Raceways

Where possible, raceways and passageways should be built with solid, smooth walls to avoid distraction from other animals or people. Sharp corners and bends should be avoided and the sides of the raceways should be high enough to discourage animals from attempting to escape.

Distracting shadows, drain covers, large puddles and other obstacles, including people, should be absent from raceways where possible. Animals will investigate objects such as a hosepipe before stepping over it, slowing their movement through the handling system. In older buildings, the positioning of drains is not always a factor that can be changed: where this is the case they should be made as inconspicuous as possible.

When developing a handling system, consideration should be given to where sunlight may shine and shadows may form as these can have a significant effect on the reaction of animals and their willingness to move forward. The changing light in a building throughout the course of a day, or across different seasons, can be an influential factor in the movement of animals but is often overlooked. For these reasons, systems should be observed for any difficulties at a variety of different times.

Raceways for moving groups of animals

Raceways leading to and from unloading bays, loading ramps and pens should be wide and straight to allow animals to be moved in groups. Where raceways contain corners, it is far easier to move animals through a system designed with curved bends rather than right-angled bends.

Raceways where animals are required in single file

For the purposes of identification, entrances to sale rings or certain slaughter systems may require raceways to deliver animals in single file. As most animals will prefer to follow a lead animal or move in groups this can make handling more challenging; a good handling system at this point will reduce the amount of coercion needed. Animals do not like standing in line and if left for extended periods they will become stressed and make attempts to escape. For these reasons, single file races should only be used towards the end of the system, and filled at a rate equivalent to the processing rate so that animals only wait for a short period.

For cattle, curved raceways (Figures 4a and 4b) work extremely well as they take advantage of their curious nature and their willingness to follow the animal in front. Gentle curves encourage animals forward and make it less likely that they will reverse through the raceway. Curves which bend tightly may be perceived as a dead-end and have the opposite effect. Sloping the floor upwards will also add benefits as most animals will happily walk up a slope but are less willing to walk down a slope, especially backwards.

Figure 4a	Figure 4b

Crowding pens

An effective way to split cattle and sheep into single file is to use a circular pen with two gates that are hinged around a centre pole and which are able to pass around the entire pen (Figure 5). This design keeps groups of animals together until the last minute. Animals are moved around the pen by moving one gate around towards the other gate held static at the exit from the pen, which leads to a raceway or restrainer entrance. Caution should be taken when using this system to prevent animals crushing each other or climbing on top of each other if the gates move too fast or are overfilled. This design is also known as a ‘forcing pen’, although this term should never be taken literally.    

Figure 5

Sorting race

Another method for splitting groups of large animals, such as cattle, is to use a sorting race (Figure 6). These can either be single- or double-sided and generally hold four to eight animals. Animals are fed into a forcing pen, which is then moved gradually to encourage the animals down one of two raceways. Each raceway is divided into a number of stalls which have gates at either end. The gates are shut behind each animal to hold each animal individually. When required, animals exit the stalls by side gates so the order in which they entered is irrelevant. This method is easier and safer for staff as they are not required to move through the group of animals.

Figure 6

Labyrinth

A simple way of splitting pigs into single file is a labyrinth system (Figure 7). This uses a long, straight race that is split into sections by gates that reach halfway across the raceway and are spaced 160cm apart on opposite sides of the wall. As groups of pigs walk down the race, some of them will be held back by the partition and some will move forward. The smaller group reaches the next barrier and again only some can move forward, breaking the group down again.

Figure 7

Stepped race

Pigs can also be split successfully using a stepped race system (Figure 8). One side of the race is straight and the other is stepped, gradually reducing the width of the race. This system works in the same way as the labyrinth system, slowing down the movement of the pigs and reducing the group size in stages.

Figure 8

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