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Work Cattle In Trailer... Then Haul 'Em
Randy Kell can safely work cattle in his stock trailer and haul them away a few minutes later in the same trailer. His Double K Alleyway makes it easy to use the same rig for both jobs.
"I got hurt one too many times working cattle," says Kell. "I decided to build a permanent working alley in an old horse
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Work Cattle In Trailer Then Haul Em LIVESTOCK Handling Randy Kell can safely work cattle in his stock trailer and haul them away a few minutes later in the same trailer His Double K Alleyway makes it easy to use the same rig for both jobs
I got hurt one too many times working cattle says Kell I decided to build a permanent working alley in an old horse trailer It s much safer
The working trailer gets plenty of use Kell s son runs 420 cow/calf pairs and Kell runs another 350 After seeing the benefits he decided to build a unit that would slide in and out of a trailer Kell took his ideas to a local welder and eventually to Central States Mechanical of Mountain Grove Mo After getting the unit patented he is now beginning to market it
The design is a simple U shape with cattle moving down one side of the trailer to the front and then back to the rear of the trailer where a head gate is installed The cattleman vet and others can walk freely down the inside of the U They are protected from kicks by solid side panels and the cattle are visually isolated from the people and stay calmer
The panel frames are tubular steel with 14 ga flat steel on the outside They are attached to a solid framework of 2 by 4-in heavy gauge rectangular tubing When smaller cattle or calves are worked the working alleyway can be made narrower
The working alley can be quickly and easily adjusted from 25 in down to 16 in says Kell The size of the cattle that can be worked in a trailer depends on the width of the trailer A 6-ft wide trailer can be set up to work animals that are 800 to 1 000 lbs or less A 6-ft 8-in trailer can handle 1 200 to 1 400 lb cows with lots of room for workers in the walkway We can make the alleyways for 7 to 7 1/2 ft width trailers too and for trailer lengths of 16 20 and 24 ft
The 3 000-lb units slide in and out easily after the first installation that can take 3 to 4 hours Kell explains that holes have to be drilled in the cross members and latches and other hardware have to be installed Permanent tracks are welded to the floor
Once setup is complete you slide the unit into the trailer stick in bolts and turn them down says Kell In five minutes you can have it in and ready to work cattle or have it out and ready to haul
To install jacks raise the alleyway about 2 in above the level of the trailer floor A driver backs the trailer up sliding the trailer in removing the jacks as he goes Once in place the unit is bolted down To remove the process is reversed
With the cattle market where it is we have tried to keep costs down as low as we can says Kell The base unit is priced at $7 400 One of our neighbors got kicked in the knee while working calves in his open trailer He said our alleyway would have saved him $80 000 in medical costs
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Double K Alleyways LLC P O Box 83 Raymondville Mo 65555 ph 573 674-1225; www doublekalleyways com
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