Cattle Lorry instead of Tractor & trailer

It doesn't really matter about the distance, I'd say the frequency would be the biggest factor for either approach. Truck has to get the ticket on it every year, plus insurance, plus diesel (road diesel, I believe), maintenance, plus you'll get hammered on tax now as the environmental regs on pollution tighten in.

If you give an idea of the frequency of travel then we could give a better opinion.

What tractor do you have currently and what sizes are your trailers?

Very hard to get insurance on a lorry too, if you've just gotten the licence.

A tractor of similar size goes by here pulling a trailer with maybe 8 cattle

A canter with a cattle body would be similar to the 12x6 trailer

Yeah, I'm not sure why lads might be thinking they'd need to upgrade a 100+hp tractor to upgrade from a 12x6 trailer.

Think what load of silage bales you might pull behind it..... you wouldn't be stopping at 3 or 4

You could pick up an older 7.5 ton DAF/Iveco/Man lorry with a 16'-18' cattle body but I reckon you are going to have to pay €10k-€15k for anything that is tested. You will need C1 driving licence. You don't need a haulage licence or annual CPC's as long as you are only hauling your own cattle and you also don't need to use a Tachograph if moving them within 100km radius of your home be it to a outfarm, factory or mart. However as Whelan posted insurance is going to cost as you are classed as an inexperienced driver. Then you have to do your annual CVRT test with associated costs of repairs, maintenance, tyres, diesel, etc

What distances are you doing?

A lot of guys buying and finishing have their own lorries and they don't haul for anyone else. We buy in and finish a few cattle however our lorries have removable cattle bodies and realistically the flats earn their keep when we buy/draw and sell bales of hay/straw.

How many are you shifting at a time? Would a 12'/14' be more appropriate than a tractor specific trailer?

Your tractor should be well fit for anything up to 20ft anyway. Emaherx has got a really nice TuffMac trailer and had it made 7' wide for narrow roads. Plenty of folk building trailers so if you decide to go that way then you should be able to get something to suit you budget and pocket.

Nice little 16ft here that should hold plenty and still keep maneuverability:

Not as far as the OP anyway. 3 blocks 1km apart around the home farm and 1 block 5km away. We used to walk the cattle between the blocks close together, but the town has expanded and roads are too busy now.

I'd say your trailer might be a 10x6, if you can only squeeze on four cows.....

What are peoples opinion on demountable cattle bodies on tractor drawn trailers? Seem to be common in UK. flat trailer then for moving bales ( 2 for 1 ). Fragmented farm here- think I'll go the same route as emaherx at some stage. Only advantage no problem loading cattle for factory here as they're so used to being loaded 😀

You can use a provisional if you have a qualified driver with you,

some guys are using the 7ton lorries with the 17ft body on a c1 license. C1E license would even allow you draw a 5 ton trailer with that

People my age got a C1 license that had a car license, A canter with a livesck body would be too heavy for a carlicense

Biggest issue I have with those demountable bodies is it's nearly the same price to buy two trailers and then you will never need to have to mount/ demount the body.

Yep no bother loading cattle here, calves learn from being moved with cows and by the time they are weanlings they are fairly used to it. I even have a few cows that are always keen to get in first.