The many uses of cattle rails

The Citizen's Jaco van der Merwe has fond memories of holding onto the cattle rails of his uncle's bakkie for dear life, with Lovely the collie by his side, on the farm roads of Koekenaap. It turns out, though, that these rails keep more people and dogs on bakkies than they do cattle.

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"The nationwide average tells us that 80% of the time, rails are purely used to transport farmworkers and only 20% for actual livestock. Nowadays, all the bigger farms use trucks to carry their livestock,” says Ludwig Nel, co-owner of Bloemfonteinbased Stockman Cattle Rails (Stockman).

“In some areas, they are used to carry smaller livestock and in others purely for dogs or naughty children. We have seen some interesting things, like a farmer who bought rails purely to carry flowers. And a customer from Botswana wanted rails just to keep his Jack Russells from jumping off,” he adds.

STURDY SET-UP

Stockman, founded in 1988, constructs its cattle rails from 50mm x 2mm steel tubing that is treated and painted black. The rails are not welded but rather bolted together, with their four corner poles bolted onto the back of the bakkie. A full-width swinging gate with a smaller inside gate features at the rear, with three bars connecting the rails at the top. The latter double acts as 'roof rails' to carry additional cargo and enables the structure to be wrapped with canvas.