Description
This facility was confined to a restricted space, with the loading chutes extended to allow room for a semi-truck space to back in. The squeeze chute is in a covered work area in a warm climate region. The sides of the covered work are open for ventilation with a roof to provide shade. Two sorting pens can hod up to 75 cattle each, with the small sorting pen serving as an outlier pen for culls, or any cattle needing to re-circulate back to the squeeze chute. The deep grooved concrete begins at the curved lane and extends to the sorting alley outside the squeeze chute. Important considerations when designing facilities for cattle are; Solid sided fences in high use areas like the curved lane and crowd pen. Blocking vision with solid fences keeps them calm. Deep groove concrete floors also keep cattle calm, and give them confidence to walk through the facility. The last principle is curved fences. Curves make cattle think they’re going back where they came from and takes advantage of their natural tendency to circle.
