Thursday, November 15, 2012

Day 15: Pivot Gates

Normally, gates in a barn wouldn't make the list of things neat enough or important enough to make this list; however, the pivot gates in our new barn are really cool.
Instead of being hinged at the side, the are hinged in the middle, and rotate up in the air.
Cows eating under the opened gate

A cow passing under the gate

Pulling the gate closed

Closed gate

The weights up in the air

Closed gate latched shut
 In our batn, where these gates are if they operated like "normal" gates, when they were open they would block off either freestalls or some of the feed alley.  Thanks to our engineering friend Andy who suggested this very simple, and yet, very effective type of gate, we are able to corral our cows more easily.  This particular gatemakes Day 14's item, headlocks work well in the new barn.  With only 20' or so of headlocks, we can sort the cows we need into the small pen using these gates, feed them, lock the headlocks, and typically have them caught before the vet arrives.

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