Saloon Door Head gate

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dcara

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 1, 2004
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City & State/Province
East of Dallas Texas
I bought a headgate recently which has a “saloon door” type operation/catch on it. I've never seen one like this before and given that, I needed a headgate, it was only 2 years old, never used, and only $300, I bought it. Anyway it would seem that it is potentially self catching in that if the doors are opened inward to say 45 degrees then when the cow's shoulders hit them they close and lock. Then you release the catch and they open outward to free the cow. I need to build a mount for it and wanted to ask if anybody ever used one like this? What are some potential problems?

One problem I see is that if the doors are opened inward a little to wide the cow could actually push them open wider and just keep on going
 
I have one and love it. Makes it a whole lot easier to work them by myself. Mine is mounted at the end of a wooden chute. I just set it, go back and shoo the cow in and she catches herself.

Only drawback is, make sure it's closed and latched when not in use to avoid an accidental capture.
 
I have one identical to it. The only problem is the cows sometimes back out before it latches them in. If you can get the cows to move into it hard, it works great. If they hit it and back out, it is hard to get them to hit it again.

Mine is mounted to a chute I built and there is a guilotine stop gate in behind.

When the vet worked on my bull, we didn't even use the head gate. We just put him in the chute and the vet was able to do everything. I put a drop gate on the side to access vitals and that is all that was needed.
 
I have had 3 or 4 in the last 40 years. They work good. We put two 4 &1/2 inch pipes in the ground about 4 ft. then welded the gate to them . The chute sets behind the gate independent of the head gate. This works for me. Working by your self it realy helps. Hope this helps good luck
 
As other have said the work great for someone working alone. Biggest problem with them is setting it to wide and getting one locked behind the shoulders. Don't ask how I know about this. :oops:
 
i agree with the others that this type is good when working alone. unless your cows are pretty narrow, there's not much chance of them squeezing through, but there is a chance that they'll back out before it "catches". and maybe i'm just not fast enough, but the drawback i've seen is not being able to swing it back closed fast enough after a cow has gone through if there's another one following close behind her (even harder with calves).
 
dcara":2fzjyqxo said:
Anyway it would seem that it is potentially self catching in that if the doors are opened inward to say 45 degrees then when the cow's shoulders hit them they close and lock. Then you release the catch and they open outward to free the cow. I need to build a mount for it and wanted to ask if anybody ever used one like this? What are some potential problems?

It sounds like an automatic head catch. We have one, but I couldn't tell you the brand name of it. If the head catch is opened too narrow, the cows won't stick their head in. If it is opened too wide, they can go right through. It's going to take a little experimentation for you to figure out where it needs to be to be effective. Other than that, and the need to apply a little grease from time to time, we haven't had any problems with ours.
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45 degrees might be a little much. if you have to open it that much the animal is too big. :)

maybe 10-15 degrees? ;-)
 
Glad to hear that this type of catch gets mostly a thumbs up from the crowd -- especially from folks working cattle alone... I bought one just like it at auction back in February. There were two, and me and another guy bid the first one up to nearly $250 before I let him have it. I figured for sure that the second would go over that (the first of multiples are usually the cheapest at auction, it seems) but it turned out there were apparently only two of us who were willing to pay over $100 for a headcatch. I gave $110 for the second.

The first guy looked a little disgusted with the outcome, but that's the way it goes sometimes. :lol:
 
I just installed an Auto headgate at the end of a Wooden chute. My only question for you guys that have had them is not so much about catching the cow, but using the same chute/headgate to load cows onto a trailer.

When loading cows onto a trailer do you guys pre-position the doors inward with max opening setting or have the doors unlocked so that the cow body springs them outwards towards the trailer?

I can adjust how much the doors open inward (towards the chute). The maximum it leaves the door open (inward) is about 23" wide.
 
I have one of these type of headgates and I really like mine.The one that I have has 2 different adjustable headcatches, 1 is for cattle and 1 for smaller calves.I have to make sure that I have them in the right adjustment pole if I'm working a cow because if not it can sure put a tight grip on a cow's neck.Don't ask me how I know that.
 
The head gate on our old squeeze works great for someone working alone to do dehorning, giving shots, testi-checking, etc. There's two levers: outside one to open the head gate outwards, and the inside one to open inwards. The squeeze has a guillotine gate in the back. We've had a few (no more than one or two) escapees almost every year using it, but usually it's when the operator is too slow on the draw or the calf is too fast. Or both. But nonetheless, even though it's thirty-some years old, it still works like a dandy, just so long as it's kept oiled.
 
IluvABbeef":25fnj7oi said:
The head gate on our old squeeze works great for someone working alone to do dehorning, giving shots, testi-checking, etc. There's two levers: outside one to open the head gate outwards, and the inside one to open inwards. The squeeze has a guillotine gate in the back. We've had a few (no more than one or two) escapees almost every year using it, but usually it's when the operator is too slow on the draw or the calf is too fast. Or both. But nonetheless, even though it's thirty-some years old, it still works like a dandy, just so long as it's kept oiled.
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Anyone who claims to have NEVER missed an animal at the head gate has never worked very many animals. Miss a few every year myself.

Bez?
 

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