Talk:Cattle race

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[edit] Forcing pen

See forcing pen photo at Pen enclosure, sometimes the self locking gate uses rubber as a stopper instead of the ratchets. Cgoodwin (talk) 06:59, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Ah, I know the kind you mean. That's much clearer. I've edited it for tone (from like an instruction manual: "it should be operable", "can be achieved", to more impersonal: "is operable", "is achieved"). I've also removed some repetition and tried to make it fit better with the previous para. --Richard New Forest (talk) 09:37, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Combined articles

I feel that the present format of having separate articles on pen (yards) crushes and races would have been better combined. What are your thoughts? Cgoodwin (talk) 07:50, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

I think it depends on how long each article becomes. If they were to stay much as they are, they'd be short articles, and a combined one would not be too long. However if they expanded much, a combined article would be cumbersome and we'd be wanting to split it. I'm not sure. There are plenty of less-complex subjects with much longer articles, but perhaps there is a limited amount you can say about stock handling. I think my inclination at the moment is to keep them separate.

Having said that (and despite having been the one to start it), I can't think of a good reason why Cattle race should be separate from pig race, sheep race or indeed llama race. Perhaps it should be "Race (livestock)"? No, that sounds like "breed". "Livestock handling race"? --Richard New Forest (talk) 09:37, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

I am unsure about other livestock races as the deer ones are very different, don't know anything about llamas, little about pigs and far too much about sheep! Cattle races usually lead to another use area ie. crush or ramp etc.

Below I have included some preferred changes: "The entrance is from a funnel-shaped or semi-circular forcing pen or forcing yard, where gates (may be used) to crowd the animals into the race".

In my experience with cattle (and sheep) it is necessary to have a force pen to get the stock to enter a narrow race. Not many force pens in Australasia have the semi-circular pen with a force gate, unfortunately. In many places in the bush they do not even have sliding gates anywhere in the yards. Cgoodwin (talk) 10:18, 5 December 2007 (UTC)