Asked to build a set of five-way lamb weighing and drafting yards with no prototype to work with, fencer Michael Conijn of Custom Fencing had to use basic ingenuity to bring it to life.
And the end result ended up being his ‘Magnus Opus’.
The yards, built near Dunback in Eastern Otago in 2022, are 45m long, 28m wide, with a height of 1100mm, and include 43 gates in the yard and 27 gates on the lane and pens. The drenching race measures 15m by 900mm.
Built on a lamb finishing farm, the yards needed to be able to process tens of thousands of lambs a year.
Michael said the yard’s main purpose was designed around a Prattley five-way portable weighing and drafting trailer, with the main focus being a flawless flow that required only one person to weigh and draft many thousands of lambs.
“We also needed to have the ability to drench and vaccinate all these lambs.”
This was no easy task, as five-way drafters involve challenging angles for smooth stock flow.
“I asked the client if he had any rough sketches or pictures of such a yard. He had found a couple that had a curve for three-way drafting but none of a five-way, so we did our best to come up with a pen layout that would have as many options to shift stock around within the yards, to be able to have large numbers put across the scales and taken away with ease.
“It’s got as much functionality as I could conjure up.”
Michael used a quality finish wherever he could, round edge routing the top rail on both sides and tops of posts in the main stock sorting zones – the weighing, drenching, and drafting zones – and routed one top edge of the top rail everywhere else.
“We also incorporated a full-length tray in the centre of the twin drenching race, to be able to have vaccines and to have animal husbandry tools close at hand whilst sorting stock.”
The main stock use areas were also boxed and had concrete pads poured in the main stock feed curve, which covers right under the Prattley five-way drafter and twin drenching races, to aid sure footing for stock and staff while processing thousands of stock units, plus a level surface for the scales.
In the main curved forcing pens, they also incorporated the ability to divert stock flow to a race that can have a conveyor backed up to it or an electro dip to dip stock or capsule ewes.
The race also allows stock to be run through the twin drenching race, which has an expanding race that can expand from 400mm wide to around 800mm, by way of two inlaid square steel pipes with a smaller diameter pole that slides inside at finished post height.
This can be removed and slide back in at the two different widths, which allows the drenching races to be fed from either end of the yards depending on which mob is needed to be processed first.
“The twin drenching races have five gates at each end for stock to easily fill and be let back out with ease, with the ability to either be released out of the yards or into the yards at each end.
“The project wasn’t expected to be quite as big as it ended up!
“I was told there was a bit of an outside yard to do, and then the yard became that. It just evolved from there.”
Michael had a good team behind him to get the job done.
“This project was not solely done by me. I can claim driving every strainer and post, but I have to give a lot of thanks to my offsider at the time, Charlie Mullooly, who did a lot of board fixing by himself and helped me with the entire project, and suggested good ideas along the way.”
Michael was also grateful to Garry Jones from earthmoving firm Skevingtons.
“He cleared and laid all the river gravel and spread all the lime chip dust, to aid in drainage and dust suppression in the yards.
“He also finished all the earthworks around gateways to give water runoff and smooth any humps and bumps out to make a safe free draining site for stock and staff.”
Considering it was his first crack at it, Michael was chuffed with the completed yards.
“Thanks to the Tomlinson family for letting me cut loose on them! I personally am very proud of the end result, and thought, it’s not bad for the first one I built from scratch.
“And to quote Charlie Mullooly, “that might be your Magnus Opus to date!’”
Article written by Rosa Watson
Published in WIRED issue 73/JUNE 2024 by Fencing Contractors Association NZ
