locking feed barriers

Reggie.

Was thinking of getting locking feed barriers either for this winder or next. Anyone got them and share their opinions? Are they a good job or only a gimmick.

Kovu

Don't have them here but have a neighbour with them and he regrets the day he put them in. More expensive, very very rarely used, occasionally catch a cow and leave her stuck for the day etc, then if he wants to catch one they'll get stuck and won't lock.:rolleyes:

This is only what I heard from him though, only time I remember seeing them is at 3am one morning trying to get a newborn calf out through one :pac:

Zr105

Locking barriers in work, ordinary diagonals at home, and give me the ordinary every day. Dont see the point in locking ones, take up to much head space, 20ft pen and only has 9 head space, wereas with the standard diagonal you could get 9 heavy beasts per 15ft bay when they want to.
And their no real use for doing anything either, well ya my get away with ai'ing nice quiet dairy cows or summit but anything else forget it,

Deepsouthwest

Have a small section of them here as well, occasionally handy for treating a sick cow during the dry period when they're in the yard away from the crush, but most of the time probably not worth the outlay. The noise of them while cows are eating in them is also pretty annoying

greysides

Not really suitable for testing in either. Manageable but not safe with quiet dairy stock, down-right dangerous with sucklers.

visatorro

know a dairy man that does all his aiing using them. cows buffer fed at barrier, he walkes along checking tail paint. ai's and tops up tail paint where needed.

my vet tests in a place where the lad uses the locking barriers. he's not a fan

frazzledhome

Have them in a shed on a leased farm. Wouldn't rate them at all. Dangerous to try to handle stock in them, very reduced feeding space and expensive.

I could see the merit of one bay for when cows are dry if you need to treat one. Tried testing once, after 3-4 moved cows to race, bloody dangerous

Farrell

frazzledhome wrote: »

Have them in a shed on a leased farm. Wouldn't rate them at all. Dangerous to try to handle stock in them, very reduced feeding space and expensive.

I could see the merit of one bay for when cows are dry if you need to treat one. Tried testing once, after 3-4 moved cows to race, bloody dangerous

Had them on a rented shed once, terrific job, could lock before putting in silage with loader or tractor.
Caught a
Full row when giving nuts so we could dose & bullet, release as done & move to next.
Trouble adoptind a calf made easy that pulling round gates in calving pen (no calving gate).
There's pro's & cons, depends on farm, stock & system

ferger1

Have them in one bay of a slatted shed aswell. Wouldn't rate them. Rarely used. not worth it, stick with the standard set up.

einn32

Got fixed barriers in here recently. Couldn't justify the cost of locking barriers. The cows don't drag in much silage unless a bale is left too close to the barrier.

Reggie.

Reason I was thinking of them was that during the last winter I had to treat a weanling for a couple of days and was too much effort to get it to the crush late in the evening when I came back from work.

Thought the likes of catching an animal in the feeding barrier and then inject rather than trying to pin it to a corner of the shed.

Any idea on prices for a 15ft 9 gap?

Mad4simmental

Reggie. wrote: »

Reason I was thinking of them was that during the last winter I had to treat a weanling for a couple of days and was too much effort to get it to the crush late in the evening when I came back from work.

Thought the likes of catching an animal in the feeding barrier and then inject rather than trying to pin it to a corner of the shed.

Any idea on prices for a 15ft 9 gap?

Most of ours are standerd with the end head space a single locking one. Rarely gets used but for a job like that it's handy to train one animal to a handfull of nuts every day.

whelan2

Reggie. wrote: »

Reason I was thinking of them was that during the last winter I had to treat a weanling for a couple of days and was too much effort to get it to the crush late in the evening when I came back from work.

Thought the likes of catching an animal in the feeding barrier and then inject rather than trying to pin it to a corner of the shed.

Any idea on prices for a 15ft 9 gap?

www.condonengineering.ie

Nekarsulm

Have two that I will sell you, boss! Great barriers, Frenchie made, don't rattle, it's a good, take it!

Reggie.

Mad4simmental wrote: »

Most of ours are standerd with the end head space a single locking one. Rarely gets used but for a job like that it's handy to train one animal to a handfull of nuts every day.

Where ya pick that one up

Mad4simmental

Reggie. wrote: »

Where ya pick that one up

Local lad is gifted with the welder. Dose everything here. I'll stick up a picture later when I'm back home.

Nekarsulm

New Jourdain 15 foot 9 barriers are 485 Euro plus Vat.

frazzledhome

Reggie. wrote: »

Reason I was thinking of them was that during the last winter I had to treat a weanling for a couple of days and was too much effort to get it to the crush late in the evening when I came back from work.

Thought the likes of catching an animal in the feeding barrier and then inject rather than trying to pin it to a corner of the shed.

Any idea on prices for a 15ft 9 gap?

They'd be very useful for that job alright

Reggie.

Mad4simmental wrote: »

Local lad is gifted with the welder. Dose everything here. I'll stick up a picture later when I'm back home.

Ya have me thinking now. Another project

Zr105

Mad4simmental wrote: »

Most of ours are standerd with the end head space a single locking one. Rarely gets used but for a job like that it's handy to train one animal to a handfull of nuts every day.

Now that sounds like the best job anyways, atleast you have the option of catching one but with out all the noise and banging and loosing head spaces

Mad4simmental

Not grate picture from the calving camera but you'll get the jist of it. The end space is the locking bar that works the opposite direction agnst the straight end bar.

You have the same head space as the small wasted space that's normally on the bottom corner just moves in one space.

Simple job the moving bar just wraps around the top bar on the barrier and locks on that. Little rope on it whenever you use it.

caseman

Reggie. wrote: »

Was thinking of getting locking feed barriers either for this winder or next. Anyone got them and share their opinions? Are they a good job or only a gimmick.

Only a gimmick. Single rail used here and it dose the job.
Have a nice holiday with the price of the locking barriers

Greengrass1

Is there much waste with straight bar?

5live

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Is there much waste with straight bar?

Depends on what you're feeding. Precision chop, no waste. Straw/hay/un-chopped bales, quite a bit

Farrell

Reggie. wrote: »

Ya have me thinking now. Another project

FIL has 1, uses it for cows calving.
Lift on & off not too heavy but strong.
If I remember I'll take a pic

just do it

Great for AI, dosing, and locking them in while placing the silage bales/ feed. Lack of feed space is sorted by a trough at the back of the pen.

Wouldn't do without them.

Bellview

I have them but rarely used. I now have them tied with a rope as a cow choked her calf in on when they were free.. Would not put in if I was building again.

yellow50HX

Have one bay of them in the shed. They are the jourdain ones and have a rubber stop on them to reduce the noise. We think they are the dogs Bollox and wouldn't be with out them.

Have a suckler herd so need good handling for them. Best way to lock them in is to leave a bucket with a bit of ration on the ground, as they drop their head it ll lock them in.

Use it to train in the cows for double suckling, can do a couple of cows at a time.
Have used it for sectioning cows, don't use it for calving in case they go down.
Great for dosing the cows, can catch a couple at a time and work our way across.
If I need to draw the cows I can do it in there too.
Easy way to catch the cow if I need to check them for stones in their feet.
Great for isolating cows or for separating cows from calves.

Depends on what you use it for but I would recommend one for anyone with suckler cows.

Justjens

It all depends on what you are looking for, do you have a crush handy, because it's easier to pen an animal properly in a crush.

Not a great job for testing sucklers and definitely wouldn't blood them, there be a blood bath!!

Use them myself for the sucklers, only TB tested a few times (not fun) the wilder cows know what's up and won't put their heads out no matter how hungry. Great for treating simple ailments like sore eyes, and a Godsend at keeping the calves in the shed and not shi**ing in the silage, not too mention trying to get them back in again.

The best thing I like is being able to restrict silage during the day at calving time by closing them.

Reggie.

The bay I was thinking of putting them on would be for year old weanlings around 200 or 300kg. Would you want the full size ones or calf ones. I thought I seen smaller ones for calves at the ploughing last year.

Muckit

just do it wrote: »

Great for .....locking them in while placing the silage bales/ feed..

Would that not defeat the purpose? Heads out and locked would be an accident waiting to happen and not any advantage IMO

Farrell

Muckit wrote: »

Would that not defeat the purpose? Heads out and locked would be an accident waiting to happen and not any advantage IMO

I'd say he means lock them in on the slats, so they can't stick heads out

Reggie.

Muckit wrote: »

Would that not defeat the purpose? Heads out and locked would be an accident waiting to happen and not any advantage IMO

He means shutting the barriers so they can't stick their heads out

Muckit

Yes of course. That makes more sense!

Reggie forget about them. Dairying or halter training bulls. Otherwise have an ordinary crush in or near the shed. Is your crush not near your shed or what?

Reggie.

Muckit wrote: »

Yes of course. That makes more sense!

Reggie forget about them. Dairying or halter training bulls. Otherwise have an ordinary crush in or near the shed. Is your crush not near your shed or what?

The crush is about 20ft away. its just during the winter it's always dark when I get home and rather than open barriers and moving the whole group out to the crush
Then separate the sick one and suss it out in the dark and then try and herd them back in the
Dark again. Thought with just catch the animal at the barrier. Inject there and save alot of time and messing. I'm a one man show here I'm afraid

rushvalley

Reggie. wrote: »

The crush is about 20ft away. its just during the winter it's always dark when I get home and rather than open barriers and moving the whole group out to the crush
Then separate the sick one and suss it out in the dark and then try and herd them back in the
Dark again. Thought with just catch the animal at the barrier. Inject there and save alot of time and messing. I'm a one man show here I'm afraid

Would a Few floodlights in the yard be a better investment?

Muckit

Reggie. wrote: »

I'm a one man show here I'm afraid

Most places are now. Same here. I upgraded penning and handling here about 7 years ago that one person can handle any animal safely. With poly geared reels, patience and no fuss or shouting l can get animals in out of the field on my own. No bag of meal either.

Zr105

rushvalley wrote: »

Would a Few floodlights in the yard be a better investment?

+1
And spend the saved money doing whatever needs to be done to make the existing crush better/easier to use/whatever,

Upgrade the crush and it'll be a help all year, spend it on locking barriers they'll be a help for that odd time during the winter and then sit there idle rest of the year....

Reggie.

Zr105 wrote: »

+1
And spend the saved money doing whatever needs to be done to make the existing crush better/easier to use/whatever,

Upgrade the crush and it'll be a help all year, spend it on locking barriers they'll be a help for that odd time during the winter and then sit there idle rest of the year....

Floodlights ain't an option I'm afraid

Tyson Lannister

Have sucklers here, have the new jourdaine barriers.
Find them a great job. Use them all the time, testing, dosing, for AI, fostering calves etc.
Used them last week for testing spring born suckler calves, just adjust the width. Great job besides them turning around in the crush etc.
Best thing I find about them is landing home from work wrecked and there's a suckler cow in heat and thinking to myself fcuk this now trying to get her up the crush. All I do now is throw a few nuts in front of her.
They've def made my life a lot easier and I wouldn't be without them now. I think if you put them in you have to make the effort to use them - not much point putting them in if your still going to drive the cow up the crush.

caseman

Reggie. wrote: »

The crush is about 20ft away. its just during the winter it's always dark when I get home and rather than open barriers and moving the whole group out to the crush
Then separate the sick one and suss it out in the dark and then try and herd them back in the
Dark again. Thought with just catch the animal at the barrier. Inject there and save alot of time and messing. I'm a one man show here I'm afraid

What are you treating these sick animals for.
If it's only one pen of animals surly you don't have to treat that often.

Conmaicne Mara

Reggie. wrote: »

Floodlights ain't an option I'm afraid

How come?

Reggie.

Crush is at Edge of yard with no power near it. Thought of putting up lights but more work than its worth hence the plan B

Reggie.

caseman wrote: »

What are you treating these sick animals for.
If it's only one pen of animals surly you don't have to treat that often.

Hopefully never but it's the time you have to inject at 11 at night on a winters night.

just do it

Reggie. wrote: »

The bay I was thinking of putting them on would be for year old weanlings around 200 or 300kg. Would you want the full size ones or calf ones. I thought I seen smaller ones for calves at the ploughing last year.

I wouldn't bother for young stock. Not of much practical value and really restricts number that can feed at the same time.

Milked out

I put a barrier in to one of our pens here, usually used for culls or the odd stock bull saves having to bring em out to treat test or dose. Also have a barrier with a single locking point at the end next to the wall in the maiden pen with a hinged gate which lines up with the rest of the barrier that I can swing out to help catch the heifer that's bulling and when not in use it closes in line with the barrier and they eat away thru it.
Considering putting locking barriers the last three pens of the shed so I can dose the yearlings and in calf cows without taking em out thru the shed also

vanderbadger

have put the jourdain lockers in a new shed, wasnt go to but a good few people told me they were a great job so next winter will tell the tale, figured they would be very handy for ai more than anything

just do it

Reggie. wrote: »

Was thinking of getting locking feed barriers either for this winder or next. Anyone got them and share their opinions? Are they a good job or only a gimmick.

Well Reggie mixed opinions on here! What are you thinking at this stage?

Reggie.

just do it wrote: »

Well Reggie mixed opinions on here! What are you thinking at this stage?

I'm in the middle of a project here. I'll get back to ya

sheebadog

Have 300+ here. Wouldn't be without them. Gives a level of control that's quick.
For real control the crush and skulling gate is best.

Not expensive either €300/bay = 8 or 9 head locks.
They must be adjustable and "safety" type.

Conmaicne Mara

Reggie. wrote: »

I'm in the middle of a project here. I'll get back to ya

Is that code for the dinner?