Thinking of improving your saleyard facility?

The saleyard industry is becoming more competitive and cost pressures are increasing. Saleyard managers are being made more accountable for the safety and animal welfare of their facility. You need to make sure any expenditure puts you at the cutting edge in terms of safety and efficiency.

Saleyard operators need to be focused on the competitiveness of their facility in the current marketplace. If you are perceived as inefficient or unsafe your business viability will be affected. Increasing efficiencies in the transport industry makes it viable to bypass your facility if you're not the benchmark.

Business opportunities such as spelling, load consolidation and depot facilities will only come about if your facility is to the required standards.

Your customer base of producers, buyers, agents and the transport industry are becoming more discerning and demanding.

Many issues need to be considered in building facilities. These include engineering, waste and noise, efficiency, safety and stock flow.

Stock flow is the central plank of facility design which is often underestimated. If you can achieve stock flow many other requirements will fall into place.

When designing livestock facilities our priorities are;

1. Operator safety
2. Animal welfare and safety
3. Operator efficiency and stock flow
4. Product longevity

Good stockflow

• Increases labour efficiency
• Improves human and animal safety as stock aren't upset by forcing.
• Minimises prodder and dog use.
• Improves the temperament of saleyard users.
• Minimises loading, unloading and processing times.
• Optimises quality of out loaded stock in terms of bruising and stress related issues.
• Optimises the welfare of processed animals.

ProWay-Prattley have the experience and know how to help utilising scientifically proven animal movement research. Their design input can achieve a facility with

• optimal stock flow by;
• Use of strategic sheeting
• Selecting optimal ramp slope to counter cattle's poor depth perception.
• Using curve designs which harness animals desire to escape.
• Incorporating pneumatic actuation of gates to avoid having operators in the cattle flight zones.
• Designing facilities with elevated walkways to separate stock from operators.