The Importance of “Cattle Flight Zone”
Stress and bruising is kept to an absolute minimum.
The Importance of “Cattle Flight Zone”
Consider a man standing at the Crush head bail ready to make a catch. He is in full view of animal entering the Crush which generally causes one of two things to happen.
The animal either baulks, or rushes forward to get past the man who is standing in the animal’s “flight zone”. This often causes the animal to hit the front doors hard causing bruising and then, caught by the neck it starts to pull back and fight.
By shifting the head bail lever to the back vet gate, this does little to remedy this problem. This basic problem adds stress and injury and is often slowing the process down.
The “black louvers” on the side of the Silencer Crush assist with the animal’s flight zone. Cattle entering the crush only have a clear forward view. They are not baulked by people working at the side of the crush as they are out of the “animal’s flight zone”.
Wherever the operator stands with the pivot control levers he has a clear forward view of the animal’s head, enabling him to make the catch and immediately apply the upper squeeze.
Stress and bruising is kept to an absolute minimum, creating a smooth steady flow of cattle.
For further information, visit http://www.catagra.com/
The importance of “Lower and Upper Squeeze” in a Cattle Crush.
A common fault with almost every cattle crush is that the sides at the bottom of the crush are too wide apart. Take notice of cattle’s feet as they enter the crush, especially if a little stressed or agitated. The animal’s feet are splayed apart ready to react quickly allowing it to propel or launch itself.
The Silencers “lower squeeze” is such an important key feature. Notice how the lower squeeze is set surprisingly narrow. This means the animal has to now place its feet steadily to maintain balance and prevents it from rushing forward. The operator does not want to restrict the flow of cattle; he just wants to create a smooth steady flow.
If an animal tries to rush forward through the crush, the operator simply applies the “upper squeeze” to steady the animal down and to assist making the catch. If an animal shows a tendency to drop down, the operator simply applies additional “lower squeeze” to prevent this from happening.
A parallel squeeze does little to assist flow and does nothing to prevent an animal going down. With an animal on its knees every procedure performed is difficult, wasting time and energy.
The “lower squeeze” on a crush must be a separate function which works independently from the top squeeze. The Silencer aim is all about less people, less stress and added safety.
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For further information, visit http://www.catagra.com/
Head Control - The Most Important Feature in any Cattle Crush.
Why do very few Cattle Crushes provide this?
Why is it that very few cattle crushes provided adequate head control? Anytime you catch any animal by the neck their first reaction is to pull back, fight or lunge forward and back throwing its head about.
What does this do for operator safety, processing time efficiency, or stress and bruising of the animal? Yet, this is exactly how cattle crushes have been designed to work for years!
Fitting a neck scoop to hold an animals head does little to resolve the problem as the animal is still reacting in the same stressful manner. Consider also the realise of the animal from the head bale, it often pulls back crashing into the vet gate or the back gate, then either baulks or rushes to exit the crush.
This all creates a lot of noise, stress and bruising. From an animal’s perspective what have we just taught it. It is unlikely to behave any better the next time around.
The manufactures of Silencer Hydraulic Crushes understand that head control is paramount to a smooth and safe processing operation. Safe and easy head control can only be achieved by first gaining control of the animal’s body! Control of the body is gained by using a “lower and upper hydraulic squeeze” which work independent to the other.
As the animal is caught, the upper squeeze is immediately applied which prevents the animal from pulling back and fighting. With the body now correctly restrained we are able to gain total control of the head.
The animal cannot fight or lunge. The hydraulic neck bars then effortlessly turn the head left or right, making mouthing, ear tagging or vaccinating a quick, safe and easy procedure.
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