Choosing Livestock Sorting Pens And Supplies: The Basics
When it comes to working cattle, few things are as important as your sorting system and process. Whether you're checking for pregnancies, administering vaccines, or any number of other care needs, you'll have to be able to accurately and adequately sort your cattle quickly. This is where quality sorting systems come in. Here's a look at some of the things that you need to think about when you're dealing with livestock sorting system selection.
Where Will You Be Working?
One of the first things that you need to determine is where you'll be working your cattle. If you'll always work them in the same field and the same location, you can invest in a fixed livestock sorting system that you set up where you need it and then just leave it. However, if you'll be taking the tasks to the fields where the cattle are grazing, no matter where that might be, you're going to need something a little bit more portable. With a portable livestock sorting system, you'll have a series of panels, gates, and controls to allow you to create multiple holding pens, chutes, and more anywhere that you need them. Think about how you'll work your cattle to decide if you need one that's fixed or one that's mobile.
How Will You Be Working?
Are you going to be holding the cattle in the pens for any length of time? If you anticipate working cattle in processes that take a few days at a time, you need to choose sorting pens that include feed and watering equipment. This ensures that your cattle have ready access to supplemental feed and water while you're working them. If, on the other hand, the goal is to have them in and out quickly, as with vaccine administration, you don't need to worry as much about this type of feature.
How Much Room Do You Need?
When you think about how much room you need, you might be thinking solely about the sizes of the pens. That's actually only one factor to consider. You'll also need to think about how wide you need that chute to be. Remember that, the more room the cattle have to move around, the more likely you are to have one get turned around in the chute and muck up the whole system. However, if you're going to be working your cattle on horseback, you might want wider chutes so that you can run a horse up alongside them IN the chute as well as beside it.
These are a few key elements to think about when you're investing in livestock sorting systems and equipment.