A game changing set of cattle yards in Yaninee, South Australia

Craig Barnes and his family farm in Yaninee, South Australia and earlier this year they installed a new set of Te Pari Cattle Yards with a Taurus HD3 Auto Drafting Cattle Crush. He’s enjoying cattle work twice as much now with cattle yards that offer improved safety and efficiency.

“We’ve got a mixed farming operation here, we do cropping, run sheep and run about 300 Angus cows. The staff is myself, my wife and kids help out and when possible my father helps out as well.

When I started looking at cattle yard systems we had a Te Pari Racewell Sheep Handler and that was always a pretty handy tool. Then saw a Te Pari Cattle Crush at a fieldays and looked into that and thought I’d really like that and then yeah gradually a few years later we thought well we might as well go the whole hog and make life a whole lot easier.” Said Craig.

Craig chose the SY244 Te Pari Steel Yard design that is suitable for up to 244 cattle. He added calf reducer panels to prevent young stock from turning in the race, a stepped loading ramp, a Taurus HD3 Auto Drafting Cattle Crush and T30 Scale System with Revolution Dosing Gun.

Te Pari’s steel cattle yards are designed to harness natural cattle behaviour with circular holding pens and race that encourage steady cattle flow and improves safety for staff working in the yards.

“I thought the crush was just excellent, the cattle free work area, the curved race the force yard, just the overall safety of the whole system – with the wife and kids around safety is number one.” Said Craig.

Pictured above is Craig’s father standing in the cattle free working area. The race features a nice wide catwalk, back of race sliding gate and poly sheeted sides that helps keep the cattle flowing.

Pictured above is Craig’s father pushing the C-Force gate around to get the cows moving up the race. He’s completely safe behind the gate as it locks in place at 500mm intervals – so the gate can’t move far if any animal kicks out or pushes against it.

 “The quality of the products is unreal with hot dipped galvanised steel, everything is just outstanding really. The overhead bracing near the gates definitely strengthens everything up.” Said Craig.

“It was installed in about a week, and it was useable straight away. The curved pens and the circular design really helps with cattle flow and once they’re in the force pen you’re not actually in there with them. To force cattle into the race you just move your force gate around and they just flow in, they just follow each other and away they go.” Said Craig.

Pictured above is Craig and his wife weighing cattle through the Taurus HD3 Auto Drafting Cattle Crush. This system is capable of handling large numbers of cattle quickly, safely, and with minimal operator input. It can be set up to draft out of the crush or by utilising the drafting gates in front of the crush.

“I like it with the feedlot steers when we’re weighing them – they get weighed quite often and you can probably weigh about 100 in 10 minutes I reckon. It’s that quick, they just get so used to it and it’s just stress free on the animal.

Even truck loading too with the stepped ramp, we were a little bit dubious about that when we first saw it but yeah we’d probably load B doubles in about 15 minutes now I reckon.” Said Craig.

Pictured above is the stepped loading ramp that comes off the side of the curved race.  Having steps instead of a sloped surface drastically reduces slipping when the ramp is wet or mucky. The sides are fully sheeted for animal safety and a handrail on the catwalk ensures operator safety.

The flat top section on the Loading Ramp makes unloading easier as the cattle come out of the truck onto a flat landing before descending the ramp. The flat top section also has an access door allowing the truck driver to get inside and at the same time close off the race from any cattle that are waiting.

“Safety is just excellent, the gate latches are all super quiet, there’s no banging and clanging of gates or anything when you shut the gates they just shut securely and quietly. The calf reducers are really good too, you don’t get anything turn around in there they just work a treat.

The auto draft functionality with weighing steers out of the feedlot is excellent, I think we weigh 100 in 15 minutes.” Said Craig

Craig has Te Pari T30 Scale System that integrates with his Taurus HD3 Auto Drafting Crush via a built in ERail EID reader. The system is easy to use and Te Pari offer great back-up and support with training to get it set-up.

“I’m really happy with the T30 scales and the way the dosing gun ties into it. In the past we’ve always just weighed 2 or 3 (animals) and then they just all got the same amount over everything but this new system adjusts as soon as they run into the crush, the gun adjusts to the right rate and they were backlined for their exact weight. Just like a variable rate on the air seeder it’s just excellent.” Said Craig.

“Any tech issues I’ve had I’ve just rung Te Pari and they’ve been really good with helping out. The way they can tap into your tablet from NZ is unreal. They just chop and change things as required, they even reprogrammed my crush one day from New Zealand while I was in the yard, it was excellent!

I’ve told plenty of my mates what I think of my Te Pari system, I’ve had mates come and look at it and I just can’t fault it. Just love it to bits, it’s made cattle work twice as much fun as it used to be.” Said Craig.