Cattle Handling Systems

[brodiemilne]

What is the best brand of cattle handling system. Pros and cons ........ Thanks for any advice

My name is Brodie Milne and I'm the Marketing Director here at Arrowquip. First of all we're happy to hear all of those who are extreamly happy with Arrowquip and the engineering that's behind the innovation. Second of all, we're about to release our newest line of cattle chutes, which are, without a quesiton, the quietest manual cattle chutes ever manufactured.

I've included links to our manual chute, portable as well as our new hydraulic. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

[URL="http://arrowquip.com/products/%product_category%/q-catch-86-series-cattle-squeeze-chute/"]Arrowquip Q-Catch 86 Series[/URL]

[URL="http://arrowquip.com/products/%product_category%/portable-q-catch-86-series-cattle-handling-system/"]Arrowquip Portable Q-Catch 86 Series[/URL]

[URL="http://arrowquip.com/products/%product_category%/q-power-106-series-hydraulic-cattle-squeeze-chute/"]Arrowquip Q-Power 106 Series[/URL]

[perfecho]

Thanks for the digging up from the past....I have started the "dry run" with no head gate for calves and Kato's "let 'em stand for a bit" and find both practices to be quite useful!

[SCS]

I am going to redo my loading system. Going to build a double loading chute for both semis and stock trailers. Now does anyone have experience with bud boxes on a loading chute. I'm thinking that way or a v style. No tub. Worked with them in auction markets and they are not my favourite.

We have done that and it works well!

[DaneG]

I have been using a bud box for a few years to feed my alley for process, prey check, etc, works great as long as whoever is running it understands the concept. I also plan to reconfigure my setup to a budbox load out. One thing I have discovered is a solid sided alley does not work as nice as an open sided with a bud box.

[perfecho]

Have thought of siding in the side that the operator runs up and down on and leaving the other side open for visibility...where the cows would see other cows and where they came from......does this make sense?

[WiltonRanch]

Finally got my loading chute mostly done.
Have to cover sides in but will paint the metal first.

[perfecho]

nice!!!!!

[smcgrath76]

Have thought of siding in the side that the operator runs up and down on and leaving the other side open for visibility...where the cows would see other cows and where they came from......does this make sense?

I would do the exact opposite. If the cows can see you you can work their flight zone and as you walk back the chute they will move up. We have one chute that is solid sided with a tub at the end and it is the worst system I have ever used. Our open sided Lakeland is very fast largely because of the bud box and the fact that the cattle can see you.

For reference - close sided chute AI averages over 5 minutes per cow.
Open sided AI averages 2 minutes per cow including catching, thawing and inseminating.

On our open sided system we can easily run 90 to 100 head per hour preg checking with 2 people plus the vet.

Bud boxes are my favourite way to load cattle into a truck or chute. We use a box with feeder pens to load trucks in the yard and have trained the truckers to stay by their truck. They switch gates in the truck and tell us how many they want. It is very rare it would take more than 10 minutes to load a pot.

[perfecho]

Great, thanks Sean...I get what you are saying.... the loading bud box.....do you load single file or width of trailer? (On Ground trailer loading)

[smcgrath76]

Great, thanks Sean...I get what you are saying.... the loading bud box.....do you load single file or width of trailer? (On Ground trailer loading)

Our loading chute widths are not adjustable so cows/bulls go up single and calves usually go up in doubles.

[woodland]

What size is your bud box Sean ? We use a 12 foot tub and when loading the top deck or belly of a liner the animals have to start down the alley before you can latch the tub gate which usually happens anyways. This wouldn't be possible in a bud box would it? We are ripping out our old system and starting from scratch in a new site. We're probably keeping the same tub, alley, and squeeze but it never hurts looking at other options.
Our sidekicks that get put in the shop since "they can't help themselves " either in the corral. Invaluable in the field and bush though.

[newguy]

bought some corral panels from a online auction in Regina.Looked up the company name on them.The company that makes the is in China.Most of the new stuff in that online auction comes in right from China.