advice on a cheap chute

[forrest]

I have a very small operation. More of a hobby than anything. 7 acres and 5 head. My dad who is retired and nearing seventy recently attended AI school to help my relatives in another state with their commerical ranch. He is thinking of doing AI on a part time basis for hobby farmers in the my area most of which do not have facilities. The thought would be they haul them to my place since my dad lives in town. I can't imagine this ever being large scale or ever more than a pickup trailer load at a time. I don't see him doing this a lot mainly as a hobby and something to keep him busy.

I am building some really small corrals, raceway, chute to better be able to handle my cows and for him to be able to do his thing here. I am building this on my dime so I want to do it as cheaply as possible but at the same time I want to at least halfway do it right so he does not overwork himself at his age or get hurt as I travel a lot for work and may not be here to help him all the time. I have thousands of feet of oilfield pipe here and am going to weld up the corrals, crowding tub, alley but was looking to buy a chute. I see I can get a priefert S01 for $2000 and palpation cage for about $500. Tractor supply has a county line brand chute for $1800. Would either of these work fine or is there something better in the price range? I really don't know a lot about this stuff but want to help him out.

 

[HOSS]

I have a small operation of only 30 head. I have a Behlen Country model from the local Co-Op. It is a mid quality model that works very well for my size operation. I A.I. all the time and I do not use a palp cage. I just have a swing door into the alley behind the chute. I run the cow in and slide a board through the bars of the squeeze chute so they can't kick backward....though they rarely do. I think the squeeze and headgae combo was about 1,500 thereabouts.

 

[Anonymous]

I know you didn't ask, but I'd be real leery of bringing cows from all over the place to mine. You never know what they might bring in and pass on to yours. Then there's issue of your liability if something happens to them while at your place. Maybe a portable squeeze would be a better idea, then your pops can go to the customer instead.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

I know you didn't ask, but I'd be real leery of bringing cows from all over the place to mine. You never know what they might bring in and pass on to yours. Then there's issue of your liability if something happens to them while at your place. Maybe a portable squeeze would be a better idea, then your pops can go to the customer instead.

I agree. Priefert is good quality.