Cage keeps farmers safe during calving season

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Published: March 21, 1996

SASKATOON – For the past three years, Lloyd Shearer has had extra help at calving time.

The Dropmore, Man. mixed farmer built himself a portable shelter that attaches to the three-point hitch of a small tractor. The cage protects him from overly protective cows when he handles newborn calves.

“I wanted to make it safer to handle the calves,” said Shearer, who has 30 head of Simmentals that calve during March. “Some of them are pretty protective.”

Shearer’s invention, like most, was driven by need and circumstances. His cows calve in an outside pen close to a barn, but once the calf is born, Shearer moves the pair inside.

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Rather than carrying the calf into the barn – which at 125 or 130 pounds is a hefty load for the 61-year-old farmer – he now backs the tractor with the cage attached up to the calf and lowers it over the calf.

Shearer then climbs in and lifts the calf into the small plywood compartment in front. The cow, meanwhile, is on the other side of the one-inch steel tubing.

“I don’t have to struggle with the calf,” Shearer said. “There’s no danger, no problems.”

Shearer can then lift the cage using the three-point hitch and drive the tractor slowly into the barn, with mama following along.

Once inside the barn, Shearer opens the gate on the front compartment, lifts the calf out, lifts the cage up and lets the cow into the barn.

Shearer said his cows have accepted the presence of the cage, which his wife Marlene has named the Porti-Calfi, better than he thought they would.

None have tried to charge it and most don’t get excited when it is used, he said. Shearer thinks that’s because the cow can see her calf at all times.

The cage has worked so well Shearer has taken to using it for other chores like vaccinating or giving calves an extra dose of colostrum.

Shearer is using his second Porti-Calfi. He sold his first creation to another cattle producer in the region.

The cage measures about 1.8 metres long, 1.4 m high and one m wide.

“It’s easier on both the cow, the calf and the farmer,” Shearer said of his invention.

About the author

Colleen Munro

Western Producer

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