Roche Engineering, based in Mountbellew, Co Galway, has developed and patented a new tractor portable cattle-handling system that they call the Roco Eazi-Pen. The system is made up of a series of seven heavy-duty frames, two of which incorporate gates.

The frame sections have two directional folding hinges that are flexible to use and allow the unit to be easily moved from field to field using the tractor three-point linkage. The pen is totally portable on a tractor three-point linkage and can be reconfigured to incorporate the cattle crush that on its own can hold the likes of two 450kg heifers or one cow separate from the main pen.

Michael Roche, who has developed the unit in response to his own farming needs, believes that it offers a simple and easy approach to cattle management. His experience with the system with his own stock has been that cattle quickly adapt to its use and he designed the unit so that it’s easy to set up and fold afterwards for transport.

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Michael describes the unit as a septagon shape, which is another name for a seven-sided structure. The design of the unit took some time in order to make sure that it could fold to a neat transportable size and that it allowed the flexibility to be used as a pen and then allow two sections to become a handling crush.

The unit is made from strong 50mm x 50mm box section steel, and included are two heavy-duty double-latched tubular gates. The Eazi-Pen is fully galvanised.

The frame is built higher than the average gate height at 1.5m (5ft) so as to prevent cattle even from attempting to jump out of the unit once penned. The weight of the unit at 700kg means that it sits solidly on the ground and the large bolts that are part of the folding process are deliberately left long enough to provide anchor points into the ground.

The entire cattle-handling unit can be easily detached from the tractor by means of a strong 300mm x 150mm steel centre post. During transport, this is connected to the rear of the Eazi-pen and supported by two steel ropes to ensure that it is secure and remains locked in a safe transport position.

The main purpose of the Eazi-Pen is for ease of handling of cattle on out-farms, according to Michael.

“The design has been created to allow for stress-free handling of animals in the field. We use nuts to bring the cattle into the pen. With an out-farm, the biggest problem is gathering cattle in for dosing or if you have an animal that needs a regular injection or for AI work, where in each case you can leave the unit in the field until the dosing is finished,” says Michael.

The Eazi-Pen has been patented by Michael Roche of Roche Engineering for its unique folding and tractor portable properties. The cost of the unit is €4,300 incl. VAT and Michael says that funding to buy the unit is supported under the TAMS II scheme.