Cattle Panels & Gates

Panels and gates are the structure every other handling decision rests on. A gate hung so it swings into the handler's escape route, or a panel line with a gap an animal can work at, will quietly shape how every job on the farm is done — usually by adding a second person to it.

What decides the specification

• Species and spacing
  Rail spacing that holds cattle will not hold goats or lambs, and horses need smooth faces with no protruding latches. Specify by what is actually in the pen.
• Gauge and frame
  A corral panel taking the weight of pressed cattle is a different build from a divider panel in a quiet pen. Paying for the heavy build everywhere is waste; paying for it where animals push is not.
• Swing direction and latch position
  Gates should open with the flow of animals and never trap the handler. Latch height and type decide whether a gate can be worked one-handed while holding something else.
• Finish
  Hot-dip galvanizing for anything outdoors or in a wet yard. It is the difference between a ten-year panel and a three-year one.

Draw the yard before buying the panels

Panels are easy to buy and hard to lay out. Sketch where animals come in, where they wait, which way they walk, and where the handler stands — then count the panels that layout needs. Doing it the other way round produces a yard that works for the first job and fights every one after that. Send the sketch with your enquiry; layout advice costs nothing.

Read before you order

See cattle panels and livestock fencing and farm gates and cattle gates. The full range is at livestock fencing and corral panels.