cattle bump???

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wantminimore

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A couple of friends of ours just got back from a trip to Texas and New Mexico and had lots of pics to share. One of many was a long dirt road and they said it had a bump sort of like a speed bump but was a cattle bump. I've read a long time ago what that was but i can't remember now, can someone help me out with what this is and what it's for? Thanks
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Leslie
 
Possibly a cattleguard? Was it like a big steel grate set in the road?

A cattleguard is a steel "grate" set in the road along a fenceline to keep cattle from going across it, but allows cars to go through by driving over it. Usually used in place of a gate in a fence where there is too much traffic to make opening and closing a gate feasible.

http://www.barnworld.com/sa/c/Cattle_Guards_3434.htm
 
Possibly a cattleguard? Was it like a big steel grate set in the road?

A cattleguard is a steel "grate" set in the road along a fenceline to keep cattle from going across it, but allows cars to go through by driving over it. Usually used in place of a gate in a fence where there is too much traffic to make opening and closing a gate feasible.

http://www.barnworld.com/sa/c/Cattle_Guards_3434.htm
That's what I was thinking too, but then they said it was like a speed bump, so I assumed it was a bump they saw in the photos??
 
Depending on the cattleguard, some of them can be quite a bump!
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This has me scratching my head!! As babygoose says, out here in ranch country, the 'cattleguard' is pretty common..where a road crosses a fence line, you dig down a couple of feet or so across the road, then install, over that 'pit", something that is like a group of parallel metal bars that run at right angles to the road,as:

________lllll__________

_______ lllll__________ (imagine that there's no 'break' in the groups of 5 closely-spaced lines)

lllll

I have seen them made out of pieces of railroad track; they are spaced a few inches apart--they are usually installed as a single welded-together 'unit'(HEAVY, as you might imagine!) Often, at each end there is a welded, inverted "/\" of pipe,and the fence is attached to/goes on from that. There will always be a gate at one end of a cattle guard, to accomodate riders/others who can't drive over it on wheels! Cattle aren't likely to try to cross a cattle guard, as they fear losing their footing in it(as indeed, they would!)--horses usually won't try to cross, either, BTW--unless they figure out how to JUMP it! (Cattle aren't much for jumping, at least WIDTH!)

In a lot of places in this flat old country out here, there may be a 'build-up' of the soil-a kind of 'berm'-where a cattle guard is installed, for a couple of reasons--so when it DOES rain, that the 'hole' under the CG won't fill up and flood, but the water can 'drain away', OR, to help deter rainwater from 'running' endlessly across the 'flat' and causing erosion. So maybe, THIS is what your friends refer to?? I have NEVER heard of a 'cattle bump'....! I can testify that if you drive across most cattleguards too fast, you WILL feel quite a BUMP, though!

Margo(who has spent well-enjoyed time horseback, gathering cattle across ranch country, and encountering LOTS of cattleguards!)
 
Thanks for all of the replies
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I will ask them for a better description of what the saw and went over but I do think you are all correct in what my friends saw. Thanks!!!

Leslie

By the way, they said if we ever go on a vacation, to go to New Mexico and Texas, they were both very beautiful and the pics they brought home doesn't do the land justice.
 
I'm guessing they are cattle guards leslie. they are used it seems in Most states BUT ours..not sure why (might be that plowing over them may be an issue i dunno) ! lol i've seen them used with horses in kentucky only modified so they are safer for horses using metal tubing tubing. Usually straight cattle guards can be an issue because if a horse tries to walk over them they'll stick a leg down through and break a leg. I"ve often thought about doing a pipe one here!

My parents are living in New Mexico for the next year or so.. i'm thinking about making a trip out at some point. I know they've been exploring and have told me about a few neat places but otherwise i know very little about NM.
 
Yup, it was a cattle guard. I had read about them quite a long time ago now and couldn't remember just what they were, thanks for the help.

Hillary, I bet plowing over them would be quite an issue. It sounds like NM is the place to be right now, lol. In some places in ME it looks like Alaska
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Leslie
 
I'm guessing they are cattle guards leslie. they are used it seems in Most states BUT ours..not sure why (might be that plowing over them may be an issue i dunno) !
I don't think the plowing is the issue because here in the 'Great White North' we have an abundance of snow and ice but ranchers still use them. They are quite common in some areas where it is not open range and they must confine their cows to their own land. It is much simpler to have a cattle guard than have to open and close a gate particularly when the snow gets deep. I don't care for them because altho cows avoid them I've seen alot of horses that learn to pick their way across. The risk of them slipping between the bars and breaking a leg is enough to give me nightmares.
 
yeah my mom and dad take great pleasure in calling me and informing it it's 70/80 degree's there every few days!!!
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i'm just sooo ready for winter to be done!
 

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