Loading Ramp Plans

[JAS]

We have 2 cows (Highlands with horns) and 2 steers and really are not set up for working them. I would like to build a loading chute/ramp for them that would be portable. Plans?

We also need ideas for small/cheap corral to get them to the ramp from the pasture. The gate is in the corner of a high tensile fence with 3 hot lines. We had one of the steers go through that last year while trying to load, so we wound need a three sided type of corral. Any ideas?

Thanks.

[Karin L]

Actually, for you, you don't really need a loading chute, since you have a small number of cattle. So you might be better off with using a goose-neck trailer for hauling instead. BUT, if you so insist on having a loading chute, then so be it.

Cattle move better directly from the crowding pen to the loading chute, rather than moving through a long working chute. Desirable characteristics for a loading chute include curved approach, solid sides, telescoping side panels, self-aligning dock platform or bumper, and circular crowding area.Th e slope of a permanently installed cattle ramp should not exceed 20 degrees. The slope of a portable or adjustable chute should not exceed 25 degrees.

For loading chute:
Width: 26"
Minimum length: 12'
Maximum rise: 3.5'
Radius of a curved chute: 12 - 17'
Spacing of 1 x 2-in. hardwood cleats: 8

High tensile wire fence, in my opinion, should not be used for loading/handling animals. You need a solid board/steel fence (holding area/crowding alley) to work them in, and since your going to build a portable loading chute, your better off with building a whole separate pen (FOUR sided, not three) that's not connected to your HTW fence in anyway. So a holding pen of about 12' x 12' should be sufficient, then have a holding alley that's about 10' wide connected to the holding pen. The end of the alley, on which ever way you plan, would start sloping inwards toward the opening of the loading chute, with a gate at the end of the beginning of the tapering alley.

My two cents.

[momanto]

We Have Formal Pens Here At The House. But We Also Have Two Outlying Pastures. No Easy Way....we Built Small Holding Pens At Each Of Them Out Of Telephone Poles And Cattle Panels. At The Top Of Each Panel We Put 2"x6'"x ? [distance Between Poles To Reinforce.]

In One Pen With Made A Chute Lane Coming Off Of It With The Same Materials. Put A Walk Gate On That End. Near The Ground, Put A Board Across And Piled Up Heavy Dirt Or Limestone Marl About As Deep As We Could And Still Open The Walk Gate. That Gives The Cows A Step-up To Get Into The Trailer. To Unload....we Just Unload Them In The Pasture Anywhere, Or You Could Unload At The Shute Lane.

In The Other Pen We Made The Shute Lane Out Of Panels Taken Down From A Bp Gas Station. They Were About 3feet X 12 Feet...like A Blend Of Metal And Plastic Stuff...used Telephone Poles Again And The Board Across The Top......walk Gate At End.....lanes Were About 4 Feet Wide.

My Usb Port On My Computer Is Goofy Or I Would Take A Picture For You......

[JulieLou42]

Look here for all sorts of cattle plans...they also have dairy cattle plans. I remember seeing chute plans among them.

http://www.cps.gov.on.ca/english/frameindex.htm

[arcticow]

Save the time, labor & money. Break 'em to a feed bucket, gentle 'em enough to at least halter-break the cows. If they stand tied & lead, steers will follow. Gentle cattle take a little extra time and effort, but you save that in spades. If you can tie 'em there just ain't much need to haul 'em to get them worked. Pasture cattle don't have to be wild unlessa you just like the thrill of cowboying.

[JulieLou42]

What I use for a loading chute is pretty simple: back my p.u. truck's tailgate into one of our embankments, walk them up the embankment, into the truckbed. Of course, there's a bowl of their grain ration in there waiting for them...hah!