Below is a drawing of our corral. Mark from ISU asked for more information on our corral. Thanks Jammer for helping with Autocad.
Dad spent all of one winter studying a book of corral designs. He built his own design the next summer. We have used it for over 25 years and there isn’t a lot we would change.
There is an exterior gate between #2 and #1 and an exterior gate between #8 and #9. Gates open so that the corral could be used as a circular riding arena. I will describe how we use the corral to preg-check the cows.
Cattle are lured into the large alleyway, #1, with hay or walked in using low-stress stockmanship. Gates are opened from the exterior into #2, and through #5, #3, and #4. Cattle are walked using pressure from at least three people from #1 to #2. By the time we get the exterior gate shut, cattle are beginning to move into #3 and #4. I run around and shut the gate between #3 and #5 to keep too many cows from crowding in.
When the veterinarian arrives, I move all the cows except for about fifteen back into #2. Fifteen cows are now in #3. And #4 is empty. I now walk two cows at a time into #5 and #6 which has a crowding gate and they go down the alleyway into the catch chute, #7. One or more cows stands and waits in the alleyway with a bar behind her to keep her from backing out.
When the system is working well, I’m slowly bringing in more cows as the vet. is preg-checking them. One person is helping move the cows down the alleyway while standing in #10.
If a cow is bred, she is vaccinated and turned back out into the pasture. If a cow is not bred, (open), she is moved into #4. At the end of the day we can load the open cows using the alleyway or back the trailer into #10 and load there.
Ok, this is quick and dirty. Comment if you have questions and I will clarify.
