Breeding chutes

[wisjock]

What do you guys recommend for a working chute for breeding/vaccinating...

I have heard of these dark box chutes that are used for breeding cows. Who has used/seen them and are they any good? I am looking at a tub/alley/chute system also and wondering which ones are built the best.

Thanks

 

[randiliana]

We just use a curved chute made out of plank. I have onlyused a dark box when I took the AI class. Our cattle are all pretty quiet but, if you had wilder/more excitable cattle it would probably be the way to go.

 

[jnowack]

I used a box at a friends place. He just made a frame out of tubing and fastened plywood to it and hung a peice of tarp from the ceiling to block their view back over their hip. He had a heavy chain with a hook that he pulled behind them. It worked well. I just use my working chute. Sometimes I catch heads and some stand better with just a bar behind them. I like to have the front of the chute slightly elevated to help keep the tract easier to reach.

good luck

 

[dun]

Never used one of the dark boxes. Bred them in chutes, alleyways, pinched behind a gate, a string of headlock stanchions and one tied to a tree. The stanchions didn;t work too well because they can move from side to side a whole lot faster then I can run when I'm arm is in them, the tree was even worse.

dun

 

[LonghornRanch]

Never used one of the dark boxes. Bred them in chutes, alleyways, pinched behind a gate, a string of headlock stanchions and one tied to a tree. The stanchions didn;t work too well because they can move from side to side a whole lot faster then I can run when I'm arm is in them, the tree was even worse.

dun

I bet all of those are in Dun's book of "lessons learned the hardway".

 

[sackshowcattle]

If you only have a few or working by yourself then just a shoot is fine. If you have quite a few or two people I would use a box. you can have someone loading the box your not using if set up for 2 cows or even buy your self two at a time then stopping to reload really speeds things up. If you have a tech coming out or a bunch at a time I seen one setup one time that was really nice it held 8 head with a spring loaded one piece front door. You went through the eight opened the door then ran 8 more in. It was nice but not for your adverage producer.