Safe Calving Area

patsy_mccabe

I'm looking for ideas for a calving pen that would allow me to get at a new-born calf safely. Plan is to build one in the coming year. Are self locking barriers the way to go or would a calving gate be enough?
I was thinking along the lines of a swinging gate that could be swung in over the calf and force back the cow safely, if you know what I mean. I remember seeing something like this before with 2 gates but I cant remember where.

kollegeknight

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

I'm looking for ideas for a calving pen that would allow me to get at a new-born calf safely. Plan is to build one in the coming year. Are self locking barriers the way to go or would a calving gate be enough?
I was thinking along the lines of a swinging gate that could be swung in over the calf and force back the cow safely, if you know what I mean. I remember seeing something like this before with 2 gates but I cant remember where.

I bought a semi automatic sculling gate. I find it handy to catch the cow and then I have the calving gate. It was a dearer set up but I can walk out of the shed and she will catch herself:

Limestone Cowboy

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

I'm looking for ideas for a calving pen that would allow me to get at a new-born calf safely. Plan is to build one in the coming year. Are self locking barriers the way to go or would a calving gate be enough?
I was thinking along the lines of a swinging gate that could be swung in over the calf and force back the cow safely, if you know what I mean. I remember seeing something like this before with 2 gates but I cant remember where.

I'm interested in this aswell, can be very difficult/dangerous trying to get near a newborn at times especially so when they haven't sucked themselves and you have to intervene. I had a springer this spring that was grand and quiet until she calved, I had to let ten cows into the shed with her to try and coax her out into the yard so I could stomach tube the calf and I still didn't feel too safe doing it. Be great to have a better system for managing the likes of her.

charolais0153

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

I'm interested in this aswell, can be very difficult/dangerous trying to get near a newborn at times especially so when they haven't sucked themselves and you have to intervene. I had a springer this spring that was grand and quiet until she calved, I had to let ten cows into the shed with her to try and coax her out into the yard so I could stomach tube the calf and I still didn't feel too safe doing it. Be great to have a better system for managing the likes of her.

Also disinfecting the navel can be very dangerous

patsy_mccabe

I like this design but if the pen was circular, you could close the gate in safely all the way and have it latching every foot or so, as you go. The gate would want to be 2 feet or so off the ground so you could swing it in over a calf lying down. It would tick all the boxes then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm6E503BjmY&list=PL56C4B64B4D98EFF6&index=1

dh1985

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

I like this design but if the pen was circular, you could close the gate in safely all the way and have it latching every foot or so, as you go. The gate would want to be 2 feet or so off the ground so you could swing it in over a calf lying down. It would tick all the boxes then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm6E503BjmY&list=PL56C4B64B4D98EFF6&index=1

Another comment on that gate I would have is that when the calving gate section is closed the bottom bar of the gate is too low as it restricts access to the cows elder if you need to get the calf sucking.

charolais0153

I find we barely ever use the gate .gets in the way iykwim.cows seem to go down a lot aswell in our place but it's handy enough cos there's a slope down from head gate

Who2

I'm on the mark 3 version here of calving pens. It's the pen size and what way the gate swings that's the most critical IMO. 12x12 is the optimum size as far as I can see. I've a gate like the one on the clip and while it's an alright job I find it could be better designed.
I'm going to reuse it between 2 pens but this time I'm putting in a fully independant calving chute with all the little gadgets.

bogman_bass

If I was to put in a new set up I would have a skulling gate for the simple reason that the times that you need the gate most are when the pulling gets hard and thats when the cow goes down. The semi auto headgate wont choke an animal that goes down and she can be easily released

Pidae.m

Don't know if you saw this farming life on BBC 2 last year. Martin Irvine with the limousin herd in Scotland had good set up for calving. If I were to do something it would be like that. Even simply but a head locking feed barrier so if I don't trust a cow when I'm tagging a calf I'd pop her in easy enough. I presume you've seen the calving pens in Derry Patrick but that's obviously done with a blank cheque book.

Pidae.m

My own pen has the same ideas in that video but it's 15 years old and needs an upgrade. My old lad wouldn't spend money on safety......pardon the pun but to save his life.

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

I like this design but if the pen was circular, you could close the gate in safely all the way and have it latching every foot or so, as you go. The gate would want to be 2 feet or so off the ground so you could swing it in over a calf lying down. It would tick all the boxes then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm6E503BjmY&list=PL56C4B64B4D98EFF6&index=1

patsy_mccabe

Just had a thought - Anyone use an electric fence to keep back the cow as you tend to the calf. You could wind it in/out as you sweep it across the shed. Better than nothing.

Mooooo

May not help in terms of catching the calf but in terms of gett8ng out of harms way it may be worth having uprights with a gap that you can get thru but not the cow on all sides, similar to some bull pens. One issue with a swinging gate would be a cow could will blow gate and you out of it. Locking barrier or headlock of some sort would be safest, getting them in there tho

Genghis Cant

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Just had a thought - Anyone use an electric fence to keep back the cow as you tend to the calf. You could wind it in/out as you sweep it across the shed. Better than nothing.

It'll hold some back but the one you really want to hold back will come through it. So I think it lulls you into a false sense of security.

FeelTheBern

dh1985 wrote: »

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

I like this design but if the pen was circular, you could close the gate in safely all the way and have it latching every foot or so, as you go. The gate would want to be 2 feet or so off the ground so you could swing it in over a calf lying down. It would tick all the boxes then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm6E503BjmY&list=PL56C4B64B4D98EFF6&index=1

Another comment on that gate I would have is that when the calving gate section is closed the bottom bar of the gate is too low as it restricts access to the cows elder if you need to get the calf sucking.

That gate looks like right job.

Think Genghis Cant mentioned in an older thread that he had one of these gates. How do you find it Genghis? Just wondering whether that bottom bar is too low for calves to suck or not? Does your gate telescope out?

Genghis Cant

FeelTheBern wrote: »

That gate looks like right job.

Think Genghis Cant mentioned in an older thread that he had one of these gates. How do you find it Genghis? Just wondering whether that bottom bar is too low for calves to suck or not? Does your gate telescope out?

You've some memory :-)
I had to look at the video there and we have that gate. Performance Steel is right.
The bottom bar is too low. It's a pain trying to get a calf to suck under it. In fact near impossible. There's a small section in the middle of the gate that you swing out if you're doing a CS. We often had to resort to swinging out the rest of the gate and just leaving this small section tied along the flank of the cow. It's far from ideal.
I've often cursed the fact that it's a bit low to allow a calf under. But you sort of forget all about that until every now and then a calf comes along that needs help suckling!

Ours doesn't telescope out. It's a fixed width gate.

tanko

If every cow was as quiet as that Charolais in the video calving would be a doddle. He should have used a crazy limo to give it a good test.

greysides

Two comments about the video.
One, I note there's good space behind the cow to use a calving jack.....seems obvious when you go to use a jack but might be forgotten in the planning.
Two, the rope behind the cow.. can be awkward if the cow goes down during jacking as it's under the jack. I don't have an answer to the problem but I've seen people use bars or ropes over the cows back to keep the side of the 'crush' connected to the wall.

Genghis Cant

greysides wrote: »

Two, the rope behind the cow.. can be awkward if the cow goes down during jacking as it's under the jack. I don't have an answer to the problem but I've seen people use bars or ropes over the cows back to keep the side of the 'crush' connected to the wall.

We use a rope behind the cow. I handle her when I have to, and if I've to use the jack I open the rope, swing back the gate and just leave her held by the head gate. Once the jack goes on there's usually no messing from the cow. In fact I like to have the bit room, particularly if the cow goes down with jacking.

charolais0153

Genghis Cant wrote: »

We use a rope behind the cow. I handle her when I have to, and if I've to use the jack I open the rope, swing back the gate and just leave her held by the head gate. Once the jack goes on there's usually no messing from the cow. In fact I like to have the bit room, particularly if the cow goes down with jacking.

+one. I do be watching videos on YouTube and it would be a hard enough calving and they'd stay standing,at home the majority would go down

FeelTheBern

Genghis Cant wrote: »

FeelTheBern wrote: »

That gate looks like right job.

Think Genghis Cant mentioned in an older thread that he had one of these gates. How do you find it Genghis? Just wondering whether that bottom bar is too low for calves to suck or not? Does your gate telescope out?

You've some memory :-)
I had to look at the video there and we have that gate. Performance Steel is right.
The bottom bar is too low. It's a pain trying to get a calf to suck under it. In fact near impossible. There's a small section in the middle of the gate that you swing out if you're doing a CS. We often had to resort to swinging out the rest of the gate and just leaving this small section tied along the flank of the cow. It's far from ideal.
I've often cursed the fact that it's a bit low to allow a calf under. But you sort of forget all about that until every now and then a calf comes along that needs help suckling!

Ours doesn't telescope out. It's a fixed width gate.

Not sure how good the memory is! Came across the other thread few weeks ago when following up that performance steel gate. Can't figure out why that bar so low - doesn't seem to be any reason why it couldn't be higher. We end up getting a good few calves started on cow here just for peace of mind if it was nigh time so that would turn me off it.

I like the idea of telescopic gate. If you're in a normal bay of a shed probably have 15 foot behind head gate - think you need it all if you're going jacking but if you haven't full gate to bring cow around they'll make some fool of you trying to get them up to headgate.

Anyone have a full calving gate that they are fully happy with??? Think there's a good audience here for a few photos or dimensions!

Justjens

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Just had a thought - Anyone use an electric fence to keep back the cow as you tend to the calf. You could wind it in/out as you sweep it across the shed. Better than nothing.

I use a 12' light gate jammed into a corner and against something solid the other end. Although the gate into my pen also doubles as a divider giving the cow a 3'x11' restricted space to contemplate life.

I'll take a couple of pics of my set-up tomorrow, not quite as fancy as the Youtube one but it does what I need, unless shes a complete looper (like the one I had to sedate last week!).

Justjens

Should be outside mowing the lawn but while I remeber:

This is my set-up for the last 3 or 4 seasons, a row of 3 pens with the main one 15'x11' and the other two 11' square.





The main pen has the calving gate that opens in three ways, and the main gate opens and latches to the wall to restrict the cow in one end, this area also has a pedestrian gate for quick escape, when not occupied!







Getting an unhelpful cow into the headlock can prove challenging. I usually bring in an additional 12' gate jammed into the corner and eventually she'll go in. Last week's cow that we sedated kept coming over the 12' gate at us as there is too much room from the end of the calving gate to the back wall, so we came in from the other side where we could use the dividing gate between pen 2 and 3 to restrict her.

We still failed to get her in the headlock so out came the sedative and we haltered her to the calving gate which is secured to the wall with a large chain. Because of the row of pens we still had plenty of room to work the jack.

Everyting is removable, bar the headlock and pedestrian gate, to make the shed more useable for the other 10 months of the year.

Would I change anything? Yes the calving gate: it would still be in three parts but all three gates would hinge on the same axis, a long bar between hangers and everything swinging off that.

Also I would not bother with the cut-out that I thought would be handy for getting a calf to drink, it's too awkward, too far back and there's too much in the way even if it was in the right place. I'd leave an extra bar or two on the main gate, keep it all square so to speak. I just use the 'section gate chained back for suckling, plenty good enough and a lot less chance of injury as it's set quite high.







Everything is about 6' high, for obvious reason. I can calve a cow from either side while the other pen is occupied. Have only done it once, and the calf from the other pen kept climbing through to see what was going on while the it's cow kept attacking the one I was calving! Thankfully they were all quiet and it all worked out.

Contemplation pen:

kowtow

Justjens wrote: »

Contemplation pen:

That's the cow equivalent of the naughty step, right?

Count Mondego

Lovely setup, something similar in a new shed. Have a calving gate setup between two of the pens like yourself. I have an O'Donnell gate, and while it is great over all, it has one terrible design. The hasp to release the cow from the crush section is a balls and you have to try and lever it up with a bar from a distance. If you put your arm in near it a cow could very easily break your arm.

Base price

tanko wrote: »

If every cow was as quiet as that Charolais in the video calving would be a doddle. He should have used a crazy limo to give it a good test.

Doesn't look like a Charolais to me. I reckon she's a Blonde due to her length and fine bone.

dunlopwellies

I bought a Bo Steel calving gate this year. Have yet to use it but I would say it's the best of them.
The design and build quality is impressive.
I bought the telescopic one to suit the calving pen which is basically the last bag of the shed similar to the Ines gone before.
I think ideally calving gate would want to be hung at 90 degrees to a heavy duty dividing gate rather than a wall so when in use the cow is held between 2 gates. When she goes down in the wrong direction the dividing gate can be opened to jack in that direction iykwim.

patsy_mccabe

Ya, that's how I plan to do mine. Will have it adjustable up and down at the hangin point to allow for Straw build up underneath.

Who2

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Ya, that's how I plan to do mine. Will have it adjustable up and down at the hangin point to allow for Straw build up underneath.

I've my calving gates tight to the ground and the feed barriers set nine inches off the ground and then the dividing gates kept up at 12" to allow to swing over a lying calf.

50HX

goin at the calving shed in the next weeks......as soon as the aul lad heads away for a few days:D

have a semi auto gate already fixed to a h iron(wall at other side) and have a neighbour going to make a calving gate for me that i can hang off the h iron as well,

hope to get him to make the section closest to the cows udder telescopic and also higher off the ground than what's in the video posted above

anyone make any modifications to their gates eg bo steel or condons ones??

was thinking of using a 12ft gate and modify it to be able to open the last 6ft of the bottom 3 bars fully, that way i'll easy access to get calf to drink

part time so have this habit of gettin all calves drinking rather than bottle fed as no time in the mornins before work

yellow50HX

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

I'm looking for ideas for a calving pen that would allow me to get at a new-born calf safely. Plan is to build one in the coming year. Are self locking barriers the way to go or would a calving gate be enough?
I was thinking along the lines of a swinging gate that could be swung in over the calf and force back the cow safely, if you know what I mean. I remember seeing something like this before with 2 gates but I cant remember where.

This is my setup, it's the front of the old silage pit. Access off the slats. Have an old crush gate and hung a gate of a h iron. Plenty of room behind to use a jack and good light overhead.
As you can see I use pallets to make the pen. As I use the bales through the winter it frees up room so space for pen is in place for calving season. If cow goes down I can open the gate to free her up.