MORRISTOWN, Ind. – A need for a custom made cattle guard got the creative juices flowing for an Indiana farmer. 

Tim Shutt, decided to use wood. He said not a single beef cow has attempted to make it across since his homemade cattle guard made from treated lumber was put to use two months ago at his father’s small Indiana farm.

“It’ll be there for a lot of years. We just wish we had done it before,” he said. His 84-year old father, Russell, and mother, Janet, 83, now ride their ATV over the guard instead of hopping off and on the machine to open and close the eight foot wide gate to their pasture.

“We like it. We really do. It works very, very well,” she said.

Wanting to make life easier for his parents, Shutt said he started looking for a traditional prefabricated metal cattle guard but was not able to find one at the right dimensions. Shutt also felt having one custom made would be too costly.

He also considered making a metal cattle guard to specifications himself, but with a very busy schedule, looked at wood as a major time saver. With help from his father, Shutt had the cattle guard built and placed inside the opening of the gate in about six hours. He said it would have taken him three to four days to complete the same task with metal.

The cost of lumber, stone and other materials was about $1,150, he said.

Another unique feature of the cattle guard is a homemade electrified rubber mat a cow would have to step on before trying to cross. Fastened to the mat is galvanized wire mesh attached to a hot wire running from the electric fence.

Shutt said the electrified mat is probably not needed because the cattle guard alone was proving to be intimidating enough to keep the cows from even wanting to approach the open gate. It’s just there to provide an extra safeguard. “There’s absolutely no way anything is going to get out,” he said.

Cattle guards have gaps in the uncovered surface and venturing across is like stepping into the tires in an obstacle course. Shutt said the slats in his cattle guard are close enough for the tires of an ATV or tractor to navigate safely across but far enough apart to trip a cow.

The Shutt’s have nine cows they use to provide freezer beef on their 5-acre farm near Morristown. The bought the farm 22 years ago after Russell, who grew up on a farm, retired from the construction industry.

Janet said she and her husband still get around well but appreciate not having to get up to open and close the gate especially on difficult jobs like heavy lifting inside their two barns. “It wasn’t a real struggle but we can get back and forth much easier,” she said.