Livestock Handling Equipment and Ironwork
Crushes, races, gates, cubicles and weighing — planned around the shed you have, and delivered to it.
We Plan It and Supply It. We Do Not Erect It.
Worth saying plainly at the top, because the rest of this section is installation work and this part is not.
Handling equipment, penning and weighing are supplied and delivered rather than fitted by our engineers. Milking plant, cooling, feeding systems and barn automation are installations; ironwork is a supply job. If you are expecting a squad to arrive and erect a race, that is not what you are buying here and we would rather you knew now.
What you are buying is the part that goes wrong most often: knowing what to order. A handling system is designed around the building, the stock and the way one person can work it alone at six in the morning — and that is a conversation with somebody who has seen a few hundred of them, not a page of part numbers.
Crushes, Races and Housing
The test of a handling system is whether one person can work it on their own without shouting.
Cattle crushes
The piece everything else is built around. Yoke type, side access and how the beast enters decide whether the job takes ten minutes or an afternoon.
Races and forcing pens
Cattle move better round a curve than down a straight, and better into light than dark. Getting the geometry right costs nothing at the planning stage and is dear to fix afterwards.
Weighing and EID
Tru-Test load bars, weigh heads and EID readers. Weighing is the cheapest data on the farm and the one most often skipped.
Housing cubicles and bull penning
Cubicle divisions, brisket boards, bull pens and the heavy ironwork that has to still be there in fifteen years.
Calf pens and gates
Penning, gates and hurdles for the calf shed — the part that gets rearranged every season and has to take it.
Yard fencing and barriers
Feed barriers, yard gates and the ironwork between the shed and the weather.
Handling, Lambing and Mobile Units
Sheep work is done in bursts, in bad weather, usually in the wrong field. The kit has to suit that rather than a catalogue.
Sheep handling systems
Races, shedding gates and turnover crates. A system that flows is the difference between dosing 400 ewes before lunch and after dark.
Mobile handling units
Because the sheep are rarely where the pens are. A unit that tows to the field is worth more than a better one that does not.
Lambing pens
Individual pens that go up fast, come apart for cleaning and store flat for eleven months of the year.
Weighing and EID
Conventional and electronic. EID is a statutory reality for sheep as well as a management tool, and the reader has to work in a wet race.
Feeding equipment
Troughs, feeders and hay racks for the shed and the field.
Shearing equipment
Machines, combs and cutters through the country stores.
IAE, Ritchie, Portequip and Tru-Test
Four manufacturers, and between them they cover almost everything a Scottish farm needs in steel.
IAE have been manufacturing since 1969 on a 38-acre site on the edge of Stoke-on-Trent. They are still owned by the family who founded them and employ around 400 people, and they describe themselves as the UK’s largest and leading manufacturer of livestock handling and housing equipment — their claim, and a fair one on the evidence of the site. Ritchie Agricultural and Portequip cover handling and feeding, and Tru-Test weighing and EID.
We are not going to pretend there is one right answer among them. What we will do is tell you which of them makes the thing that suits your job, which is a different and more useful service than loyalty to one badge.
One piece of hoof equipment has a page of its own because it is a machine rather than ironwork — see hoof trimming crushes. Automatic footbaths are an installation and are covered under Hoofcount.
Start With the Shed, Not the Catalogue
A handling system is quoted off a drawing or a visit. There is no sensible way to price it off a phone call.
Your sales rep
Eight reps across Scotland. They will come and look at the building and the stock. Find yours.
Engineering at Stirling
01786 474 481 for anything that overlaps with a building project, a parlour or a shed we are already working in.
The country stores
Ayr, Kinross, Lanark & Stirling for gates, hurdles, troughs and the smaller items you would rather collect than wait for.
New build and renovation are where this pays off. Ironwork decided at the drawing stage costs a fraction of ironwork retrofitted into a finished building.
Handling Equipment Questions
Do you install handling equipment?
No — handling equipment, penning and weighing are supplied and delivered rather than fitted by our engineers. Milking plant, cooling, feeding systems and barn automation are installations; ironwork is a supply job. What we do bring to it is designing the right system for the building and the stock, which is where most handling systems go wrong.
Who supplies cattle crushes and handling systems in Scotland?
McCaskie supply IAE, Ritchie Agricultural and Portequip handling equipment across Scotland, with Tru-Test weighing and EID. Smaller items are on the shelf at Ayr, Kinross, Lanark and Stirling; a full system is quoted off a visit or a drawing.
How do I choose a cattle crush?
Start from the job rather than the spec sheet. How the beast enters, what access you need to her head and flank, and whether one person can work it alone matter more than the weight of steel. Then match it to the race you have or the one you are planning, because a good crush at the end of a bad race is still an afternoon's work.
Can you plan a handling system for a new shed?
Yes, and that is the point at which to do it. Ironwork decided at the drawing stage costs a fraction of ironwork retrofitted into a finished building, and the geometry that makes cattle move well — curves, light, sight lines — is free before the concrete goes down.
Do you sell weighing and EID equipment?
Yes, Tru-Test weigh heads, load bars and EID readers. They are supplied rather than installed. Weighing is the cheapest data on the farm and the first thing that gets skipped, which is usually a mistake you only see at sale time.
What sheep handling equipment do you stock?
Races, shedding gates, turnover crates, mobile handling units, lambing pens, weighing and EID, feeding and shearing equipment. Mobile units are worth a thought: the sheep are rarely where the permanent pens are.
Do you do hoof trimming crushes?
Yes, and it has a page of its own because it is a machine rather than ironwork — see hoof trimming crushes. Automatic footbaths are a different thing again and are an installation.
Can I collect from the stores?
Gates, hurdles, troughs and the smaller items, yes — Ayr, Kinross, Lanark and Stirling. A full handling system is a delivery rather than a collection.