different locations and then moving a mobile force pen, race and crush to deal with jobs . Have tractor and handler available .
Looked at Richie, Arrowhead and IAE systems and also Te Parri but they don t do a full mobile system but maybe ok for static at home? Any views or opinions ?
Know it's going to be £ 25 k plus
Thanks in advance

 

[exmoor dave]

What's the low down on these ??
I have done quite a bit of research but not actually visited any current users.
Background:
Worked abroad for 18 months on cattle farms , NZ, USA and Australia but 25 years ago. Have been arable on my farm for 22 years but helped with dairy farms and TB testing all through . Anyhow, I am been forced into grass and cattle farming going forward ( HLS scheme) and have no infrastructure for cattle handling . Farm is a round mile long and long and thin with lots of roads so think building three handling pens in different locations and then moving a mobile force pen, race and crush to deal with jobs . Have tractor and handler available .
Looked at Richie, Arrowhead and IAE systems and also Te Parri but they don t do a full mobile system but maybe ok for static at home? Any views or opinions ?
Know it's going to be £ 25 k plus
Thanks in advance

Arrowquip looks the business.
Might be worth waiting on the next grant round (last one just finished)


Remember our landlord has a full mobile system that's for use by all of us..... even if it does seem to live in the same few places



Have a home made here, so not alot of help to look at, but can tell you what bits work/ don't work and what we wish we had

 

[Oscar]

Did nt know about the mobile unit ??
Will take up your offer re advice , thanks !

 

[An Gof]

I have a Ritchie system and I am very happy with it. BUT I still think the ArrowQuip is where I would spend my money. I bought my system with a grant and at the time they would not finance for ArrowQuip as it was not a galvanised system.
Ritchie is well built, practical and will last. Main down side is no squeeze crush facility and noisier operation than the the ArrowQuip.

 

[exmoor dave]

Did nt know about the mobile unit ??
Will take up your offer re advice , thanks !

Yeah big red mobile system, portquip I think,
It's not great TBH despite having loads of features, but better than spending alot of money if you don't need to.
If you see Mike W, ask him.



Haha! Wouldn't pretend to be any sort of expert on cattle handling..... but have tested more than a few cattle the last 12 yrs

 

[Northern territory]

Such big money though even with the grant. I have seen a few advertised that don’t seem big money. They will have been traded in on the grant scheme

 

[An Gof]

Such big money though even with the grant. I have seen a few advertised that don’t seem big money. They will have been traded in on the grant scheme

Thought if you had a grant on a machine you had to keep It at least 5 years.

 

[Northern territory]

Thought if you had a grant on a machine you had to keep It at least 5 years.

I mean trading ones they had before the grants came in.

 

[Bucks Boy]

Do you really need a mobile system. How many cattle will you have. I use IAE 10’ Cattle hurdles and crush. Move everything with a telehandler. Doesn’t take long to set up. PD, TB tested, Bolused and vaccinated calves. Seems to work well at a fraction of the cost for mobile system. Also use hurdles and crush in shed for any winter handling of cattle.

 

[cousinjack]

Morris Livestock Handling Equipment - Mobile Cattle Handling System

New page

www.morrislivestockequipment.co.uk

 

[cousinjack]

Morris Livestock Handling Equipment - Mobile Cattle Handling System

New page

www.morrislivestockequipment.co.uk

We’ve got one…. It’s awesome !

 

[DrDunc]

Are you just yourself? What numbers in each batch of cattle?

If there's two of you to handle the gates, then it'll be a lot less to buy something like a supur forcing semicircle, some hurdles, and a squeeze crush.

Setting up something similar here at the moment, albeit at the steading. It's "mobile" to get better tax relief than fixed equipment. Three 10'x20' collecting pens, forcing circle, 30 foot race with sliding gates, access kiosk, Tamar auto yoke squeeze crush with head scoop, and shedding gate will be just shy of £15k by the time I'm finished paying for it.

 

[twizzel]

Arrowquip crushes are the bees knees so I’d go with that system hands down. Out of all the crushes I’ve seen with scribing on Tb tests at various farms, Arrowquip is the best hands down,

 

[Oscar]

Thanks for the replies.
Never heard of Morris brand before.
It's slightly more complicated than I first let on as we run a farm school here so have got children and young adults maybe helping /watching so everything has to be 100 % H and S and easy . Got access to outside funding so that's not a constraint .
Will keep looking but feel free to continue comments .

 

[delilah]

Purchased the Bateman mobile system, under £15k, then the grant scheme paid 40% of that, very pleased with it for the money.

 

[JP1]

Thanks for the replies.
Never heard of Morris brand before.
It's slightly more complicated than I first let on as we run a farm school here so have got children and young adults maybe helping /watching so everything has to be 100 % H and S and easy . Got access to outside funding so that's not a constraint .
Will keep looking but feel free to continue comments .

Speak with Peter who owns / runs Morris. They do work for mobile fast tow crushes and systems for the APHA and school farms too

 

[Whitepeak]

Mrs Whitepeak works as a tb tester, so I'm always hearing about different set ups.
She says some of the worst farms are the ones with the all singing all dancing crush! Because they've spent all their money on that bit they forget the rest, so cows are pushed 1 by 1 into it. The best systems have a good forcing pen and race leading to, quite often, a very basic crush.
A lot of manufacturers their mobile systems are basically a fancy crush on wheels with a few hurdles. So are pretty useless unless you've built proper forcing pens in the field. And the stock cube/ Rotex/suporhandler setups look a bit of a faff to take down and set up during a full day of tb testing if you are regularly moving sites.

 

[Highland Mule]

Speak with Peter who owns / runs Morris. They do work for mobile fast tow crushes and systems for the APHA and school farms too

How are you getting on with your walking trailer @JP1 ? I’m surprised you hadn’t suggested that as an option given the OP is a mile end to end with lots of roads in between - a permanent central handling facility and a few catching pens to load up the stock to transfer back.

 

[JP1]

How are you getting on with your walking trailer @JP1 ? I’m surprised you hadn’t suggested that as an option given the OP is a mile end to end with lots of roads in between - a permanent central handling facility and a few catching pens to load up the stock to transfer back.

Walking trailer is a good safe way of halter training currently. My Treibewagen works well for what I need it for and the yoke is great to catch and jag or calve an animal, parting off or moving them.

What it is not is a replacement for my main crush for big throughput of cattle for testing etc. It saves carrying a lot of hurdles and hassle but does move the mountain to Mohammed etc

If the OP wants more info on waht @the-mad-welder did for me it's easy to search on Treibewagen on here

 

[som farmer]

whatever you do, take time to research it. A good, well designed system, whether mobile or fixed, saves a huge amount of work and stress. Nor does a fixed system have to be expensive, our fixed one, consists of 1 smallish pen, 12 cows, 6 hurdles and a crush. Vets and AI man, rave over how well it works. Field wise, hurdles and some convenient placings.