greybeard
Herd Master
Thought I'd throw up a drawing of how mine works.
The fence at the bottom is three board 3" X 8" creosote timbers backed by 6' chain link..never had any cattle test that one. All the rest of the pen is Prefiert corral panels with a Prefiert 180° sweep tub. It isn't perfect, but it works for me.
I load thru an alley that funnels down from 4' to 28" via a sort gate. I've never had a wreck in that alley. Once they get in the narrow part, they head for the trailer unless one balks at the step up of the trailer itself. All my trouble comes in the 12' alley leading to the sweep. That's the only place I have to get in among them.
I'm never very good at drawing my pen. The sort gate is a prefiert 3 way sort gate. Send them straight ahead to headgate, or out to load, or cull back out to the holding area. The sliding gate is to keep 'em back in the 10' section after the sweep while I reposition the sort gate. All gates except my escape gate swing both directions.
Not drawn perfect, and not all corners are square like I have it drawn. I don't have more than 40 head at any given time and usually don't put more than 15 in the holding pen at any given time to work.
The gate just below the word 'sort' swings around and isolates the working area from the holding area.
The fence at the bottom is three board 3" X 8" creosote timbers backed by 6' chain link..never had any cattle test that one. All the rest of the pen is Prefiert corral panels with a Prefiert 180° sweep tub. It isn't perfect, but it works for me.
I load thru an alley that funnels down from 4' to 28" via a sort gate. I've never had a wreck in that alley. Once they get in the narrow part, they head for the trailer unless one balks at the step up of the trailer itself. All my trouble comes in the 12' alley leading to the sweep. That's the only place I have to get in among them.
I'm never very good at drawing my pen. The sort gate is a prefiert 3 way sort gate. Send them straight ahead to headgate, or out to load, or cull back out to the holding area. The sliding gate is to keep 'em back in the 10' section after the sweep while I reposition the sort gate. All gates except my escape gate swing both directions.
Not drawn perfect, and not all corners are square like I have it drawn. I don't have more than 40 head at any given time and usually don't put more than 15 in the holding pen at any given time to work.
The gate just below the word 'sort' swings around and isolates the working area from the holding area.