Building a cattle chute...

[jcgoldie]

Hello all I have a request for advice from anyone who has built their own chute. I can't afford an entire prefab chute right now but I have bought an automatic headgate and I plan to make the rest myself. I am thinking that Ill sink a couple 6x6s in the front to bolt the HG to, then 2 more either 6 or 8 feet back and hinge tube gates on either side one opening forward and one at the back. I'm not sure if 8' gates would be better or if I should use 6 footers and then hang a small wooden access door to the other side of the post like the prefab chutes have. My cows are polled herefords and angus and black baldies... around 15-20 head is the most I keep... 6 feet would probably be long enough but I dont want those posts to be in the way if i have to get around their rear. They aren't wild cows at all I can walk up to them anywhere in the pasture so my facilities arent heavy duty. Any suggestions from anyone thats made their own in a similar way would be appreciated. Thanks!

[agmantoo]

I suggest that you read and watch some of the videos on the internet regarding Medina Hinge. If I were going to fabricate something such as you mentioned I would try to blend the head gate and the medina hinge together.

[COWS]

I've built a few chutes and made most of the mistakes.

First, is your gate and chute going to be in a barn or some shelter? If inside, things are simplified as to materials. If outside, the chute needs to be made from a strong, decay resistant wood, like white oak. If you have oak trees to cut the expense problems are greatly simplified. Find sawmill, cut trees, take to sawmill, have 2 x 6s sawed. Treated pine 2x6s probably would work but expensive.

If inside can use any type of 2 inch thick lumber, or less for part of the run. Cows look for daylight to escape through, so an ideal chute material is plywood. 1/2 thick would work if you have the posts close together, like 4 feet apart.

Whatever the material, the chute should be 6 1/2 feet high, sides maybe 2 feet apart, that depends on the size of animals you are going to work. For 300 or so pound calves, you could collect some old pallets and line the chute with them, UP TO THE CROWDING PART OF THE CHUTE, 6 FEET OR SO BEHIND THE HEAD GATE. Calves will try to climb the walls when in the head gate and may catch their feet between the boards in a pallet. I made spacers of 2x4s and plywood to take up the space behind the head gate so as top narrow the working area down.

Is you head gate the type that opens up to let the cow escape to the front or do you plan to let them back up from the head gate and escape to the side. If to the side, what you are suggesting should work but it needs to be wide enough for the cow to get out easily. Commercial gates look to be 5 or 6 feet long. The fastening system will have to be very strong. Your tame cows won't be tame in the headgate.

You mentioned using tube steel gates. IMO most of them are not strong enough and the cows will try to get their head in the openings and will tear the gate up. Lining them with plywood might work, but they really need to be welded from 1 1/2 inch black iron or galvanized pipe. Look over a commercial one carefully.

I assume you have plans for making access to the working chute. It helps if it is next to and area that the cows regularly pass through with a gate to shift them into the working chute.

I've probably forgotten something so post back if you have questions.

COWS

[G. Seddon]

If you search the Cattle Forum here using "loading facility," you'll come across a couple of threads with a lot of info and some pictures (end of October, beginning of November). Try that.

[COWS]

Went out and measured chute. This one is 2 feet wide, needs to be a little wider for large cows. The squeeze chute was given to me by a friend after he bought new Powder River equipment. He had it made from an old football goal post by a local weldor. Length- 90 inches, width 28 inches which was too wide for the calves I was working so I made spacers as mentioned above which narrowed it to 18 inches. Originally it had a homemade head gate which I removed and replaced with a Priefort automatic gate which I haven't been able to make work automatically, but I haven't really tried. Originally it sat flat on the ground with the cows feet on the ground, as you say you are planning. He had large posts of some type around it to keep the cows from picking it up. I wanted it to be more portable so I welded supports in the bottom and floored it with 1 1/2 inch thick oak, bolted to the supports. I nailed 1 x 4 cross pieces so the cows could get traction on the bottom a foot or so apart.

The head gate lets the cows escape from the front. The only disadvantage to that type is that the cows are hesitant to stick their head in the gate after being caught and have to have a little persuasion and waiting on them.It would be perfectly possible to make a side escape gate, but this would weaken the structure. Anyway, it has worked fine so far.

If it's not clear, with the floor built in the cows are working against the whole structure instead of trying to push against the ground and lift the whole thing up.It just sits quietly on the ground while the cows are worked. There are holes at the back to slip pipe in behind the cow to keep her from backing up.

I like the idea of having the whole thing self contained so it can be moved if necessary. Otherwise it would require a minimum of 4 posts, 8 feet long with 2 feet in the ground and I'm not sure the cows couldn't move them around.

COWS

[ramiller5675]

My working pens are built out of steel pipe and sucker rod, and are basically just two pens with a central 90 degree crowding tub that goes into a 16' long chute with a headgate.

The 16' long chute has steel posts every 4', with a 4 foot gate right behind the headgate. I can open the headgate either outward to let the cow walk through the headgate, or inward to let the cow back up and exit though the gate. I've never had a problem with a cow having trouble getting out of that gate, they simply follow their heads and flow out of the chute.

The chute is 30" wide, which is about the right width for cows, but a calf can almost turn around in that width, so I've been meaning to make the bottom a little narrower to fix that problem. I'm just planning on making the bottom 16" or so about 24" wide, which means the cows should still fit.