Tractor Tire Cattle Guard Keeps Calves In The Feedlot

Tractor Tire Cattle Guard Keeps Calves In The Feedlot TIRES/WHEELS New Uses 25-6-10 Drive-through electric fence gates are important in Lowell and Tom Weitzenkamp's Hooper, Neb., feedlot. "They save a lot of time going in and out with feed trucks, loaders and pickups," Lowell says. But the men found they weren't always effective at keeping the cattle in. So they designed drive-over cattle barriers that they made from old tractor tires to go under the gates. The Weitzenkamps say the guards are cheap and easy to make. You simply cut a used tire in two cross wise. Then make cuts along the tire sidewalls all along both sides of the tire. This lets the tire lay out flat in one long strip, with two rows of "teeth" sticking up. Three tires laid side by side under the drive-through electric fence gate are enough to keep cattle from challenging the gate. The Weitzenkamps mount the tires in a frame made of pipe (so they can drive over it) with channel iron on the ends. Short lengths of chain at the ends of the frame let them hook onto the cattle guard and move it out of the way if necessary. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Lowell Weitzenkamp, Lowmar, Inc., 723 Heatherwood Dr., Fremont, Neb. 68025 (ph 402 567-2285).

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