If cattle yards are the nerve centre of a property, cattle crushes are the beating coronary heart.
Whether or not an operation handles only a few head a 12 months or just a few hundred thousand, well-designed crushes constructed with high quality supplies are important to making sure secure, humane and environment friendly dealing with of cattle, and holding livestock handlers secure from harm.
Beef Central dropped into the opening day of FarmFest close to Toowoomba this morning to discover a pattern of the various cattle crushes on show at this 12 months’s subject day.
The crushes featured beneath are only a pattern of the ranges every exhibitor has on show at FarmFest. And neither is this an exhaustive record, with extra exhibitors additionally providing crushes that we didn’t handle to get to.
However we hope readers who can’t make it to the sphere day, and people planning to go to on Wednesday and Thursday, can get a way of the various vary of fashions to go well with all enterprise scales and price-ranges that may be discovered alongside the laneways of FarmFest this 12 months.
Te Pari Taurus Auto Sorting Crush, begins round $60,000
Automation genuinely means automation for New Zealand producer Te Pari, with its Taurus crush permitting for drafting of livestock with none handles or buttons.
Duane Reddel with the Te Pari Taurus auto sorting crush.
Utilizing any livestock administration software program, the Taurus can take pre-set info to routinely draft in as much as 5 completely different instructions. Cattle may be drafted on pre-set weights or classes primarily based on NLIS or EID tags.
Head baling can be automated, with the top catch working off a sensor that’s set off when the animal strikes by means of the crush.
Security, information assortment and diminished reliance on labour look like the principle promoting factors for the Taurus – which permits for the operator to face again and for minimal operation of gates.
Te Pari has been working with Meat & Livestock Australia to assist automate a number of the induction processes for the Australian feedlot trade – which concluded that there’s a constructive worth proposition.
Chatting with Beef Central at Farm Fest, the corporate’s Duane Reddel stated the crushes had additionally taken off in Southern Australian backgrounding operations, the place there was a necessity for lot of weighing and excessive throughput of cattle.
Clipex 2000 auto, begins $65,000
Clipex is one other firm closely investing in automating inventory dealing with tools, with its 2000 auto cattle crush permitting for full operation with distant controls and automated drafting.
An automatic spherical yard and race may be connected to the Clipex 2000, with all the areas capable of be operated from one level. The automated spherical yard has its personal controls if a second operator is most popular.
Principally, the operator is in charge of every thing occurring in entrance of the animal – with sensors closing gates behind them. Specs for drafting can be enter utilizing any livestock administration software program.
Lachie Knight with the Clipex 2000, one of the elaborate automated cattle crushes at Farm Fest.
Like Te Pari, Clipex has been a giant a part of the event of automated sheep handlers over the previous decade.
The corporate’s Tamworth-based product specialist Lachie Knight stated the success of automated dealing with within the sheep trade and a scarcity of labour throughout the board had pushed demand for the automation of cattle crushes.
“You’d have a look at a setup like this and assume it’s for a giant operation, however it’s actually designed for an operation eager to lower its reliance on labour,” he stated.
“You actually solely have room for 2 individuals in there, almost certainly the producer and the vet, anymore and it will get crowded.”
Leicht’s CIA Intro Hydraulic Professional-Chute, $33,000
From a producing base within the small city of Goombungee close to Toowoomba, family-owned enterprise Leicht’s CIA (Nation Industries Australia) has been making crushes and full vary of different livestock dealing with tools for patrons throughout Australia and internationally for 40 years.
Among the many many CIA crushes on show on the Dalby Rural Provides web site at FarmFest this 12 months is the Leicht’s CIA Intro Hydraulic Professional-Chute.
Customary options embrace lever managed operation, hydraulic MK5 headbail, double sided parallel squeeze or V-style squeeze choices, hydraulic cut up rear door.
It could additionally function on 3 Section or Single Section electrical motor equipped with hydraulic energy unit.
See video beneath of John Cullen from Dalby Rural Provides demonstrating the Intro Hydraulic crush at FarmFest this morning:
Warwick Cattle Crush Hydraulic Unique ZT – $29,800
Educated blacksmith Gary Stark from Stark Engineering has been establishing cattle crushes and different livestock dealing with tools since he purchased Warwick Cattle Crush in 1984, and operates within the Forest Hill premises his grandfather began Stark Engineering in method again in 1917.
Gary has now offered hundreds of crushes to properties of all sizes and shapes throughout Australia, but in addition to a head-spinning array of nations all around the world.
Among the many many crush fashions WCC has on provide at Farmfest is the Hydraulic Unique ZT (pictured above), which options hydraulically operated parallel squeeze, full opening stroll by means of and full stroll by means of vet space, single cylinder hydraulic operation, twin nylon wheels on every door, rubber lined spring loaded headbail, three cut up gates on the nearside and two on the offside and a 100 x 50 x 5mm RHS “Duragal” base.
Like all WCC crushes it additionally consists of the patented Warwick Cattle Crush facet mounted scales (pictured left), which elevate the scales off the bottom, making them longer lasting and simpler and cheaper to service. Warwick Cattle Crush Hydraulic Unique ZT subject day value $29,800.
Cavalier Tremendous Squeeze, between $23,000 and $27,000
Cavalier Livestock’s Hamish Mienert giving an illustration of the corporate’s tremendous squeeze toggle crush.
Cavalier livestock tools, primarily based in Gympie Qld, was one in all a number of corporations eager to advertise their use of air energy for working the cattle crush.
The Tremendous Squeeze toggle is the corporate’s high of the market crush, with anyplace between three and 7 toggles used to carry out sure capabilities – the principle ones being the top bale, the squeeze on the facet of the crush and gates.
Chatting with Beef Central at Farm Fest, the corporate says the air perform can apply as much as 600kg of stress. It strikes the tools in inch measurements to offer the operator management over the quantity of stress on the livestock.
Cavalier says the air energy is straightforward to keep up and the stress may be adjusted with allen keys.
Commander Agriculture CC850 – $14,800
All the best way from WA – Three generations of the Jackson household have been manufacturing livestock dealing with tools together with grain augurs and on-farm storage for greater than 30 years at Albany 4 hours south of Perth.
This 12 months for the primary 12 months they’re exhibiting on their very own web site at FarmFest.
The Commander CC850 pictured above is handbook however can be obtainable in air-operated or hydraulic fashions.
Brody Jackson (left) stated it options double-side squeeze and wider wheel tracks and has been designed to generate most leverage.
“We’ve spent numerous time engaged on this locking mechanism to offer most leverage,” he stated. “We truly use the identical ratchet fashion on the facet squeeze as we do on the top bale.”
Along with Albany WA, Commander additionally has a department at Mount Gambier and a depot in Albury, NSW. Commander CC850 subject day value: $14,800 (value consists of supply to Qld).
Crimson River River King, about $10,000
Whereas automation of livestock dealing with was a promoting level for some, New South Wales producer Crimson River’s River King was all about sturdiness and ensuring it was straightforward to keep up.
The corporate’s Steve Dellow instructed Beef Central that the corporate was holding it easy with the crushes, specializing in heavy responsibility metal that may final for a very long time.
Steve Dellow in entrance of the Crimson River River King.
He stated the vary of crushes over his 20 years within the enterprise had elevated so much – with a variety of costs.
He stated the corporate was targeted on holding the design easy, which then permits for expertise to be retrofitted – together with scales.
Requested how the corporate has managed during the last couple of years with provide of supplies and labour, Mr Dellow stated stated with the corporate turning round 15 to twenty crushes per week they have been nicely sorted by metal suppliers.
Rural Store Warrego, $10,990
The vary of cattle crushes made by the Rural Store in Gatton.
Gatton-based Angela and Scott Malone responded to a rising backlog of cattle crushes throughout COVID by going into the enterprise themselves – as Mr Malone had been working for an additional producer for the previous 20 years.
The Rural Store’s vary of crushes are additionally primarily based on holding it easy, with all handbook dealing with and permitting for retrofitting the place requested.
Ms Malone stated over time security has change into a giant focus of the corporate’s tools – significantly for girls working the yards.
All of the crushes allowed for entrance and rear operation, with chin bars fitted to assist with ear tagging.
Brazzen Rural Merchandise Premium Crush – $6498
Andrew and Barb Wilkinson from Kilcoy, Qld, are the native distributors of Wagga Wagga, NSW, primarily based Brazzen Rural Merchandise within the Toowoomba and Lockyer Valley areas.
Among the many crushes they’ve on show at FarmFest alongside a spread of cattle dealing with yards and tools is the Brazzen Premium Crush which incorporates 3mm gauge metal body, stroll by means of vet part, baulk gate, kick latch, Rump squeeze, triple high gates and double decrease doorways enable full entry alongside animal, Auto lock rear sliding gate, and may deal with calves and even sheep.
Premium Crush subject day value: $6498
Tomorrow: What main modifications in cattle crush design and options have occurred over the previous 10 years? See what the specialists at FarmFest needed to say.
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