Cattle Crushes

Cattle crushes are an integral part of the product range at Bó steel Ltd and have been in since the Company’s formation. In the early days, the company would be often be asked to carry out repairs to cattle crushes, races and head-gates after a particularly punishing duel between man and beast often with the beast winning. Paul, the company’s founder often tells of a story of his father buying a second hand head gate at an auction in Omagh in Northern Ireland. This was the early 90’s and the gate was strapped to a roof rack and transported back across the border past all the army check points, back to the family farm in Mayo. It was quickly installed and was a massive improvement over its rusty predecessor. It had one major flaw in that there was a horizontal bar about 1/3 up on the head gate. It wasn’t long before a particularly big bullock got stuck and one leg out over the offending bar. There was no moving the animal and the angle grinder had to be got out to cut the precious gate from its hinges and set the bullock free. The episode finished with the animal heading off down the field wearing the head-gate like a necklace!

To say that Paul was inspired to make something better is an understatement! Roll forward to the present day and Bó Steel have a range of products including crush posts, rails, end gate, panels, head-gates, and crush safety equipment. This safety equipment includes items such as anti backing bars and head-gates with quick release mechanisms (vital to turn that bullock back!). The company’s latest focus has been to make these crush designs mobile and they now boast a mobile calving crate. As with all our products, Bó Steel is active in taking customer feedback and incorporating it into its next generation of equipment. One thing is for sure, if you need a cattle crush, the Bo Steel team can design one to suit your needs.

While we make every effort to make it easy to buy our products on line, the specification and purchase of cattle crushes is something we feel still needs the personal touch. Farming is now a very diverse scene from small holders to large herds. Contact Michael Moran today to talk through your new project or a older setup you would like to upgrade

Phone: 087 2939494

or

Email: michael.moran@built2last.ie

Here are three examples of crush layouts that we often use as a starting point for your solution

1. The 5×4.5m pen with 4m race and head-gate

The 4.5x5m pen is an ideal starter package. It is popular with first time farmers or those who are restarting farming on a plot that may have been rented for some years with dilapidated facilities. Options include:

Head-gate upgrade
Calving panel

2. The 12 x 6m (40x20ft) out-farm crush

Head-gate upgrade, Forcing gate for rear of race, Loading gates for truck or trailer, Mesh kit for sheep.

3 – Crush yard with rotating forcing pen

The crush/handling yard with rotating gate forcing pen is designed for professional use. If you have a large number of animals and require to handle them with the minimum of stress and fuss to both you and the animal, this is the idea crush. It consists of 3 pens as with the 12x6m but movement from each is seamless. The semi circular forcing pen ensures safe loading of animals into the crush race. Sliding gates give maximum stand-off from animals kicks during operation. Normally a side opening ‘Morris’ type gate is specified but it can be built with any of our head gates.

Crush Components