I work my deer. By this I mean I get into the yards & pens with them. I do occasionally use "protected contact" with hard antlered sambar, & if I was farming some of the larger african antelope I'd no doubt follow the same routine.
I have lane ways coming in from the south & north. The lanes are generally 8m (24ft?) wide. This width controls speed IMO ,wide & the deer move slower , narrow & they go faster. About 60m (180ft) out from the "yards" I "dog leg" the lanes & start to narrow them. I go from deer fence to chain mesh at this point as its better in "pressure". About 15m (45ft) before the two lanes meet from the different directions I start using corrugated roofing sheets (I never use shade cloth ,it's a deer killer).The lanes are 3.5m (12 ft) wide at the final point. I use chain mesh gates here because the deer will approach the "light" closer & then see that there is a corner for them to move around. A solid door will see inexperienced animals break back in the direction they came, before noticing the corner. I have four "outside yards" These are 7x3.5m & have draughting doors in each corner. I can break down largish mobs of deer & do most of the draughting/sorting into groups out here. These yards are all walled with 2.4m high corrugated iron & everything is steel (termites are a problem, if I leave timber, like a shovel handle on the ground it will be hollowed out in just over a week).
After resting the deer I break them down into groups & run the ones I want into the shed. The shed is 14m X 10m. There is a central lane way 14mx 1.5m, ceiling height is 2.4m. I have four 3.5 X 3.5 rooms on the right. These have draughting doors & the ones opening into the lane way are 1.5m which means I can also use these doors to draught from left to right in the shed & break this lane into 1.5X 2m pens. I sometimes drench & tag red hinds, etc, in these, I get four or five in at a time & squeeze in with them. 1.2m off the ground I have 50mm (2inch) horizontal pipe/bars forming the walls between these rooms & into the lane way in the two front rooms. IMO the deer settle much faster when they can see myself & the other deer moving around. My "work room" 7mx 5m also has these bars facing into the lane way. This is on the front left side of the lane way. It has the drop floor crush & weighting scales & a concrete floor. The deer go through the room via crush & scales but not into the room proper. It has a sink, benches, storage etc.
My dark room/rooms are on the back left It can basically be opened into one large 7x5m room or broken down into 4 smaller ones (I think I have 24 doors in this section alone). I have my load out ramp in the back left section & the ramp up to the crush in the front left section. Doors could be use to push, but I find that they voulentarily move to the opened door when i am in with them. The ceilings are all 2.4m high & the odd inexperienced deer will jump but that isn't too much of a problem in these yards as I keep the rooms small & usually only group a dozen or so deer together when inside.
I can do everything I need to do with the deer by myself, I have worked lots of different species from european to asian through yards of similar principles to these. The biggest fault I find is that folks use a draughting circle (old school 70's & 80's) which is 6m & the deer just run in the circle without entering the open door, this requires two people & is exhausting for the deer & handlers, particularly when doing several hundred deer at a time. I think that 3.5m is about the largest room you want if by yourself. I have never used a tunnel system like you guys do & am a bit confounded by it, but keen to learn more.
Sorry if this is off track but some may find it interesting to see how we work our deer down here, & there might be some trivia which is useful.
Sharkey
