A new set of cattle yards in Western Victoria is speeding up cattle work for Robert Abbott at Mt William Charolais.

Located at the foot of the Grampians in Western Victoria, Robert is the principal at Mt William Charolais. With on-going labour shortages and increasing safety risks of the existing yards, it was a timely choice to upgrade to Te Pari yards to make it faster, safer, and easier when working his cattle.

What makes Te Pari Yards Unique?

The Te Pari cattle yards have been proven for the last 20-plus years in New Zealand. Made from Australian steel and fully hot-dipped galvanized after fabrication, the yards have a superior life expectancy when compared to other alternatives.

For Robert, needing a yard system that is safe to operate in and also efficient was essential, so working with Te Pari to design a system that fitted his needs was an obvious choice.

Helping speed up his cattle work, Robert's yard is packed full of features such as the S-Race with circular forcing pen, round drafting pen, extra wide catwalk up the race and a cattle-free zone for a safe work area within the yards.

Incorporating Te Pari's flagship cattle crush, the Taurus 5-Way Auto Drafter, Robert can quite comfortably stand at the back of the race loading more cattle in while auto weighing and drafting his cattle up to five ways.

"The yards are designed from the ground up to just make our life easier. Every job we've done in these yards since we've had them, it's at least cut the time in half that the jobs would normally take and some jobs that you can do in these yards you just simply wouldn't even bother doing in our old yards. It would just be too stressful and too hard," Rob said.

All cattle yard designs from Te Pari are designed to harness natural cattle behaviour, giving the operator the maximum safety and efficiency when working alone in the yards. Since cattle have a natural tendency to circle their handler, Te Pari yards incorporate circular pens and curved races throughout the yards which calmy draw the cattle through themselves, instead of having to push from behind, helping keep stock calm and quite while moving through the yards.

There's no excuse for not closing gates in the yards either. All gates in a Te Pari yard feature a heavy duty 25mm, spring-loaded slam latch fitted with a nylon sleeve, making them simple to close shut from either side with a push of the gate, saving you time by not having to secure chains or sliding bolts. The design of the latch also makes them very quiet to use, keeping stock calm within yards.

As the cattle move through the yard and into the handling area, they enter the Taurus Auto Drafting Cattle Crush.

Capable of drafting five ways, the Taurus makes handling and drafting large numbers of cattle easy. With a pneumatic race gate set back from the crush, the cattle flow is stagged as they enter the crush, eliminating the chance of double ups. After the weight and EID data has been collected, the draft gate will be open according to the set criteria selected in the weigh scale. Once that animal has exited the crush and cleared the sensors, the entry gate will open, letting the next animal in to begin the cycle again.

Is auto drafting worth the investment?

With a Taurus Auto-Drafting crush, you can process your cattle quicker and as a result, weigh them more often. With a cycle time of approximately 10 seconds per animal, it is realistic to weigh 300 head per hour with very little operator intervention. If you consider the cost of labour, the Return on Investment on an Auto-Drafting Cattle Crush is very good.

Plus, you will weigh more often because of the ease to do so. This helps you manage your herd better and improve your on-farm returns.

"I can process cattle on my own in here, I can do it safely and with very little stress on the cattle. It's like a good sheep dog, it's going to save you labour units and it's proven already to do that, plus we enjoy working in the yards now and it's no longer a stressful experience. With these yards someone with very little cattle experience could come in here and safely move cattle through the system and do it with ease.

"Every time I work in the yards, I realise it was a great decision and the right decision to go with Te Pari. The proof is in the product and going forward, I think my kids will thank me for it because they'll be the ones working in the yards in the future and they'll say ‘thanks dad' for giving us a good facility," Rob said.

Almanzo Blampied, sales co-ordinator for the Te Pari Australian team, based in Epping, Victoria, says "We are finding more and more farmers are choosing to upgrade their cattle yards and invest in automated equipment to make their jobs easier and safer. It's really hard to get experienced staff now and with a system like the one at Mt William Charolais you can run mobs of cattle through the yards and draft them five ways with one person, so it makes it quite easy to see the return on investment."

Find out more about Te Pari Cattle Yards on their website: www.tepari.com or call the team on 1800-650-682.