Mobile sheep handling systems

[neilo]

Rappa and Scotpen both are.....

Aren’t Prattley yards, as long as you don’t load lots of stuff in the middle/hung off the back, so that they exceed the limit of 750kg for an unbraced trailer?

Is my 5 yr old RAPPA yard suddenly illegal as it’s not got silly (break off) lights sticking out on the side, or anything more than a lighting board to tie on the back?

 

[Andy84]

Aren’t Prattley yards, as long as you don’t load lots of stuff in the middle/hung off the back, so that they exceed the limit of 750kg for an unbraced trailer?

Is my 5 yr old RAPPA yard suddenly illegal as it’s not got silly (break off) lights sticking out on the side, or anything more than a lighting board to tie on the back?

Pretty sure ur lighting board is totally fine it was updates VOSA were making that applied to new things.

 

[neilo]

Pretty sure ur lighting board is totally fine it was updates VOSA were making that applied to new things.

I should perhaps add that I don’t recall ever seeing anyone with a lighting board tied on the back of a mobile yard.

 

[Andy84]

I should perhaps add that I don’t recall ever seeing anyone with a lighting board tied on the back of a mobile yard.

I did once but it wasn't tied on and was dragging along the road! I'll be honest my fancy lights on the front and back of my Rappa got taken off on day one and have been in the corner of the workshop ever since!

 

[neilo]

I did once but it wasn't tied on and was dragging along the road! I'll be honest my fancy lights on the front and back of my Rappa got taken off on day one and have been in the corner of the workshop ever since!

It would be a shame to break them, after all.

 

[Downton_shep]

It must only be the 12’ super yard that’s over the weight limit.

 

[shearerlad]

I should perhaps add that I don’t recall ever seeing anyone with a lighting board tied on the back of a mobile yard.

I do.

3’ led light board with 5m cable on eBay for roughly £25. 2 lengths of 2nd hand twine. Jobs a good un

 

[ploughman1963]

I too insist on the lighting board being fitted - but my son doesn’t seem to take a lot of notice

 

[ffukedfarmer]

My alligator has brackets fitted that an take a lighting board. Shame my mother drove over the one the came with it

 

[rookswood]

The GSF came with it own light board that clips on the back.

 

[organic antares]

Just to add to the options we have a modulamb mobile set up, heavy galv steel but cheaper than ally and built in road lights

 

[MRT]

The GSF came with it own light board that clips on the back.

So did mine. It arrived several months after I had made one out of an old pallet to fit so lives in my kitchen as a decoration

 

[Lazy Eric]

Try the Glendale engineering one, built like a brick out house. We have one.

 

[ploughman1963]

Does anyone know how the weigh bars fit into the Prattley handling yard? We have a Romney Ranger with weigh bars and Tru Test (eziweigh7??) and were wondering how difficult it woud be to swap the weigh bars over?
Possibly easier/cheaper to just order the weigh system with Prattley??
RAPPA - weighing as a separate unit??

Edit: The Prattley also uses a separate weighing modue?? Is the Romney Ranger the only one that has the weighing system as part of the race?

 

[ffukedfarmer]

Does anyone know how the weigh bars fit into the Prattley handling yard? We have a Romney Ranger with weigh bars and Tru Test (eziweigh7??) and were wondering how difficult it woud be to swap the weigh bars over?
Possibly easier/cheaper to just order the weigh system with Prattley??
RAPPA - weighing as a separate unit??

Edit: The Prattley also uses a separate weighing modue?? Is the Romney Ranger the only one that has the weighing system as part of the race?

The weigh bars go in the race in the alligator.

With a separate weigh crate how do you shed them after they have been weighed?

 

[ploughman1963]

The weigh bars go in the race in the alligator.

With a separate weigh crate how do you shed them after they have been weighed?

Yes good point - our Romney ranger has the weigh bars immediately ahead of the drafting gate and also the side panel is a gate so can draft 3 ways. Unless someone can tell me otherwise it appears from their websites that prattley and rappa are separate weigh units?

 

[Downton_shep]

Yes prattley are separate unit with shedding gates attached which can be fully automated.

 

[neilo]

The RAPPA (Border?) weigh crate has drafting gates built into it, like the Prattley crate, so you'd just shed from the crate, rather than the mobile race gates?

If you have weighbars in the race, you surely need some way of keeping the lambs on the weighing platform, without touching the solid sides or front/rear gates, or you risk inaccuracy.

I think Scotpen do an 'in-race' weigher like you're thinking of @ploughman1963

 

[ploughman1963]

The RAPPA (Border?) weigh crate has drafting gates built into it, like the Prattley crate, so you'd just shed from the crate, rather than the mobile race gates?

If you have weighbars in the race, you surely need some way of keeping the lambs on the weighing platform, without touching the solid sides or front/rear gates, or you risk inaccuracy.

I think Scotpen do an 'in-race' weigher like you're thinking of @ploughman1963

Thanks- the weighing floor in the Romney ranger has the shedding gate in front and a gate behind them plus a shedding gate to the side - we slightly modified ours so the little sods couldn’t put a foot on the side rail - all in all it works well. How does the weigh unit work on the others?
Just disappointed that contemplating a step to a rappa/prattley involves even more expense with buying an additional unit to be able to weigh

 

[Farmerwully]

The rappa is the one to go for. More or less identical to the prattley but British. For me though it’s too expensive to buy without grants but thanks to the farm business grant I have one

How long would it take to set up and how many ewes would it hold?