cattle handling -- tarter.. powder river.. any use any?

[ddd75]

looking at tarter and powder river.. full sheeted systems. sweep tub w/ alley

cattleman by PR is around 5500.. has some more bracing, weighs a little more. little more height.. able to curve the alley


tarter is a little lighter, not as much bracing and you can only have a straight alley. 3600 for that system.

I was going to pour a slab for the entire thing.. Anyone have any experience? I'd rather save the couple grand.. the systems look pretty similar.. but no one has any around to actually look at. I don't have any money to buy some fancy system so please don't suggest those.

opinions?

 

[Brute 23]

Ranger Gate

You can custom design your pens. I have them make custom panels to go around water troughs or alleys built in to the panels. It make them a heck of a lot stronger. They have panels that pin together one panels that clamp. I prefer the clamps. It doesn't take that much longer to clamp it, it easier to do with one person, and its a lot stronger, clamped. For $3-5K you can build some nice pens. Plus, I prefer the Bud Gate over the Sweeps.

 

[branguscowgirl]

I have had both the PR sheeted system and the economy portable type. The sheeted alley and sweep are very heavy and are great if you have wild cattle. But for me it was "overkill". I sold it and bought the portable sweep and added my own PR panels and palp cage behind the chute. Sometimes I just work the calves in the sweep or alley, then cut them out through the palp gate. For what I do with mine, (halter breaking and such) I like to be able to reach into the panels as opposed to the solid walls. :2cents:
Either way PR makes a very good and sturdy system. I think that Tarter makes a lighter system.

 

[Banjo]

We have 4 different places where we getup and work cattle, a few years ago,I just built my own tubs since it was going to be very expensive buying 4 of them.
I took a 4 inch steel square pipe, measured and drilled holes for my gate hinges and set it in concrete and then hung a 8' to 10' 2'' bull gate on it.
Then set some 6x6 treated posts about 2 ft. apart on the half moon side of the tub....following the contour of the gate.
I put 5/quarter lumber on the backside of the posts.....it bends the easiest. and then nailed cattle panels to it. Or you could use wood all the way up. I made a latch for the gate that would catch everytime that it passed one of the posts.
You could do different variations of that also, but it works fine and was a whole lot cheaper.
I would rather spend the money on a good headgate working chute myself.
I don't remember the costs exactly but it was just a few hundred dollars for each tub vs. a few thousand.
I guess you could call it a poor man's cattle handling facility.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

I'd look at a WWMfg system real closely.

 

[John SD]

A few others like ForMost and Vern's around, but Stur-D owns the tub/alley market here :idea:

 

[WalnutCrest]

Good idea, Banjo.

 

[John SD]

We have 4 different places where we getup and work cattle, a few years ago,I just built my own tubs since it was going to be very expensive buying 4 of them.
I took a 4 inch steel square pipe, measured and drilled holes for my gate hinges and set it in concrete and then hung a 8' to 10' 2'' bull gate on it.
Then set some 6x6 treated posts about 2 ft. apart on the half moon side of the tub....following the contour of the gate.
I put 5/quarter lumber on the backside of the posts.....it bends the easiest. and then nailed cattle panels to it. Or you could use wood all the way up. I made a latch for the gate that would catch everytime that it passed one of the posts.
You could do different variations of that also, but it works fine and was a whole lot cheaper.
I would rather spend the money on a good headgate working chute myself.
I don't remember the costs exactly but it was just a few hundred dollars for each tub vs. a few thousand.
I guess you could call it a poor man's cattle handling facility.

I refuse to build anything out of wood because the lifespan is so disappointing. If you are handy with a torch and welder, instead of 4 seperate constructions, why not just build one tub out of metal and put it on wheels :?: :idea: You would then have the best of both worlds: true portability at the price of a poor man's cattle handling facility. The only downside I see is everyone will want to "borrow" it

Stationary tub/alley setups here are quite rare. I'd say 90%+ of store bought tubs sold are portable. Most often because when folks are using the tub it is on summer pasture a long way from home. Not many summer pastures have an existing setup to work cattle, and no one wants to build a permanent facility in a pasture they don't own.

Local place has a couple tubs they rent out on a daily basis, and lots of folks do that intead of spending $$$ for their own tub. IIRC, tub rental costs $150/day. Two neighbors who don't have a full day's worth of work to do on their own can go together for a one day charge :idea:

I had rebuilt my wood alley with green treated fir finished 2x12" lumber 10+ years ago and it needed to be rebuilt again. Neighbors who bought my place already had their own portable tub so they discontinued the wood alley and just use the tub instead. Another advantage of being able to easily move the tub in or out of the way is it makes corral cleaning or snow removal a piece of cake. IMO, portability just makes life easier :2cents:

 

[Banjo]

JohnSD I see your point. My biggest regret is using cedar posts at the time and some of them are starting to rot, because they had a lot of white on them and not enough red.
Putting each area under roof would also help. I have one of my 4 in one corner of a barn, so it will last from now on.

 

[ddd75]

went ahead and ordered the cattleman system that is fully sheeted from powder river. 6200 to my door.

 

[John SD]

JohnSD I see your point. My biggest regret is using cedar posts at the time and some of them are starting to rot, because they had a lot of white on them and not enough red.
Putting each area under roof would also help. I have one of my 4 in one corner of a barn, so it will last from now on.

Neighbor and I each bought a semi load of treated pine posts from a guy in Canada. Good looking generous dimensioned posts at what seemed like a reasonable price, especially back when the American dollar was strong compared to the Canadian dollar.

Trouble was, the treatment was no good and most of the posts rot off after 10 yrs in the ground. One of my "worst buys" ever :bang: :bang: :bang: