A trial unit on a working dairy farm has passed 2,000 operations over more than 18 months without jamming. Here is what that number is made of.
UpGate is a patented, solar-powered automated farm gate that lifts electrified bungy cords overhead. Farmers operate it from up to 100 metres away and use the same opening for vehicles and cattle.
Trial farmers averaged 5 to 47 operations a day. On a dairy the laneway gateway sits at the top of that range, because it is used at every milking and every feed run.
Over a year, that is 30 to 285 hours of labour saved on a single gateway.
Labour cost calculated at $60 per hour, one minute saved per operation.
Nothing that stopped it. The runner wheels sit inside the track where mud does not reach easily, and the motor has plenty of torque with the bungy cords down low.
Cleaning has been a pump up sprayer and a brush, not a workshop visit.
One farmer chose UpGate over a $25K tractor attachment he would only use ten times a year, since he presses the remote ten times a day instead.
Another put it more simply.
“These things have saved my marriage!”
That is the part the payback table never shows. Fewer arguments about who left the gate open, and fewer wet boots at the end of the day.
What the manual gateway costs a year.
Read moreKeeping it running through winter.
Read morePhotos and video from real farms.
Read moreSend a photo of the gateway you use most and we will show you what changes.
