Recommended Animal Handling Guidelines and Audit Guide

Recommended Animal Handling Guidelines and Audit Guide 2007 EditionRecommended Handling Facility Layout – This diagram illustrates a modern cattle stockyardand chute system. Animal movement is one-way and there is no cross traffic. Each long narrowpen holds one truckload. The animals enter through one end and leave through the other. Theround crowd pen and curved chute facilitate movement of cattle to the stunner.Facility Layout – Modern cattle facility with many good features. The unloading ramps have a10-foot (3 meter) level dock for the animals to walk on before they go down the ramps. Each unloadingpen can hold a full truck load. Unloading pens are recommended for both pig and cattlefacilities to facilitate prompt unloading. Long, narrow diagonal pens eliminate sharp corners andprovide one-way traffic flow.The round crowd pen and curved single file chute take advantage of the natural tendency of cattleto circle. A curved chute is more efficient for cattle because it takes advantage of their naturalcircling behavior. It also prevents them fromseeing the other end while they are standing inthe crowd pen. A curved chute should be laidout correctly. Too sharp a bend at the junctionbetween the single file chute and the crowdpen will create the appearance of a dead end.In fact, all species of livestock will balk if achute looks like a dead end.As a guideline, the recommended radii (lengthof crowd gate) are: Cattle, 12 feet; (3.5 m)pigs, 8 feet (2.5 m) and sheep, 8 feet (2.5 m).The basic layout principles are similar for allspecies, but there is one important difference.Cattle and sheep crowd pens should have aA well-designed, curved chute with solidsides for cattle.funnel entrance and pig crowd pens must have an abrupt entrance. Pigs will jam in a funnel. Acrowd pen should never be installed on a ramp because animals will pile up in the crowd pen.If ramps have to be used, the sloped portion should be in the single file chutes. In pig facilities,level stockyards and chute systems with no ramp are most effective.14AMIHandlingSlaughterGuidelines07.1AMIJune 11, 2007