Cow/Calf Working Systems

[lukem86]

You guys that run cows and calves through your working systems...

Do you have an adjustable alley that you can squeeze down when you run the calves through?

Do you feel it is necessary?

If you dont do you wish that you did? Or how do you do it without?


Im designing a system and my concern is that they can/will get turned around in the alley and make for a train wreck.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Weaned calves are not a problem. The little fellows can be. Generally I run momma through first and I have a divider gate to hold the calf back while momma is in chute headed for the head gate. If you get him and momma both in the chute, you have problems and the little guy/gal could get hurt. I release momma when I am done with her and reset the gate. I keep momma in a holding pen just outside of the head gate and bring the little one in. At that point, he is trying to get to momma and comes into the head gate just fine. I can tag his ears, give him a shot or whatever, and then let him out and turn them both out.

I have worked cattle with people who have frames they insert in the chutes to keep the little ones from turning around. The frames are light gauge and can be lifted over the chute. I don't have frames myself.

When you are working cows with small calves, it is best not to overload the pens. Just cut a few at a time through the holding pen and chute. I generally use a cut gate and try to get the cows with smaller calves worked first and get them on out of the pen and off to safety.

 

[randiliana]

You guys that run cows and calves through your working systems...

Do you have an adjustable alley that you can squeeze down when you run the calves through?

Do you feel it is necessary?

If you dont do you wish that you did? Or how do you do it without?


Im designing a system and my concern is that they can/will get turned around in the alley and make for a train wreck.

We use the same chute for everything. It isn't adjustable. I don't think it is necessary to have an adjustable chute unless you run a lot of different sized cattle through.

We don't use the chute for tagging/banding babies, but it is used for everything from month old calves to bulls. Most of the time we run the cattle up one at a time. If we have to headgate them then there is not really any reason to fill the chute anyways, and for pregchecking I don't want another cow trying to climb over me. Same thing for tagging, you end up having to fight with the second cow to get her to back off enough to let the captured cow out. Takes less time to run them up 1 at a time. The only time we fill the chute is for vaccinating or ivomecing. Our squeeze chute will hold 3-4 weaned calves for this, and they can't turn around. Our chute will hold about 10 cows for the same thing.

 

[dun]

If one of the little guys turns around in our alley we just turn him back around to head the right way. If they're small enough to turn around once they can turn around a second time.

dun

 

[mdmdogs3]

a couple of months ago had a heifer that went down the alley backwards - she wouldn't come out so we said fine go that way and ran her thru the chute and out backwards the whole time -
she got her ivomec hinney first ;-)

we use the same system for everybody and just don't push the babies hard and as much as possible keep them separated from the bigger critters

 

[msscamp]

Our chute was adjustable, but the alley was not. For branding, castrating, and that sort of thing we used a calf table that attached to a smaller gate in the sweep tub. For vaccinating, re-tagging, etc, the calves were either ran through one at a time - with someone following them, or they were stacked in the alley tight enough that they couldn't turn around.

 

[MikeC]

You can make the alley into a "V" shape with about 12-15 inches at the bottom and calves can't turn around and cows will fit just fine.

 

[gabby]

My chute is wide enough for the babies to get turned around but it's not a big problem. I separate the mommas from the calves so they're not in the chute together. I've thought about adding a taper at the bottom of the chute but I think I'll save myself the trouble.

 

[Dusty Britches]

We are building ours now, too.

We are going to put 2 landscape timbers from the 2 foot mark down on both sides, then cover it with conveyor belting. Our therory is the cows will be able to walk through just fine b/c the timbers will be below their chest, but the calves won't have enough room to turn around. The conveyor belting will prevent injuries.

I'm working on that over the next few weeks. I hope it works.