Cattle equipment fabrication

[Hardin Farms]

Hey guys, been kicking around an idea for a little while. I'm a welder by trade and have a good bit of time off.. is there any money to be made out there building cattle equipment? Custom alleys, sweeps, working systems, troughs, feeders etc... I have a lot of equipment to build such, but don't know if the demand is out there. Southeastern part of the US. Would also be interested in building custom working pens and such, maybe surplus pipe/steel supplier. If you guys have any ideas that might be in that arena, throw em out there. What say you??

 

[Bigfoot]

Hey guys, been kicking around an idea for a little while. I'm a welder by trade and have a good bit of time off.. is there any money to be made out there building cattle equipment? Custom alleys, sweeps, working systems, troughs, feeders etc... I have a lot of equipment to build such, but don't know if the demand is out there. Southeastern part of the US. Would also be interested in building custom working pens and such, maybe surplus pipe/steel supplier. If you guys have any ideas that might be in that arena, throw em out there. What say you??

The answer is yes, but I offer one suggestion........Horse people are far less frugile than cow people. Consider stall fronts, roping sleds, stripping chutes, roping chutes.

 

[Hardin Farms]

Hey guys, been kicking around an idea for a little while. I'm a welder by trade and have a good bit of time off.. is there any money to be made out there building cattle equipment? Custom alleys, sweeps, working systems, troughs, feeders etc... I have a lot of equipment to build such, but don't know if the demand is out there. Southeastern part of the US. Would also be interested in building custom working pens and such, maybe surplus pipe/steel supplier. If you guys have any ideas that might be in that arena, throw em out there. What say you??

The answer is yes, but I offer one suggestion........Horse people are far less frugile than cow people. Consider stall fronts, roping sleds, stripping chutes, roping chutes.

Great idea! I've built a couple jigs for aluminum cattle show stalls and some other show equipment. That's something I'll certainly look into. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[Ebenezer]

If you ever deal with Go Bob, see if they ever have request for a welder to install their premade parts.

 

[callmefence]

Lots of money to be made on custom permanent equipment and facilitys. But it requires alot more equipment and skills than welding. Don't forget employees, the problems and taxes that come with. Insurance etc.

As far as building things like portable panels , pens, gates etc. You can make some side money building out of your leftovers. But you cannot compete with all the outfits doing that on a large scale, like go-bob. At least not around here, that certainly might be different in the east. It seems some folks out there finally starting to realize that wood has no place in fences and pens.

 

[Hardin Farms]

Lots of money to be made on custom permanent equipment and facilitys. But it requires alot more equipment and skills than welding. Don't forget employees, the problems and taxes that come with. Insurance etc.

As far as building things like portable panels , pens, gates etc. You can make some side money building out of your leftovers. But you cannot compete with all the outfits doing that on a large scale, like go-bob. At least not around here, that certainly might be different in the east. It seems some folks out there finally starting to realize that wood has no place in fences and pens.

That's funny you guys mention GoBob.. they just set up a distribution center here close to us and I've been talking with them about becoming a dealer for their equipment and supplies. Just scared to pull the trigger right now for some reason.

And yes, for the longest pens around here have been built with wood.. then rebuilt with wood.. the rebuilt again with wood. Steel is catching on and I'm trying to get on the front end of that. Word of mouth has been good to me so far. I've built a few working pens for some of our larger cattle outfits and they've been good for business.

You see no fences around here built with continuous panels or anything steel. I put in some pipe corners and line braces for a guy not long ago and you'd have thought I was putting gold in the ground. People around here thought he was building a fence for Buffalo. I tried explaining that this was for longevity... not just strength.

 

[Rafter S]

Hey guys, been kicking around an idea for a little while. I'm a welder by trade and have a good bit of time off.. is there any money to be made out there building cattle equipment? Custom alleys, sweeps, working systems, troughs, feeders etc... I have a lot of equipment to build such, but don't know if the demand is out there. Southeastern part of the US. Would also be interested in building custom working pens and such, maybe surplus pipe/steel supplier. If you guys have any ideas that might be in that arena, throw em out there. What say you??

The answer is yes, but I offer one suggestion........Horse people are far less frugile than cow people. Consider stall fronts, roping sleds, stripping chutes, roping chutes.

Horse people are probably less frugal than cattle people, so that's probably good advice, but if you go that route get your money up front (no offense to any horse people here).