Street Sweeper Brushes Make Great Cattle Scratchers

Street Sweeper Brushes Make Great Cattle Scratchers DAIRY EQUIPMENT & IDEAS Dairy Equipment & Ideas 20-6-34 Worn-out rotary street sweeper brushes make low-cost, portable cattle scratchers, says dairyman Eric Clifford of Starksboro, Vt., who has five of them on his farm. Clifford, who farms with his father Art, got the brushes free from the Burlington, Vt., street department three years ago. He installed three of them outside his free-stall barn and two in a pasture. "They're rugged and cows seem to love rubbing up against them," says Clifford. "The brushes can be mounted horizontally or vertically. I move them with a front-end loader." The 30-in. dia., 5-ft. long brushes have 8 to 10-in. long poly bristles attached to an 8-in. dia. steel drum. To mount a brush vertically he inserts a 6 or 7-in. dia. wooden post into a truck tire filled with concrete and then sets the brush over the post. "The brushes are quite heavy so it takes a good-sized tire to keep them from tipping over," says Clifford. To mount a brush horizontally he runs a steel pipe through the drum and welds rings to each end of the pipe, then chains it to a steel plate on the barn. "One brush is suspended between two posts and is about 6 in. below the cow's shoulder. I have another one that's mounted a few inches lower. The drum rotates on the pipe as cows scratch, but due to friction and the drum's weight it doesn't turn too fast," says Clifford. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Eric Clifford, Rt. 1, Box 3680, Starksboro, Vermont 05487 (ph 802 453-3810).

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