what do you use to haul your farm animals?

[thestartupman]

What do you use to transport your animals?

[olivehill]

Which ones? Transport them to where?

As little as I must, as much as it takes - from the backseat of my car to my full livestock trailer.

[Ravenlost]

I've hauled chickens in my car...dogs and cats too.

We have a horse trailer for the horses and other animals we may get in the future, plus we still have our 1998 Yukon and a pick-up truck with hitch. We also have a 16 ft. trailer.

[Bearfootfarm]

I use a converted utility trailer.
A little square tubing and some cattle panels is all it took:

[motdaugrnds]

I use what I have at the time. The largest animals I have are a couple of 250 lb. bucks and 150 lb. does.

I brought my Nubian buck across 4 states in a box in the back of a tiny 4-cylinder car.

I brought 3 grown Nubian does home in the back of an extended van.

I use the extended van (1988) for most trips hauling animals, baled hay, wood & feed just because it is enclosed and all is protected from the weather. I use the pickup (1978) to haul most everything else (rocks, wood, etc.) when the weather is good.

[nehimama]

The cargo area of my van has seen many a goat. I've also jobbed together a rack for my S10, using stock panels.

[Callieslamb]

I too have transported llamas, sheep, and a calf in my van. Can't do that with my full-grown steer though.

[SueMc]

Goats have been hauled in the car, mostly babies picked up at the airport. We had a homemade box trailer that was great when hauling goats to the shows. We have a cornpro livestock trailer now for everything.
I do have a mule who will jump up into the back of the pickup but I never tried going anywhere with him there!

[FarmboyBill]

Ive got an isuzu that I made a set of racks for out of a cattle panel. The engine went bad in the Isuzu, I still got it and hope to find another engine for it. I got a Dodge Dakota pk and i use the same stock panel gates in it, Easy to haul goats, pigs with it. Ive got a 3/4 ton Dodge flatbed. Ive got a set of stock racks somebody made outa 1in pipe. It was made for a standard pk. I cut the back end off, the part that goes over the tail gate. I can just slide the racks on the 3/4ton and then put on the side racks of 2 X 12 X 10ft boards to keep it in place. I chain it to the front board. I lots of times use those racks to transport 3 pigs from my small garden up to the hog lot. Ill pull them up to the garden with the Cub, Swing them into line with the garden gate, then drive the pigs into it. Close the rack gate, and slowly pull the rack up into the hog lot. LOTS easier than trying to drive them up there. Finally Ive got a 1 ton Serria flatbed, and a 20ft stock trailer. Ive used it to camp in. Never used it to haul stock in. My boy has it now and is loading it up to move.

[mekasmom]

We have used car, van, truck, and once in a great while a trailer. It just depends on what we have at the time.

[springvalley]

When I first started farming trailers were just coming out, was a big improvement over trucks.I use to use a wood stock rack for the pickup alot, still have it stuck in the corner of the shed. Then we bought a used 22 ft stock trailer, used that for years. Now we have a fleet of trailers seems like, bought a new Titan stock trailer in 97, special made for my draft horses, wife brought to the table when we married a 3 horse slant Featherlite, and we now have an older two horse, for smaller jobs. We also still put a few lambs in the truck if the toppers on, easy way to haul them. Wife and sister in law drove clear to Colorado one time with truck with topper on , and hauled back three rams and a ewe. And have seen alot of people with alot of unusal ways to haul animals. Oh I also forgot, we have a crate big enough to put a pig, calf or lamb, that we put in the truck. So I guess we have many ways to haul our animals. >Thanks Marc

[travlnusa]

Bought a home-made trailer with high sides to bring calves home. When they leave, I hire a guy with a large truck and trailer that they can safely ride in.

I have done the math in buying my own true livestock trailer. For what I am paying him to haul, I could hardly cover the gas much less all the hard costs.

[DaleK]

I hire everything done. On average probably 30 calves sent to market and 15-20 cows moved every year, I can't own and license a trailer and pay gas for what the truckers here charge.

[Minelson]

3 horse slant gooseneck trailer. Love it!

[ErinP]

Depends on what we're hauling. Smaller, we have the back of a full-sized pickup. Larger, we have a 30 year old Hart horse trailer. (Our horse trailer also hauls everything else, too. Cement blocks, lumber, etc.)
Personally, I can't imagine having livestock and not having some sort of stock trailer...

[CountryWannabe]

Depends what I'm hauling. If it's small enough to fit into a little crate then I use my car. Small, zippy, great gas mileage.

2-3 goats, sheep or piglets - or a dozen square bales of hay - will fit into the cargo area of my extended van - and this is my preferred vehicle for transporting animals. It is really comfortable, gets 20+ mpg and is old enough that I don't cringe if it isn't pristine. I just put down a tarp and cover it with hay as a rule. They usually bed down happily. If just carrying one animal I have a huge wire dog crate that works great in there, or it will hold three medium large crates for juveniles if I want to do that. Those medium crates are great for chickens or ducks, too.

If I need to haul anything larger, such as a steer or my cow, or more than 2-3 smaller livestock, or full grown pigs then my daughter and I co-own a Ford F250 and a 16 or 18' stock trailer. This is my least favorite mode of transport. Not as comfortable as the van, horrible on gas, and I hate pulling the trailer. We also have a wire-panel rack that sets in the bed of the truck which holds a couple more smaller animals than the van. I have used that a couple of times...

Mary

[highlands]

We have an extended body cargo van and I'm very pleased with it as a transport. The animals are inside the shell and protected from our cold winters, the wind, rain.

The back area is a cage with cattle panel, a fiberglassed plywood floor and extra door. It mates with our loading dock. We take pigs to butcher each week using this. We have loaded as many as six finishers, sows as big as 600 lbs and two boars as big each over 800 lbs. I can't take our larger boars so they are destined to slaughter here on our farm.

The animal transport area also can take pallet loads of apple pomace, firewood and various other things. We almost always combine trips so something's going and somethings coming.

Further forward of the animal transport area is a commercial chest freezer which will hold size pigs worth of meat. In front of that is the passenger area which holds six people and a dog.

Six pigs, Six Pork, Six People and a Dog.

I don't want to get a trailer. On our mountain roads, especially in icy winter conditions, they would be too difficult to use. Previously to having the extended body cargo van we had a minivan until we wore it out and out grew it. Fortunately I found the cargo van two months earlier - we know the old van was dying. It served us well. That held two finisher pigs, sometimes three tightly. Ironically, both get the same gas mileage. Miles per pound per gallon the cargo van beats the pants off a Prius.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa

[Beeman]

What are you looking to reansport and how often do you want to take them for a ride, also how far do you plan on hauling them?
I've used an 81 Ford F-150 with a 6 cyl to either pull a trailer or haul animals in the back. i built wooden side boards with a removeable piece at the back to haul pigs and goats and for a steer I borrow a stock trailer and pull it. I don't think I've ever hauled an animal much more then 5-10mi.

[sammyd]

we haul calves and goats in the back of our truck with a topper on it. 4 hour trip is about the longest we've done.
Anything bigger we borrow a neighbors 2 hole bumper hitch cattle trailer.
We have hauled a 4 month old calf in the back of a Chevy Tracker. It wasn't any fun though.

[Haven]

This is probably a dumb question.. For those fo you who haul goats in your car...Will they pee and poo all over, or do they hold it like a dog does in a car?