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ATI dedicates new handling facility

The Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute (OSU-ATI) dedicated its new beef cattle handling facility on Friday, October 12.

“And it is without question the finest facility in this area that’s been put in place, based on the principles that Temple Grandin advocates, for cattle handling, management, so as to reduce stress of the animal during processing and enhance cattle welfare,” said Dr. Jim Kinder, Interim Director at ATI.

Dr. Kinder says the new facility will not only benefit current ATI students, but it will also attract new students to the program.”

“Students are attracted to all the bells and whistles of technology,” said Kinder. “This may not be the information technology that they usually work with, but this is the current technology of cattle handling.”

Audio: Dr. Jim Kinder, Interim Director, OSU-ATI (10:20 mp3)

When describing this state-of-the-art cattle handling facility, Dr. Steve Boyles, Extension beef cattle specialist at The Ohio State University says it has all of the advancements in corral design.

“It incorporates the basic concepts of corral design,” said Boyles. “It has holding pens for cattle, this one has four, it has an ally way from those pens to the crowding tub and then finally the squeeze shoot.”

And while this cattle handling facility is designed to reduce stress on the animal, Dr. Boyles says another important aspect of the facility is for human safety.

Audio: Dr. Steve Boyles, Extension Beef Cattle Specialist, Ohio State University (7:20 mp3)