How to Build a Stanchion for Cows
As part of my latest venture, I built a stanchion to assist in milking cows. Instructions and more pictures below.
I recently bought two “momma” cows who are due to calve within the next few weeks. The plan is to have the cows, Ellie and Hazel, nurse a dairy calf in addition to their own calf – for a total of four calves to sell/butcher. If either Ellie or Hazel refuses to adopt an extra calf, Plan B is to milk them and bottle-feed the rejected calf. This is where the stanchion fits in.
This cow experiment is a joint venture between my wife and me, and my parents. My wife and I are the financiers, and my parents are putting in all the actual work. So,while I was in their neck of the woods this past weekend, I built a stanchion to help out.
After searching the web, we settled on a design found on the (seemingly defunct) blog A Sustained Life. Their post, ‘Stanchion-building superpowers’ provides detailed step-by-step instructions and was extremely helpful. I ran into a couple minor snags because of the wording of the instructions, but they were great overall.
It ended up taking longer than originally planned, but the end result is satisfying. If you have any questions about the stanchion or related things, let me know below in the comment section.
Source: A Sustained Life