Hubby and I spent most of February tearing out our old loading pen. It was well over 50 years old and was worn out. Instead of repairing like we normally do we decided to start over with this section of the pen. The far end with the working head chutes and calf pens are on the opposite end and were redone three years ago.
This is the working part of the pen we completed three years ago.
Head chute for medical and castrating. We consider this one of the best investments we’ve made in regards to working our cattle. Hubby is less likely to get hurt, less stress on the calves and our daughter is learning to use it too!
The boards have been torn off the posts and cut up for kitchen woodstove firewood. We recycle as much as possible. The old posts will be cut up for the big woodstove.
We’ve rehung some gates, tightened up some posts, and put in some posts. Now, we wait for our lumber to arrive which has been an unexpected delay. Most of the private lumber mills in the area will only cut for commercial folks. Here’s some pictures of the work we’ve done so far and I’ll post more as we get the work completed! I’ve definitely used muscles that have been lazy for some time!!!
Fence posts dug, posts placed, Qickrete poured and hardened.
Heavy equipment used to set some gate posts that we didn’t replace.
Rotted off gate posts at scale house.
Area of most work yet to be done.
Some of the existing gates that we will use again.
We rehung these gates after we replaced the posts.
Generator used to drill the hinge holes in the posts.
Kubota tractor we used to drill the holes for the posts.
We used our milkcans to haul water for the Quikrete
The Massey Ferguson was used to haul in the new fence posts and hauling the pallet of Quikrete.
NOW WE WAIT!!
