Pics of our working pens

[sidney411]

I found some pics of our pens and wanted to post them for people that are thinking about building pens to see some ideas. They are built out of 3 7/8 drill stem w/ cattle panels. Gates are all custom built out of the same materials. Gate hinges are sleeved pipe w/ grease inserts. Gate latches are spring loaded. Chute is 8 pipes tall and long enough to hold 5 cows at a time plus 1 in the working chute. We left tall pipes to later put on a roof.

 

[Alice]

Wowzer, Sidney. that's one nice set up!

That old cow looks none to happy...

Alice

 

[3MR]

Wowzer, Sidney. that's one nice set up!

That old cow looks none to happy...

Alice

Thats exactly what I was thinking. Better not let the PETA fols see that picture. Next thing you knwo they will be camping out on your lawn.

I did like the pens, good thinking on leaving them long to add a rood later. How long did it take you to build that and what did you pay per foot for the stem.

 

[McPherson Fencing]

Very Nice, looks real good n stout.

 

[sidney411]

She was just bellering because she was getting her vacs and worming.

We really only worked on them on the weekends but it took us a good 2 months to build them. We got a 18 wheeler load of pipe from Mississippi, delivered for $0.60 per ft. I think that's what it was either that or $0.80 I can't remember, it was 5 yrs ago.

 

[bigbull338]

man i love those working pens.they are built to last.thats for sure.i love the big roomy pens alleys.i have a pipe corral an i love it.

 

[IluvABbeef]

Great looking setup sidney, pipe is the best for working cattle.

So the cows go through that setup pretty smoothly, then?

 

[sidney411]

Yeah, there is actually 4 seperate pens. The big one is the one to the left in the pics where the cows are all in. All the pens have a gate into the sweep tub. I sort them out of that pen into the sweep tub and then further sort by categories: back out to pasture, wean pen, trailer, calves to be worked up/cut/tagged, cows to be worked up, ect. I REALLY like the spring loaded gates. I can swing them and they will slam shut blocking a cow if I need to. The only thing I would do different is to make a part of the chute go off into one of the pens so we could work cows/calves back into the pens instead of having to let them out after running them through the chute or try to back them out of it which can be a real problem. Nothing a little more pipe can't fix, I'm just not wanting to cut into what's already done.

 

[Mahoney Pursley Ranch]

Nice setup!

 

[KNERSIE]

Looks very good, any chance of drawing us a diagram to see the layout?

 

[BlackBaldyMan]

Nice pics, good lookin pens have lots of iron hangin off them 8)

 

[MillIronQH]

Good looking set of pens. I'd like a little more daylight under the bottom rail.Z

 

[cfpinz]

Very nice pens, you should be proud of them. Any particular reason you painted them that color? From a cow's point of view they scream "LOUD" to me.

cfpinz

 

[sidney411]

I don't want no calves crawling under them. We painted them with that alumimum paint because the guys at the hardware store said it lasted the longest - NOT. They look about like the rusted pics again now.

The rectangles are gates, the ovals are water troughs. Deffinately not to scale, but here ya go. We haven't built the feed room yet but plan to in the future.

 

[cfpinz]

One thing I'd like to see is a way to contain/sort the cattle after going thru the chute. I can sort 4 ways now, sometimes that's not enough. If you repaint it for any reason, think about a light brown or similar color. Personally I don't like all the contrasting shadows and bright surfaces the aluminum makes. I like calm animals.

cfpinz

 

[backhoeboogie]

That is a nice set up no matter what the color.

 

[KNERSIE]

Thanks alot for the diagram, other peoples setups always interests me