WestfaliaSurge’s new CowMander 600 and CowMander 700 series of automatic crowd gates provide some great new features for successful milking. The robust steel tube construction of the crowd gates is well suited for today’s cows, and the safe operating electro-hydraulic drive provides different speeds for moving forward and backward. As an option, an automatically operating manure scrapper can be installed in both versions (CowMander 640/740). The CowMander 600 series is suitable for use in holding areas with widths of six to eleven metres and lengths of up to 35 m. The CowMander 700 series has widths ranging from eleven to fifteen metres. Installed heights are a low 2,600 millimetres for CM 600 and 2,850 mm for CM 700.

An electro-hydraulic drive runs both sides in synchronisation. It is a non-slip, non-wearing and energy-saving system. The single-action hydraulic cylinder is responsible for raising and lowering the crowd gate, making the segregation of the animals into groups very easy. In addition, the extremely stable and low-maintenance technology keeps the operation costs down.

The robustly constructed gates are made of long-life, hot galvanised steel tubes. Thanks to its animal friendly design, the CowMander series always ensures that the cows are handled gently. Slight pressure is applied to the soft part of the cow in order to encourage her to move forward (the gate’s own weight actually does this). Integrated safety switches ensure a very high level of operating safety, and the drive system automatically moves backward one meter if the resistance exceeds a certain level.

The new crowd gates can be installed with a optional manure scrapper, giving the holding area a thorough automatic clean.