squeeze chutes and head gates

[sandhiller]

3 hours ago, zleinenbach said:

your wish is my command! Sitting in this chair I got to thinking about this project again. I had forgotten I had asked you guys about this right before the big change lol we don’t have very many cows (20-30) I hate to spend a lot of money because of this. But on the same hand, it only takes one to make the investment worthwhile….:

 

i’ve got enough used guard rail around here that I feel like I can make my Alley and sorting pen fairly robust. Just need to round up some gates. I found them from a supplier, I’m just unsure if they are the heavy Bill gates or economy gates.

Does the squeeze chute help out that much? or is it headgate sufficient?

Guard rail is good once it is up. You will never replace it in your lifetime. 

In my experience from using just a head gate vs a squeeze chute.

A cow will stand quieter if she is squeezed (lightly but firmly) in a squeeze chute 

Temple Grandin (CSU?) has done some studies on this. 

Quiet is appreciated by the vet when his arm is in up to his elbow. 

the "V" shape also kind of helps support them so they don't go down as often

A brisket bar also helps keep them standing

Tub is in place 

Now for the rest of the corrals..............😪

 

 

 

[zleinenbach]

been seeing only head gates for 15-2700. There are some cheaper ones out there but I am very skeptical of. Been seeing some squeeze shoots in the $5700 range.

[Sledgehammer]

I bet $2-300 of oak would go a long way. We don’t run through large numbers of cattle or use it constantly but it gets used every couple weeks and at times for several hours. At a time. Built into a door frame in the barn. Run the cattle into the barn and through the stall with the head gate. No need for a corral in that setup. All depends on the setup though. 

[Gearclash]

6 hours ago, zleinenbach said:

i’ve got enough used guard rail around here that I feel like I can make my Alley and sorting pen fairly robust.

I would advise against using guard rail in area where cattle could get crowded tightly.  The problem is that when cattle get crowded hard, they can get pretty nutty and try to climb.  A continuous smooth vertical (or near vertical if a V alley) will prevent them from getting any kind of foot hold.  Guard rail makes great fence though.  My first choice.  

[zleinenbach]

51 minutes ago, Gearclash said:

I would advise against using guard rail in area where cattle could get crowded tightly.  The problem is that when cattle get crowded hard, they can get pretty nutty and try to climb.  A continuous smooth vertical (or near vertical if a V alley) will prevent them from getting any kind of foot hold.  Guard rail makes great fence though.  My first choice.  

that’s a very good point. I didn’t think of that.

[ray54]

Several observations.

A neighbor had short steep little loading shoot, back in the days of hauling cattle in flat bed truck. It was at the edge of his barn. The cattle were in a solid walled barn not much light inside.  They were in a 12 x 30 foot area. But light would come when he opened the door. Cattle always loaded easy there.

Not knowing all the details of what Todd is telling us about at his dads barn, but would guess kind of the same. Cattle are moving to the light to get out in the open. 

 

At this time, I hate making any livestock pens with wood as steel is about the same cost and lasts so much longer. So if you where to build on the cheap, I would use a very good panel for the squeeze part of the build.

And so pictures of my corrals for a earlier post. Mostly high lighting different latches. But also several good pictures of what was the squeeze chute 80% of corrals in California had at one time. The biggest problem with this model is you can have a cow go down and you can choke them. And you need to educate the head gate operator to ALWAYS stand in front of the handle. The leaving animal can smash the handle into the body of the chute.

 

But back to redneck make do faucitis. If you look at the picture at the bottom. A standard Powder River lead up run way.   ( And as was stated by Gearclash you want the inside slick so cows cannot climb it. But you left several young helpers to weld the steel in and you run to town for more steel, and come home to find they had it on the outside. And they have no clue why your a bit upset. You can see they got part of it right, after the old man yelled at them.) But if you look close at the catwalk, you see 2 small holes at the bottom of the solid added steel. There is a corresponding hole on the other side, you slide a pipe through to stop cattle from backing up. Or coming forward and crowding the person doing preg checking. 

 

 

 

If you care to look at the rest of the picture in my old thread. We built the tub bigger than was needed for 20 foot of lead up alley.😉 But it filled the space of the old triangle pen we had there, never moved the lead up or squeeze chute. I stole the idea of the infinite closing of the tub gate from a neighbors corral. It has never failed so far. The gate is 16 feet and the 1,5 inch heavy wall tubing is not enough. At 15 years it has bit of bow. The tub will hold 12 or more 1200 lb cows. But experience has shown 6 or 7 work better, as the lead up only hold 3.

[Gearclash]

The one virtue of wood construction for cattle handling facilities is its quietness. No clanging or reverberation. 

[mader656]

Fence guy here, farming, cattle are all inherent dangerous. A few more thousand on a squeeze shoot would have paid for itself pretty quickly after a hospital visit. Check out auctions might find a old pearson for not much more than a new head catch... heck one of my customers uses a tsc brand squeeze shoot, i would not run it every day... but its good enought for 30-50head. 

The gaurd rail works for alleys or even a bud box to bring them up just make sure its small enough gaps to not cut them...

[Lazy WP]

@zleinenbachI can watch for a decent used chute and keep it here until you are ready. They are out there but you need to be ready to buy when they come up. 
I know Sandhiller has a spare 😏 but he’s greedy and won’t let go of it. 

[mader656]

2 hours ago, Lazy WP said:

@zleinenbachI can watch for a decent used chute and keep it here until you are ready. They are out there but you need to be ready to buy when they come up. 
I know Sandhiller has a spare 😏 but he’s greedy and won’t let go of it. 

Anything between here  Home kansas and you i can haul around october 4th

[zleinenbach]

31 minutes ago, mader656 said:

Anything between here  Home kansas and you i can haul around october 4th

i will die penniless between fence consulting fees and delivery charges i’d owe!!! 😁😁😁

[mader656]

1 hour ago, zleinenbach said:

i will die penniless between fence consulting fees and delivery charges i’d owe!!! 😁😁😁

Pretty cheap when im already headed that way!

[sandhiller]

4 hours ago, Lazy WP said:

@zleinenbachI can watch for a decent used chute and keep it here until you are ready. They are out there but you need to be ready to buy when they come up. 
I know Sandhiller has a spare 😏 but he’s greedy and won’t let go of it. 

Dammit Nick.................I am leaning towards putting it out in the calving pasture in a small corral I have out there. 

If there is any chute work needs done during calving, I would have working facilities out there instead of having to bring stuff the two miles home. 

I will never find a better chute than the one  I already have at home, cheaper. 

There is no way I can explain away sounding selfish😪

 

There are a lot of good used chutes out there with a lot of life left in em. 

Just need to find the one you want that is at a fair price

 

[iowaboy1965]

Making it safer and more convenient for you doesn't sound too selfish to me. A mad momma can be pretty dangerous and we want you around for a while yet too!

[Lazy WP]

45 minutes ago, sandhiller said:

Dammit Nick.................I am leaning towards putting it out in the calving pasture in a small corral I have out there. 

If there is any chute work needs done during calving, I would have working facilities out there instead of having to bring stuff the two miles home. 

I will never find a better chute than the one  I already have at home, cheaper. 

There is no way I can explain away sounding selfish😪

 

There are a lot of good used chutes out there with a lot of life left in em. 

Just need to find the one you want that is at a fair price

 

Just giving you a hard time. I totally agree with you that you will never find one that you could replace it with. 
The Filson that we bought is a decent chute and the one it replaced was junk. Pretty much traded dollars for a good one 

[Lazy WP]

@zleinenbach this is only 20 miles from me. 

[Alan Dinan]

I’ll have to get pictures of it, but I think I have one to sell for my mom. 
I have a Filson like pictured in Nick’s post. Not sure what brand the one at the farm is.

[sandhiller]

Big Iron usually has a chute or two every week for sale.

Might be a little travel involved. 

There are a couple others, this looked like the best one.

https://www.bigiron.com/Lots/For-Most450ManualSqueezeChute

 

[Jesse in WI]

On 9/16/2023 at 5:26 PM, Gearclash said:

I would advise against using guard rail in area where cattle could get crowded tightly.  The problem is that when cattle get crowded hard, they can get pretty nutty and try to climb.  A continuous smooth vertical (or near vertical if a V alley) will prevent them from getting any kind of foot hold.  Guard rail makes great fence though.  My first choice.  

This is great information that's rarely talked about.

If I may add on one more item it would be to make your solid wall taller than what the cattle can see over at all times. It's been my experience that if they can see light or see over the top of your crowding system they will try to go over or through. I almost got crushed by a cow we were trying to get through a circular crowding pen that had 5 foot high sides. Once the cow saw over the top of the fence it decided it was going through me and over the top. 

[zleinenbach]

got a price on a new stockman‘s choice. Model squeeze chute. It’s a lot cheaper than I expected. $2700 plus shipping. For the guys that have one, is there anything that you would say stay away from?