ABSTRACT
Personal preference often determines the type of facility that is chosen from a wide variety of good designs. During a long career, the author has observed that there are certain design mistakes that people keep making over and over. To maintain high welfare standards during handling requires a combination of both good stockmanship skills and well-designed facilities. The most common mistake is a hard troweled glass smooth floor installed in a facility for handling cattle. Since 2015, the author has observed several cases of substandard cheap construction. In the 1970s numerous companies built indoor beef cattle feedlots with floors constructed from concrete slats. Many of these facilities are now abandoned because the cattle got swollen joints from laying on the concrete slats. Facility can be built that is really economical, but it will require higher stockmanship skill to handle cattle both effectively and safely. The alternative is more elaborate and expensive facility that requires less stockmanship skill.
