Shedding / drafting gates

[crashbox]

Interested in what works well (or doesn't!), and approx cost?

Our cows have EID ear tags for out of parlour feeders, so makes sense to have a gate that works with them.

Ideally three way for grazing season:
A) high yielders out to feed yard
B) low yielders out to grass
C) cows to pick out e.g. for vet routine or service

Thanks,

CB

 

[Sid]

We have 3 delaval sort gates on robots, for grazing directions, milking permissions and segregation.

Work well.
Few sensors have packed up, over 10 year old gates.
Photo cell will see if a cow is stuck as well and release the gate automatically.
Can be programmed on a whole host of parameters, time ,milking permissions, etc.

 

[Bramble]

Got a 3 way ATL gate that probably puts 95% of things in the right place. The antennae is actually much more accurate, it just some cows have learnt various ways to avoid being sorted if they really don’t want to be. We have one cow that will avoid being sorted to the AI pen at all costs.

We were very careful routing/screening the cabling when it was installed. We have also put screens round the antennae and put a latch operated by an air ram on the AI pen gate to stop cows pushing it open and walking out. I suspect if we had a bigger holding pen this wouldnt be a problem.

I know some people have had problems with them, but ours is very good and ATL have been very helpful

 

[Cows 'n grass]

I probably got my ATL close to 95% before giving up on it. 95% still isnt good enough when you're using it to draft cows for AI.

 

[crashbox]

For us the shedding gate would be on the end of a race (approx. 3m long) with auto footbath in it. Not sure if that is a good idea, or would help with the sorting?

 

[frederick]

For us the shedding gate would be on the end of a race (approx. 3m long) with auto footbath in it. Not sure if that is a good idea, or would help with the sorting?

A footbath works very well at slowing the cows. Trouble is the chemical doesn't do the metal any good.

 

[Sid]

I probably got my ATL close to 95% before giving up on it. 95% still isnt good enough when you're using it to draft cows for AI.

Is that a speed thing or just missing cows?

 

[vantage]

Delaval 3 way gate here for 17 years. Very good, missed a cow yesterday which was odd until I found she’d lost her collar!

 

[Bramble]

Is that a speed thing or just missing cows?

On ours it’s a speed thing, some cows push hard on the cow in front and the gate can’t separate the 2 cows as they are too tight together. It never seems to be an ident problem with the antennae, that is 100% accurate

Ive done probably 350 services in the last couple of months and probably had to go and find half a dozen that it hasn’t caught. Had 54 out for the vet last week and 1 was missing.

 

[Sid]

On ours it’s a speed thing, some cows push hard on the cow in front and the gate can’t separate the 2 cows as they are too tight together. It never seems to be an ident problem with the antennae, that is 100% accurate

Ive done probably 350 services in the last couple of months and probably had to go and find half a dozen that it hasn’t caught. Had 54 out for the vet last week and 1 was missing.

So ours has a gate before the directional gate.

 

[Rossymons]

Interested in what works well (or doesn't!), and approx cost?

Our cows have EID ear tags for out of parlour feeders, so makes sense to have a gate that works with them.

Ideally three way for grazing season:
A) high yielders out to feed yard
B) low yielders out to grass
C) cows to pick out e.g. for vet routine or service

Thanks,

CB

I work with Delaval, Westfalia, Fullwood and a Dairymaster. They're all much of a muchness. Without knowing what brand of parlour you have I would say it would be best to have the same one for your seg gate for back up reasons.

Would you need a 3 way system?

All of the ones on farms I visit have 2 ways. The one thing you need for a decent gate to work is space and you're compromising that by having a 3 way as well as adding extra cost.

 

[Cows 'n grass]

Is that a speed thing or just missing cows?

I'd say an equal split between cows running through and cows that had lost tags.

We probably lost 10% of the eid tags a year so with 500 cows that was one a week. It became more of a job to make sure all the tags were all still in than it is to just draft manually.

 

[crashbox]

I work with Delaval, Westfalia, Fullwood and a Dairymaster. They're all much of a muchness. Without knowing what brand of parlour you have I would say it would be best to have the same one for your seg gate for back up reasons.

Would you need a 3 way system?

All of the ones on farms I visit have 2 ways. The one thing you need for a decent gate to work is space and you're compromising that by having a 3 way as well as adding extra cost.

Three way not absolutely necessary, but would mean I could let highs out with lows for one grazing session a day.

 

[Sparkymark]

I have a 3 way Saber. Great for shedding out pd’s, cows for foot trimmer etc.
Very accurate and has a one way gate before the gate which stops them backing up.
Pretty sure they don’t sell them here anymore.

 

[Grassman247]

Cheap ATL gate for sale here if your interested?!

 

[vantage]

So ours has a gate before the directional gate.

Mine has saloon doors on the way in and more substantial gates to seg, I replaced the curtain recently as it was beyond repair, even though in recent years we fixed it to a backing of plastic board. Delaval no longer supply curtains and a multi reader is ££££, luckily found a good firm, Kanters, in Holland who get them made up at a reasonable cost.