Down Cow Lift Loads Animals Onto Trailer

Down Cow Lift Loads Animals Onto Trailer LIVESTOCK Beef 14-1-2 Taking sick cows to the vet or bringing home stray bulls shot with a tranquilizer gun are both easy chores for Lonie Rohr since he built his innovative down cow lift that loads animals onto a trailer for trans-port. "I got the idea as a way to chase down neighbors' stray cattle. I bought a tranquilizer gun to put them to sleep but I needed a way to bring them home. We tried a front-end loader but we couldn't load cows into a stock trailer with it," says Rohr. He ended up building an 11-ft. long lift frame out of oil well pipe and an overhead 4-in. I-beam track that serves as a track for a rolling lift pulley. A 2,500-lb. capacity 12-volt winch mounts at the front of the lift frame. To raise an animal, Rohr slides the lift frame out the back of the trailer over the down animal and extends two adjustable-length legs downward so they rest on the ground. Next he wraps the two lifting belts - made from round baler belts - under the belly of the animal, one toward the front and one toward the back. He runs the winch cable through the lift pulley. It raises the animal off the ground and then pulls it into the trailer, rolling on the overhead track. Once the animal's inside, Rohr lowers it to the floor of the trailer, unhooks the lift cable, and then uses the winch to pull the lift frame back into the trailer by hooking the cable to the front of the trailer. (He also uses the winch to slide the lift frame out of the trailer using a hook at the back of the trailer.) Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Lonie Rohr, HCO1, Box 23, Gladstone, N. Dak. 58630 (ph 701225-9275).

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.