Putting in a cattle crush - any advice appreciated

Ecobluff

Hi Folks

We have a small holding of about 20 acres of average to good land and are considering keeping a small herd of Dexters (3-5 cows/heifers). We have a few sheds but no crush. Obviously I need to get a crush in for the herd number but our budget is very tight so would be probably looking at the minimum spec.

Would it be best to go for completely free standing open design with gates , or should we incorporate a solid wall on one side of the crush. If doing this is it acceptable to use a block on the flat or would we have to use RC walls?

Any advice or thoughts would be greatly appreciated?

Farmer Pudsey

What some farmers do is put it outside a shed and use the shed for a gthering pen. Block on the flat would be OK for dexters you also will not need to go very high as the dexters are small animals. You can get galvanised poles with the rings welded on off most engineering firms or some co-op sell them. A head gate will be your most expensive item however one of the real old type leaver head gate is all you will need for dexters no need for auto/semi auto gate.`

Aghoney

Ecobluff wrote: »

Hi Folks

We have a small holding of about 20 acres of average to good land and are considering keeping a small herd of Dexters (3-5 cows/heifers).

Depending on what your reason is for getting cattle, Dexters cows/heifers may not be the best option for you, and you may not want/need a traditional cattle crush. There are about 1800 registered dexters in Ireland, about 1500 of them owned by a dozen or so breeders who raise them for high quality beef. Dexters are easy calvers, milky, do well on marginal land, can be kept outside in the winter. Perfect for those breeders. For a smallholder that is looking for milk and meat, they may not be the best choice. If you are just looking for meat, getting a yearling steer or two may be better. Dexter steers are rarely for sale (because most breeders will keep them to 30 months), but can sometime be found, or you could get a good steer of another breed. If you are looking for milk, a cow that is already trained for milking would be a good choice. Perhaps an older cow from a dairy, one that still has years of service ahead of her, may be better for you. I bought 2 in-calf dexters three months ago, one of them calved a month ago, the other still has two weeks. If I had to do it again, I would choose a yearling steer and a trained milk cow instead.

And if you are thinking about milking, you could build a wooden milking stand with sides and a head "gate" that can double as a cattle crush.

martinangus

block walls are no longer permited for one side of a crush, if you go fro grants etc. make sure you leave the left hand side of crush that rails can be removed. for acces for vet to the cow for c.section etc. i run angus cross heifers on hill all year round and they thrive in winter time you can get a grant maybe for rare breeds. 70 euro per cow min of 5 breeding animals but have to keep rare breed herd book, but the rules are the same as mainstream herd test once a year.

yellow50HX

martinangus wrote: »

block walls are no longer permited for one side of a crush, if you go fro grants etc. make sure you leave the left hand side of crush that rails can be removed. for acces for vet to the cow for c.section etc. i run angus cross heifers on hill all year round and they thrive in winter time you can get a grant maybe for rare breeds. 70 euro per cow min of 5 breeding animals but have to keep rare breed herd book, but the rules are the same as mainstream herd test once a year.

if your talkign small numbers of cattle then maybe a 2nd hand mocile crush mounted on a tractor might be better. you can do one animal at a time an back it up to the door of on of the sheds and bring out the animal 1 at a time. Alternativly, run a short race along the outher wall of one of teh sheds, get a semi auto head gate. you can make the race up with a few girders a couple of short heavy duty guage gates to allo for access.

Ecobluff

Hi All,

Thanks for your posts and suggestions,plenty of food for thought