Important Information About the Various Types of Cattle Guards

You will find a wide variety of different types of cattleguards. Cattle guards, also known as cattle grids or stock grids, are used around the world to prevent livestock like pigs, sheep, horses and cattle from passing through the openings where roads or railways interrupt the fence line. Cattle guards are generally grids of bars, tubes or depressions in the pavement that go across the roadway and are actually very hard for an animal with hooves to cross. Seeing the grid of tubes and furrows, the livestock know they can not cross the cattle grid without risk of injury and this keeps them safely within the enclosure while vehicles are allowed to pass freely over the roadway.

Cattle guards can be made up of a variety of materials. The alternative to putting a cattle guard in is installing a gate. Using gates can be very effective at keeping stock animals corralled but is achieved at the expense of convenience for workers whose vehicles need to pass quickly through the ranch property. Cattle grids can be every bit as effective as a gate in keeping live stock within an enclosure. There is a concern that a cattle guard will not keep predatory animals out of the fenced in property. In order to address concerns like these, there are a number of different cattle grid designs.

Concrete cattle guards are among the better cattle guards out there. Concrete cattle guards are reinforced with steel rods that offer great strength. Concrete cattle guards have the added advantage of being able to resist the elements. The only downside, you might say, to concrete cattle guards is that they are more expensive to ship because of their weight.

One way to reduce these shipping costs is to use concrete cattle guard forms. A cattle guard form is a polyethylene mold that is light weight. Concrete cattle guard forms are designed so that they are set in place and then filled with concrete on site. Concrete cattle guard forms give you the advantages of concrete cattle guards with lower shipping costs.

Other kinds of cattle guards include steel cattle guards and electric cattle guards. Since they are made of steel and other materials, both can be susceptible to weather induced corrosion. The added advantage of electric cattle guards is that they do offer an extra element of protection against predatory animals.

If you wish to learn more about cattle guards you should look up manufacturers and suppliers on the Internet. You will be able to get more information about cattle guard prices and availability in your area.