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Cattle grid
A cattle grid – also known as a stock grid in Australia; cattle guard, or cattle grate in American English; vehicle pass, or stock gap in the Southeastern United States; Texas gate in western Canada and the northwestern United States; and a cattle stop in New Zealand English – is a type of obstacle used to prevent livestock, such as sheep, cattle, pigs, horses, or mules from passing along a road or railway which penetrates the fencing surrounding an enclosed piece of land or border. It consists of a depression in the road covered by a transverse grid of bars or tubes, normally made of metal and firmly fixed to the ground on either side of the depression, so that the gaps between them are wide enough for an animal's feet to enter, but sufficiently narrow not to impede a wheeled vehicle or human foot. This provides an effective barrier to animals without impeding wheeled vehicles, as the animals are reluctant to walk on the grates.
The modern cattle grid for roads used by automobiles is said to have been independently invented a number of times on the Great Plains of the United States around 1905–1915. Before that period, a similar device for railroads was in use at least as early as 1836; a stone stile was used in Britain as far back as pre-Roman times. An article in Texas Monthly claims that the "first recorded use of a cattle grid for nonrail traffic" occurred in 1881 in Archer County, Texas, on the stagecoach road between Archer City and Henrietta.
Cattle grids are usually installed on roads where they cross a fenceline, often at a boundary between public and private lands. They are an alternative to the erection of gates that would need to be opened and closed when a vehicle passes, and are common where roads cross open moorland, rangeland or common land maintained by grazing, but where segregation of fields is impractical. Cattle grids are also used when otherwise unfenced railways cross a fenceline. Cattle grids are common worldwide and are widespread in places such as Australia, the Scottish Highlands, or the National Parks of England and Wales. They are also common throughout the Western United States and Canada. In the United States, they are often used on Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service land, but are also used on paved roads and entry and exit ramps of the Interstate Highway System in rural areas. In Lapland, cattle grids are also used to prevent free-range reindeer from entering fenced areas such as road areas or lumber yards or crossing international borders.
Almost all cattle grids are built around a grid. Most include a pit dug along a fence line, a base for the grid to rest on, and wings to connect the guard to the fence. Since many guards were or are home-made and to some degree idiosyncratic, a wide variety of designs exist. Designs may vary with local conditions. Materials used for construction of a cattle grid depend partly on the weight it must bear.
A study of the bars of traditional cattle grids in the Flint Hills of Kansas found that 80 percent were made of pipe, while smaller percentages were made of railroad rails, I-beams, planks, and other materials. The size of the bars varied from 38 to 165 millimetres (1+1⁄2 to 6+1⁄2 in); the spaces between bars varied from 44 to 203 millimetres (1+3⁄4 to 8 in); the number of bars per grid varied from 4 to 22. Grids differed in length from 2.4 to 9.1 metres (7+3⁄4 to 30 ft) and in width from 1.0 to 3.0 metres (40 to 120 in), while the pits beneath grids were 0.0 to 2.5 metres (0 to 98 in) deep.
Cattle grids, as they are called in Great Britain, Ireland, and South Africa, are known by a wide variety of other names in other parts of the world. In the United States, they are cattle guards. Mata burro ('donkey killer') is the preferred name in Brazil and Venezuela, while guarda ganado ('cattle keeper') is what they are called in Argentina. Alternatives in the United States include car crossing, auto gate, corduroy gate, stock gap, cattle pass, run-over, and many others. Canadians use pit gate, vehicle pass, and Texas gate, as well as cattle guard, which in Canada refers mainly to guards at railway lines.
Cattle grids made entirely or mostly of concrete have existed since the 1940s. Individual ranchers have often constructed their own, sometimes using plans developed in the 1940s. In the 21st century, a set of plans for do-it-yourself guards made of wood and concrete are available via the web site of the Missouri Alternatives Center at the University of Missouri in the US. Commercial precast concrete versions are also available; Smith Cattleguard Company, based in Virginia, sold more than 15,000 of them between 1960 and 1980. Manufacturers also produce commercial polyethylene forms with reinforcing rods. Placed in or on the ground and filled, a finished cattle grid with 4,000-pound-per-square-inch (28 MPa) concrete reinforced with 5⁄8-inch (16 mm) fiberglass (GFRP) rebar can support vehicle loads of up to 32,000 pounds (15 t) per axle.
University Lands, which manages land and mineral interests for a foundation supporting the University of Texas and Texas A&M University systems, publishes do-it-yourself manuals for three sizes of cattle grids with grids made of steel pipes. The manuals include schematic drawings as well as accompanying instructions. Commercial guards made of steel are also available from multiple companies.
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Cattle grid AI simulator
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Cattle grid
A cattle grid – also known as a stock grid in Australia; cattle guard, or cattle grate in American English; vehicle pass, or stock gap in the Southeastern United States; Texas gate in western Canada and the northwestern United States; and a cattle stop in New Zealand English – is a type of obstacle used to prevent livestock, such as sheep, cattle, pigs, horses, or mules from passing along a road or railway which penetrates the fencing surrounding an enclosed piece of land or border. It consists of a depression in the road covered by a transverse grid of bars or tubes, normally made of metal and firmly fixed to the ground on either side of the depression, so that the gaps between them are wide enough for an animal's feet to enter, but sufficiently narrow not to impede a wheeled vehicle or human foot. This provides an effective barrier to animals without impeding wheeled vehicles, as the animals are reluctant to walk on the grates.
The modern cattle grid for roads used by automobiles is said to have been independently invented a number of times on the Great Plains of the United States around 1905–1915. Before that period, a similar device for railroads was in use at least as early as 1836; a stone stile was used in Britain as far back as pre-Roman times. An article in Texas Monthly claims that the "first recorded use of a cattle grid for nonrail traffic" occurred in 1881 in Archer County, Texas, on the stagecoach road between Archer City and Henrietta.
Cattle grids are usually installed on roads where they cross a fenceline, often at a boundary between public and private lands. They are an alternative to the erection of gates that would need to be opened and closed when a vehicle passes, and are common where roads cross open moorland, rangeland or common land maintained by grazing, but where segregation of fields is impractical. Cattle grids are also used when otherwise unfenced railways cross a fenceline. Cattle grids are common worldwide and are widespread in places such as Australia, the Scottish Highlands, or the National Parks of England and Wales. They are also common throughout the Western United States and Canada. In the United States, they are often used on Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service land, but are also used on paved roads and entry and exit ramps of the Interstate Highway System in rural areas. In Lapland, cattle grids are also used to prevent free-range reindeer from entering fenced areas such as road areas or lumber yards or crossing international borders.
Almost all cattle grids are built around a grid. Most include a pit dug along a fence line, a base for the grid to rest on, and wings to connect the guard to the fence. Since many guards were or are home-made and to some degree idiosyncratic, a wide variety of designs exist. Designs may vary with local conditions. Materials used for construction of a cattle grid depend partly on the weight it must bear.
A study of the bars of traditional cattle grids in the Flint Hills of Kansas found that 80 percent were made of pipe, while smaller percentages were made of railroad rails, I-beams, planks, and other materials. The size of the bars varied from 38 to 165 millimetres (1+1⁄2 to 6+1⁄2 in); the spaces between bars varied from 44 to 203 millimetres (1+3⁄4 to 8 in); the number of bars per grid varied from 4 to 22. Grids differed in length from 2.4 to 9.1 metres (7+3⁄4 to 30 ft) and in width from 1.0 to 3.0 metres (40 to 120 in), while the pits beneath grids were 0.0 to 2.5 metres (0 to 98 in) deep.
Cattle grids, as they are called in Great Britain, Ireland, and South Africa, are known by a wide variety of other names in other parts of the world. In the United States, they are cattle guards. Mata burro ('donkey killer') is the preferred name in Brazil and Venezuela, while guarda ganado ('cattle keeper') is what they are called in Argentina. Alternatives in the United States include car crossing, auto gate, corduroy gate, stock gap, cattle pass, run-over, and many others. Canadians use pit gate, vehicle pass, and Texas gate, as well as cattle guard, which in Canada refers mainly to guards at railway lines.
Cattle grids made entirely or mostly of concrete have existed since the 1940s. Individual ranchers have often constructed their own, sometimes using plans developed in the 1940s. In the 21st century, a set of plans for do-it-yourself guards made of wood and concrete are available via the web site of the Missouri Alternatives Center at the University of Missouri in the US. Commercial precast concrete versions are also available; Smith Cattleguard Company, based in Virginia, sold more than 15,000 of them between 1960 and 1980. Manufacturers also produce commercial polyethylene forms with reinforcing rods. Placed in or on the ground and filled, a finished cattle grid with 4,000-pound-per-square-inch (28 MPa) concrete reinforced with 5⁄8-inch (16 mm) fiberglass (GFRP) rebar can support vehicle loads of up to 32,000 pounds (15 t) per axle.
University Lands, which manages land and mineral interests for a foundation supporting the University of Texas and Texas A&M University systems, publishes do-it-yourself manuals for three sizes of cattle grids with grids made of steel pipes. The manuals include schematic drawings as well as accompanying instructions. Commercial guards made of steel are also available from multiple companies.