Home-Built, Heavy-Duty Crowding Gate

Home-Built, Heavy-Duty Crowding Gate FENCING Gates 23-6-10 "I built an 18-ft. long crowding gate for my neighbor and dairyman Bill Stakenas for less than $5,000. He says it works as good as any commercial crowding gate on the market," says Victor Larson, Freesoil, Mich. The gate moves back and forth 180 ft. inside a holding pen connected to Stakenas's milk parlor. The gate rolls on overhead rollers that ride along a set of steel I-beam bolted to the roof trusses. Power is provided by a 1/4 hp electric motor equipped with a gear reduction box. The motor direct-drives a worm gearbox that's connected to a 4-in. pulley. A series of cables runs over the pulleys to move the gate back and forth. The motor turns at 30 rpm's, so the gearbox is needed to slow the gate down. The gate moves at about 30 ft. a minute. The gate is raised and lowered by a pair of cables that ride freely up or down a pair of steel pipes at the outside ends of the gate. The cables are controlled by a 5-ft. long, 2-in. dia. hydraulic cylinder. "I had never seen a crowding gate before I built it," says Larson. "Stakenas runs four batches of cows through it two or three times a day." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Victor Larson , 1163 W. Townline Rd., Freesoil, Mich. 49411 (ph 231 464-5619)

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