Squeeze Chute

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MLCLARK

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Sometime soon I will need to buy or want to buy a squeeze chute. I am located in East Texas and will have at the most 15 to 20 cows. I would like some advise on purchasing a squeeze chute where I will get the most for my dollar without over spending. I have read post on wooden chutes, with head gates, but I would like something to be a little more safe with my inexperience with handling cows. Thanks.
 
IMO they are all over priced. I purchased one for 300 dollars at a farm sale. Really works well. I got a second new. It was an SO4 Preifert brand. Probly one of the most expensive out there. But for me it was worth it becasue I can work my animals by my self with it. You usually get what you pay for.
 
Scotty":1falot3m said:
IMO they are all over priced. I purchased one for 300 dollars at a farm sale. Really works well. I got a second new. It was an SO4 Preifert brand. Probly one of the most expensive out there. But for me it was worth it becasue I can work my animals by my self with it. You usually get what you pay for.
My brother has a SO4 and it is great to work with. My wife can operate it with ease. I have a Top Hand double squeeze that probably weighs about twice as much but my wife can not operate by herself. They both work great for me but if I had a do over I'd get the SO4.
 
Don;t know which one is the Priefert S04, we have the economy model wit han automatic headgate. Works great, but if you have really big continental cows it may not. It takes our 1600 lbs cow easily but the old Granny has problems even those she's lighter because she's so darn wide.
 
I wasn't thinking in my first post that I needed to tell what type of cattle. The cows are Brangus with a Angus bull. Glad you brought it up. Very helpful that you brought it up. Thanks.
 
MLCLARK":3fv4pbpu said:
I wasn't thinking in my first post that I needed to tell what type of cattle. The cows are Brangus with a Angus bull. Glad you brought it up. Very helpful that you brought it up. Thanks.

They'll work fine in the Preifert economy chute. It's just the ultrawide bodys that have problems. If they'll fit fairly easily down a 29 inch wide alley they fit the chute ok
 
Our cattleman's assoc. has a Powder River Value Chute with the manual headgate it works pretty well I think the chute was around $1500 and I forget what the trailer costs. The more expensive chute is called the XL and it costs a good bit more.
 
We have a For-Most 450 with the manual headgate. All the vets around here recommended it. It's strong and well built, but it's noisey. We ran a group of heavies thru last weekend and had a couple that had trouble getting thru it at the widest setting. But I like wide girls.

cfpinz
 
I have a preifert and have been very happy with it.

I'd think carefully about the powder river value chutes. Here's the line of concern from their website.
The value chute is not designed for bulls or cows that weigh over 1100 lbs.

That was enough to scare me off when I bought mine.
 
I recently purchased a Priefert SO4. Yesterday was the first time to work cows since I bought it. We ran about 40 head through and I was very pleased. My dad bought a Filson about two years ago and I felt that things were a lot easier on us and the cows compared to the traditional headgate only method. Back to the Priefert, I really like the scissor gates, both front and back. The back gate opens and closes quickly with a very short movement on the overhead lever. It can also be pushed closed from the side if necessary. I have noticed with the small gates that drop down from above the cows in the back tend to want to reach over or under while waiting their turn. With the headcatch, I should mention that I am accustomed to the swinging type of headgate. With the swing type, the cows are further back in the chute and can get more of a "running start" before the gate latches. Makes for a pretty good jar when it closes. With the scissor type on the Priefert, I was concerned about not getting it closed fast enough and the cow getting through. What I found was that most of the time I just needed to open it enough for them to stick their head through since they could stand right against the gate as opposed to being backed up for the swing type. Of course, some stood back and tried to lunge forward when I cracked the gate but I had no problems catching them. Also, the lever for the squeeze pulls down parallel with the chute and is out of the way. On the Filson, it is perpendicular with the shoot and I have hit my head on it a few times. The Filson will squeeze itself sometimes when a cow gets to moving around due to the weight and position of the squeeze bar. After we ran a few cows everything flowed well. I could close the back gate while reaching for the lever on the headcatch. Another advantage to the scissor type headcatch that I quickly noticed, only one hand is required to release the gate and let the cow out. Remember, this is an initial evaluation of the Priefert SO4 and other opinions of long time users may be way more valuable than mine. I was talking to a friend the other day that prefers WW. As he pointed out a lot of it is what you get used to.
 
Angus/Brangus, I love your post. We have both breeds also, and I just bet it was a Brangus that went over the tail gate? That has happened to us also - it was a purebred Brangus named, by the breeder, Miss Sweet eyes ! Possibly he was telling us something with that name?

Anyway we love our WW chute, we have two and if you are dealing with cattle that are large and strong and high strung the extra steel is well worth the price for safety. Parenthetically, we have one very thick Angus bull that we can not catch because his neck is too wide even for the WW catch system.

Billy
 
I personally feel that there are several chutes that would work in your outfit. I personally get along good with Powder River. If you are going to have some average size cows that are fairly quiet you can get away with a value chute.If you have larger cows or cattle that are a little higher headed you should look at a XL chute. $1500 vs. $3000. Which ever you pick, I would suggest that you get a manual head gate.More reliable operation and no adjusting for different size cattle.
 
htrc":1yuiz5dx said:
More reliable operation and no adjusting for different size cattle.

You lost me on that part. If I set the opening for my biggest cows, it won't hold the average heifers. (don't use it on my bull)
 
backhoeboogie":2anw641u said:
htrc":2anw641u said:
More reliable operation and no adjusting for different size cattle.

You lost me on that part. If I set the opening for my biggest cows, it won't hold the average heifers. (don't use it on my bull)

I don;t adjust mine for anyting from Calves through cows and even the bull when he was here. It will hold a couple day old calf when you reach up and grab it nuts to castrate him.
 
I'm speaking of Powder River,Elk River,WW type auto head gates. I've seen several cows choked down by WW headgates that the opening wasn't adjusted correctly. Then not be able to hold calves,not talking about babies. Prifert chutes don't need to be adjusted because they are a different design,however I'm not convinced that the auto catch is reliable. I owned one for several years,and have talked to several people that have them. It worked o.k. as a manual head gate, maybe missed a few more than my powder.
 
htrc":190xsoud said:
It worked o.k. as a manual head gate, maybe missed a few more than my powder.

Right now the name of mine doesn't come to me. I picked it up for a bargain second hand. It is a self catch and I give it a bit of assist. With self catch, once you get familiar with it, you don't miss much. Too wide and the youngs get through. Too narrow and they won't try. You have to get the Goldie Locks "just right" setting for each animal. The biggest secret is to get them moving hard into it.

There are two pin notches on each side. The setting I have now is a bit tight on the neck for two of my cows. All the rest are okay. I try to hold those big gals until last and move one side another notch out. That is about the only thing I don't like about it now; it doesn't readily adjust for size. I may wind up rebuilding/re-engineering that feature of it to simplify the size adjustment.
 
The Priefert auto catches work good, IF........... The if is you use light lubricant onthe lock mechanisms and don;t use heavy oil on them. The partsin the box are supposed to be loose and rattle. Thick lubricant can make them stick togehter. I've got the shirt!
 

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