what is the advantage of a stanchion vs...

[darbyfamily]

just tying her to a post in the shelter?

I started to build a stanchion... wish I could explain this where you could understand... our shelter is a 10x10 ft square. There is a stall at the back that is three ft deep and the width of the shelter. It has a door to the right side to let the calf in and out and a feed bucket at the other end.

Okay, the black is what is currently there. The red is my 'proposed' stanchion. and this is very much not to scale... ROFL


The top is the north side and the red long oval to the right is the feed trough with hay and a salt block in it.

The oval on the far left is the calfs feed bucket and the one on the middle wall is the feed bucket for the stanchion. This way mama and baby are close to each other, but baby cant get to mama to nurse.

So, ...I have been just tying Spring to the post and the feed trough was on the middle wall., and I could just keep doing that I guess... I dont know why I feel the need to make it a more secure place for her to not move around much, as she doesnt really move that much anyway. But, just tied to the post she can swing her back half around and could step on me... LOL



Ideas? input? advice?

[davendahlonega]

Lots of folks milk with their cows tied to a post. The stanchion is good to train a 1st time heifer or to control a less than cooperative cow, but it is not necessary. If what you are doing works, keep doing it.

[copperhead]

A cow that is trained to a stanchion is just much easier to handle. She can't swing her head around, if you are trying to let an orphan calf nurse, or even hers if she just doesn't want it. You can examine her a lot easier, maybe during AI, just lots of reasons. You just have a lot more control, and she has a lot less, hee hee.
P.J.

[seventrees]

I do the tie to a post method now. We build a really cool milking stall with wall-mount hay/grain feeder and one wall with a top & bottom rail and cattle panel in the middle. The front half wasn't moveable, to keep her front end busy with hay, and the back half of the panel moved away so I could milk her. The rails kept her from stepping on me or moving around too much. We also made it so we could slide a bar across the back opening once she was in, so she couldn't back out.

She got used to eating in there and being brushed, having her udders handled, "pretend milking", before she calved, but when we finally slid the bars behind her, she had a fit!

She still won't go in there to eat unless we're a safe distance away.

So now I milk with her clipped to a chain that has a ring on the other end. The ring is around a iron bar, mounted to a post. It looks like a towel bar mounted vertically. This does pretty good at keeping her from movign back & forth, and she has learned the command "shove over" to keep her standing against the stall wall. She knows when I tap her leg and say "foot back" to step back with her back leg if it's blocking her udder.

I'd love to be able to get her in a stanchion, but I think she's just not going to cope with it. The vet is able to work with her tied to a post, since once she's tied, she pretty much calms down. We were even able to trim her hooves without bloodshed or bruises.

[waltzingmatilda]

Gene, that's a neat story. :-) She really, really trusts you.

- Michelle