# Stanchion plans



## SandraD (Oct 1, 2005)

Does anyone out there have any milking stanchion plans or know where I can find some? We'd like to build it ourselves. I have checked all my reference books and searched online, but having a hard time finding anything.


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## wrightnidaho (Feb 3, 2008)

Fiasco Farm has plans. Hope this helps. 

Kelli 
www.wrightwoodworks.com
http://fiascofarm.com/goats/milkstand.html


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## mlangfus (Jan 29, 2008)

check out
http://familycow.proboards32.com/index.cgi?board=cow&action=display&thread=1207518958


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## JulieLou42 (Mar 28, 2005)

If you have the book _Keeping a Family Cow_ you will find a photo of one in there that you can improvise, as I did.


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## topside1 (Sep 23, 2005)

Julie, how does your cow get into the milking stanchion? I assume you take down the three 2x4's let the cow in then replace the 2x4's and milk through them or do you leave the boards off while milking. So if you milk with the boards off then what's the purpose of the boards?...thanks, Julie

One more thing, what breed of cow are you milking? Could you take another picture of her in the stanchion. Thanks


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## cowboy66 (Apr 18, 2008)

I would suggest just using the head latch and nothing else. use kickers if you have to but the rest of the wooden frame stuff looks useless and dangerous! just my observation and thoughts from experience.


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## JulieLou42 (Mar 28, 2005)

The one 2x4 on the right side is not there when I bring her in, and I remove it when she leaves. She has this notion that she shouldn't stand in the middle of her stanchion, and that one board keeps her in place. She knows the "drill."

All the 2x4's come down and are stored under the headgate on the floor against the wall when not in use.

Biggest problem with this one is that she grew some after her first calf! and is really a bit too long for it now. She gets her "treat" inside the little box that's at the bottom of the gate just under her where her chin would be. You can see where she's spilled some of that on the floor by the wall.

I'll see if I have a shot of her in there for ya...not sure. I'll be "refreshing her memory" about milking starting again in about a month and I can do it then if I don't have one yet.


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## CatherineE (Apr 17, 2008)

Finally got pictures taken and uploaded of the wonderful double stanchion that my sweet DH built for us. This is the one that tamed our wild and wooly Katie into the Perfect Milking Parlor Princess!!! The first time we locked her in here, she tried to pull her head out, but the horns were contained by the head lock. She tried to feel behind her, and her leg met the back board. That was it. No fight, no circus or anything! It was one of the sweeter moments of my life! She decided that she'd just ignore us and dive into her trough full of hay and goodies! She barely moves while we brush, pet, wash and milk her, even though I'm sure we did more than our fair share of bumbling around, esp. at first! Trust me, if we could do this...so can you! Go for it!!!

This is the front view, with the right hand stanchion completely open, and the left one closed. In case you are wondering why the swing bars look like they are two toned, it's cuz the boards that my DH used to make the head gate were pressure treated 2x6, cuz that's what we had on hand. I was concerned about having the cows (not to mention the kids and me) touching that pressure treated wood every day, so my DH lined it with a piece of untreated 1x2! lol. You can see there is a 2x4 section leaning against the upright swing bar of the left stanchion...it slots down between the two top boards, locking the stanchion closed. You can barely see that there are two small pieces of 1x2s that he screwed on as handles to be able to lift the locking board into and out of it's slot. A similar locking 2x4 board is leaning against the lower rail of the right stanchion, ready to be slotted into place.










This is the rear view of the double stanchion, with the head gates both wide open...coming to an inverted "/\". It shows how we can lock the cows in their spots, and lock the gates in place simply by dropping notched boards over the rails of the side gates, thus bracing the stanchions all the way across to the wall. It looks like there are three stalls, but the middle one is actually an open lane for the milker, complete with upended blue bucket to sit on (had a Scottish mother! We are good at making do, down here in the south, too!). In fact, this isn't quite the way we're using it. The stanchions are rather wide to accomodate a big enough head gate for our horned cows, so we have taken to chaining the back end of the first two gates together behind Katie. This effectively making the gates on either side of her run right up along her flanks in a V shape, making it impossible for her to fidget around. We can snuggle right up along her sides with total security, and it's easy for us to milk her from either side. As we've gotten more used to the milking, we've found that the mobility of those gates has been very handy, as we can swing one side away from Katie and let her heifer calf, Libby, come in to help us stimulate let down. Oh...about those gates, as the floor of our barn is clay with wood shavings and hay over, and we wanted to be sure that the stanchion was as solid as the Rock of Gibraltar, we actually mounted the gates on 4x4s that were in turn mounted with "mail box" post mounting hardware, which has a 3' steel spike that we pounded down in the ground for stability. We then lag bolted the 4x4s to the horizontal boards, to help increase their strength and rigidity. I feared we'd have a rodeo, the first time we shut Katie in, and wanted this stanchion able to take on a bucking bronco. I think it would have...but instead, I think it was the psychological strength of the stanchion that reformed our Katie Bell!











All our herd now thinks of this as "the goodie place", and jostle for a place in the line up to get to come into one or the other stanchion. We try to route them all through, periodically, give them a good brush down and some "treats" so that they are comfortable in an enclosed and controlled space. The only problem I've had with this set up is the fact that some of our animals are still young, have very small horns, and can actually pull their heads out of the head lock, and then push through the open area to one side to come out the front of the stanchion. We need to add a board there to prevent that, but that's easy enough to fix. 

Hope I didn't make this clear as mud for you. Feel free to ask questions if I have. Good luck...and we've found that a good stanchion is worth it's weight well behaved milk cows! lol


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## JulieLou42 (Mar 28, 2005)

Other stanchions I've collected...





























And this is my cow, Ginger and me 2.5 years ago...she's 3/4 GuernseyXAngus, and weight tape says she's about 400#


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## linn (Jul 19, 2005)

This site has pictures of cow ties and stalls:

http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/device/devices4.html

Here is a side picture of my setup:


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## Jan in CO (May 10, 2002)

When I was looking for plans, I found a site for the U. of Tennessee Extension service. They have a TON of different agricultural plans on their website, and they very graciously sent me copies of two stantions and two calf tables that could be made from either wood or metal. I live in Colorado, so wasn't sure they would do it, but sure helped. Now, to get it built! Jan in Co


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