Homemade ramp allows one man to load cattle
It is easy because of his home-made loading ramp. Gerry is no engineer, and not the best welder on the islands, but his skills were sufficient to make his ramp using scaffold pipe and heavy box-section, and a steel checker plate floor.
“Cattle are always reluctant to walk up a steep ramp, directly into the dark wagon, and the wide loading ramp gives them the chance to change their minds and turn around,” he says, and all who have ever loaded cattle know this.
Gerry reasoned that a single-file ramp that led up gradually to the lorry would make it easier for the cattle, and the herdsman.
“Working single-handed on the small farm means there’s a need to set things up for one-man management. You can never be certain when the haulier will be arriving, getting help in can mean a lot of tea being drunk before we start.
“With my ramp, I set the loading up well in advance, lifting it with the loader into position outside the pen.
“All that’s needed is for the cattle truck to arrive, reverse to my ramp, and drop his down onto the platform. We set up the gates to funnel the cattle through, and then open the gates at the bottom.
“Cattle have no problems and the wood slats I’ve put on the slope give them plenty of grip. Before they know it, they’re in the truck and the gate is closed behind them.”
Single-handed farmers
The growing numbers of single-handed farmers make ideas like Gerry’s ramp of increasing interest. Practical Farm Ideas (see Mike’s information below) is keen to learn what farmers have devised to make their lives easier, and, when it comes to 750kg Simmental bullocks, safer, as well.
The loading ramp here was made at minimal cost, and is used to load about 50 bullocks a year, plus cull cows and other stock. On small farms, such as Gerry’s, there’s no way anything too expensive can be financially justified, but his ingenuity has bypassed the cheque book.
