Homemade cattleguard?

[PahRah]

Have any of you ever built a cattleguard? I hate having to open and close the gate across my driveway (and my GF can just barely do it). But the range cows seem to have some sort of psychic sense that brings them in from miles around if I ever leave the gate open.

It'd have to take the weight of the propane truck, and not injure any cows - Their owner is a bit of a SOB, and I'd hate to have to buy one of his critters.

I've thought about just leveling out the area and laying some 4x4s on the ground with a 2" or so gap between them and nailing a couple of 2x4s perpendicular across the tops to keep them from moving around. Any thoughts?

[egon]

Best buy a properly manufactured one and install it. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[PahRah]

I probably should buy a real one, but I need to set my mind at ease that there isn't a cheaper way before I drop the cash.

What worries me is that I'd have a nice cattleguard but a junky fence, so I'd have to replace that ... Once you start doing things right, who knows where you'll end up.

An old friend bought a nice new fishing boat, and then decided he couldn't tow the nice new boat with his junky old truck, and then realized his old camper looked silly on his new truck so he got a new camper too. I'm suprised he didn't end up with a new wife after all that.

[egon]

Hey, it all depends on where you wish to keep the cattle. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Pat]

You can build your own cattle guard but IF you don't weld and haven't got a cutting torch or plasma cutter or at least an abrasive cut off saw then youi will have a harder time building one yourself. Forget a few boards, you need steel. It isn't enough to just have a cattle guard, you have to install it properly or it just doesn't work. I have been there done that a couple times. You need to dig out a good sized trench under the guard. Just a guard a few inches in the air stops few cattle. I tried laying guards on top of RR ties and making graveled dirt ramps to match.. Looked great. Gave my wife and mom fits crossing them on foot but didn't deter calves or more than 1/2 the cows. It isn't trivial but doing it right once is still easier than doing it wrong and having to redo it to get it right.

Price a good strong solar fence charger (unless you have AC close to the gate. You can make an entry gate fixture (like you see at big ranches but doesn't have to be that big and it can be PVC or wood it you want. You dangle wires with rubber coated weights from the horizontal and all the wires are hot. You can drive through in a car or truck and not feel a thing but a cow will get a training shock tht will train them to avoid your gate. The wires need to come down to a couple feet of the ground.

There is also a system that has wands on either side each 1/2 the gate width. They are hinged so they self close but are so light you can drive through and they will be shoved out of the way by a vehicle. They are typically light weight fiberglass with soft rubber tips so they don't mar the vehicles finish. These are wired to the solar fence charger. It will keep stock from wanting anything to do with your gate.

These solar charger options can be way cheaper than a good commercial cattle guard.

Pat

[PahRah]

Thanks for the advice Pat. I'll look into the wand thingy. The winds out here are pretty brutal, so I think the dangling wires would swing back and forth a lot and be at the least pretty annoying to have to look at.

I re-hung the gate this weekend to be more plumb, which helps a lot.

What I really need is a better breed of cow that knows the difference between a weed and stuff I planted on purpose, and won't step on the irrigation system. In general I'm all for anything that turns flammable stuff into poop.

[Pat]

Same story here re wind. Nice idea but the weights would have to be REALLY HEAVY. The wand thing is a better idea to my way of thinking and I may want to build some of those. How nice to be able to drive around from pasture to pasture without constantly getting out to open/close gates. All for the cost of a little time and materials and a small solar charger. Shouldn't need a Martian death ray to electrify just a couple wands, especially if the cattle are trained to a hot wire. Small solar chargers are way cheaper than radio controlled gates ($700 up, mostly up.

Pat

[pappy19]

One of the best methods for "fooling" cows and horses, is to use old truck innertubes cut and stretched across the road. Usually 3-5 strands. It looks for all purposes as a cattle guard, but you can run over them with a vehicle , no problem. If a cow/horse does get brave, they aren't harmed.

[Pat]

I have a friend and neighbor who uses a lot of hotwires. He uses an intensive grazing management system where he moves a hot wire across a pasture a few feet every few days exposing fresh grass in swaths. His stock get VERY well trained to the hot wire. For reasonable periods of time his stock can be retained by a single wire that isn't turned on (he disconnects during thunderstorms activity to avoid equipment loss.)

His stock can be fenced in by a single strand of string as they don't want to test it. He has the most powerful fence charger around and it DOES get an animal's attention and makes an impression. He too makes artificial cattle guards by laying two PVC pipes one on each side and parallel to the road. Between these pipes is stretched several tight white nylon strings which are only a couple inches above the ground and can easily be driven over. His hotwire trained animals don't even get close much less test the arrangement.

Out in New Mexico and other open range areas you will see both phony and real cattle guards across the highways. The real ones are typically railroad rails transverse to the road and the ersatz version are just painted stripes across the highway.

Pat

[Bird]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
His stock get VERY well trained to the hot wire

[/ QUOTE ]

As you said, it works well with livestock that have been trained to it. I know of a place that has quite a herd of goats and the ONLY fence is a single hot wire about 2' off the ground. But for animals that have not been trained to it . . . a neighbor "stored" a bunch of round bales of hay in the pasture and put a temporary fence of 2 strands of hot wire around the hay to keep the cattle out. It was hilarious because every time a cow touched that wire, she'd jump BIG and FORWARD right through the fence tearing it down.