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Northwest Iowa | We built this in a 9 foot wide alley that runs along out holding pen. The width between the rails determines the angle that the cows will stand to you. mine is about 38 inches inside and that is about as narrow as I would recommend for mature holsteins. I can also set up a 3 foot wide foot bath in this area and run all cows through it. And much over 48 inches and a first calf heifer might turn around and run back on you. The most important measurement in my mind is the neck rail height. Too high, and they get choked, too low and they will try to jump over. My neck rail is 42 inches from the floor and the rear rail is 38". I had a second horizontal pipe welded in the rear rail to keep them from putting thier heads that way but it has since rusted off and I have never replaced it.
The head space of mine shares the space into my holding pen. I have 56 inch space for me to work behind the cow and that is narrow enough when there is more then one person working the animals. It does require a person to kind of guide the cows to turn the correct way as they are being loaded in my setup, but that is just something that I have learned to deal with.
 (Palp rail 1 (full).jpg)
 (!cid_storage_emulated_0__EmailTempImage_1_RotateImage_20210124_160011_jpg_1611525935806.jppalp rail 2 (full).jpg)
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Attachments
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 Palp rail 1 (full).jpg (257KB - 70 downloads)
!cid_storage_emulated_0__EmailTempImage_1_RotateImage_20210124_160011_jpg_1611525935806.jppalp rail 2 (full).jpg (217KB - 66 downloads)
!cid_storage_emulated_0__EmailTempImage_1_RotateImage_20210124_160029_jpg_1611525942664.jppalp rail 3 (full).jpg (206KB - 87 downloads)
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Palpation rail for dairy ideas
