Will’s World: Keep it to yourself – I’ve met my special crush
© Richard Stanton There are three things I count myself a devoted fan of.
Welsh rugby – although the less said about this at the current tragicomedy stage in our history, the better.
Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band – I’ve dragged the present Mrs Evans round the world to watch them, as well as insisting on having their music playing in the delivery room when each of our numerous daughters was born. A rock and roll baptism, if you will.
And last, but certainly not least, efficient and safe cattle handling systems.
See also: How to use a Bud Box system to make cattle handling easier
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Granted the three of them wouldn’t usually be seen in subsequent sentences, but we are where we are.
Mainly thanks to the old man’s practical vision and design skills, we have a very decent setup for cattle here, meaning we can move them around easily and with little stress.
Newly weaned calves come out of the baby calf shed through a door into bigger pens that are handy to bed down and clean out, as well as access easily with a tub-feeder.
They then move along, as they get older, into adjacent similar, but larger, buildings, eventually ending up in the finishing shed.
Temporary arrangement
It’s efficient, meaning that just the two of us can move, sort or load large numbers quickly and safely.
And although there’s always room for improvement, it works extremely well.
But the one thing that’s slightly let it all down is our handling system, set up “temporarily” about 15 years ago.
It has a basic galvanised crush, hurdles and a few slide gates, and we’re still using it today.
It’s not that there’s anything drastically wrong with it – it’s worked perfectly adequately for all these years.
It’s just that it could be a lot quieter for the cattle if it was a permanent set-up.
Some added shelter from the biting west wind and driving rain would make it more pleasant for the operators, too.
Well, after years of design consultations, numerous high-level meetings, and countless back-of-fag-packet sketches, we’re finally getting there.
With luck and a fair wind, we’ll soon be running cattle through a fixed system that will make Temple Grandin green with envy.
It’s started with the purchase of a brand-new hydraulic squeeze crush – yes, we’re that fancy.
Lifestyle choice
Have you ever researched North American-made equipment on YouTube?
The videos are all pounding guitar music, deep drawling voices, large belt buckles, even larger hats, and disconcerting amounts of testosterone.
“Buy our crush and you too can be John Dutton from Yellowstone,” screams the unsubtle star-spangled messaging.
Anyway, it obviously worked on me, and we’ve been using it with great gusto and cowboy swagger for the past month.
The other factor in going for this particular crush is the safety aspect.
The old man got kicked a few months back and, as I can’t afford the replacement costs if he were to retire injured, I need to make sure we reduce the chances of that happening again.
So far, so good in that regard. The cattle seem to feel more secure as they’re held gently by the adjustable sides and stand calmly as a result.
It’s also far quieter than the last one, thanks to the rubber floor and painted steelwork muting most of the noise.
The last word this week goes to a non-farming friend of mine, though, who after I excitedly posted a picture of the shiny new equipment online, sent me a concerned message asking why we “crush” our cattle.
After laughing for 30 minutes, I explained.