Working Longhorns

[GreyGus]

I don't own any, but have always wanted to add a longhorn or two to my small herd. I was just wondering for those of you that raise them, what king of working facilities do you have? I assume a normal runway and head chute is not going to work.

 

[Dave]

I have never bought a longhorn. But I did have a Powder River longhorn chute. I just bought it used at an auction. It worked just fine on polled cattle and actually had some designs that I wish other chutes had.

 

[TCRanch]

Don't know about working facilities but wasn't it Fence that posted a pic of his face where he dang near got his eye poked out by a Longhorn? Safety first, @GreyGus, and good luck with the horns.

 

[kenny thomas]

Don't know about working facilities but wasn't it Fence that posted a pic of his face where he dang near got his eye poked out by a Longhorn? Safety first, @GreyGus, and good luck with the horns.

That was me while working longhorns for someone else using a cheap chute.
I have had 2 or more longhorns for years and if you give them time they will work through most chutes.

 

[Warren Allison]

I don't own any, but have always wanted to add a longhorn or two to my small herd. I was just wondering for those of you that raise them, what king of working facilities do you have? I assume a normal runway and head chute is not going to work.

They won't have trouble working their horns down a chute if you don't push them and let them work through it themselves. Head catch gate is another matter.

 

[ClinchValley86]

I have longhorn neighbors with a Medina type setup, I do not like it. Could probably work better if more thought was put into his system. Probably works better than a chute.

Highlands to the other side and they have a nice, very expensive setup made for horned cattle. It works good for them but the head catch swings out from middle. By the time their horns are thru seems like half the time their shoulders are halfway thru as well. The system is painted purple/red color. Maybe that'll reveal the brand.

 

[Ky hills]

Speaking of Highlands, when we first ran our longhorn x Brahman heifer through the chute while our vet was there, he said just don't get any highland cattle.
Said he worked at a stockyards and said the longhorns were smart and could figure out how to come through the chute, but that the highlands couldn't.
Said they were the dumbest cattle he'd ever seen.

 

[farmerjan]

I guess it is benign neglect on my part. I have a longhorn that was a calf on a cow I bought that someone botched removing her horns. This heifer was worked through the chute as a calf... she had small horns..... Since then, she just runs in the pasture with the breeding heifers. She is on her 5th lactation (6th calf as she had twins one year).... she gets no shots, nothing else now. She is smart enough to work her horns to get into the one feeder for grain... it will hold a round bale in the center and can feed grain around the outside in the feeder part...slant bars for "normal cattle" to put their heads through. she will put her head through the creep gate if she thinks she can get to the buckets of grain I put through when I am unloading off the truck... VERY VERY smart on knowing where her horns are.
I imagine she would figure out the chute if needed... but I have decided that she will calve or not... no preg checks. She does not like dogs, and it seems that we have NO coyote problems at this pasture now. Wish she would learn to hate the da#@ed black buzzards ~!!!!! She is worth her upkeep for the job she does with keeping out the 4 legged varmints.
When she stops producing, she will get loaded up, taken for hamburger and I will get back her head/horns.
All of her calves have been polled .... have used 3 different angus bulls on her. Her calves all come in the catch pen through the creep gate and get worked as any other calf.
If I were going to raise longhorns, then there would be different accomodations for horns.

 

[Texas Ranch Hand]

There is a chute/gate made by BRY. It basically consists of two gates about 30" apart in a 10' alley of your working pens. It is taller than the working pens and has no vertical bars. The steer walks down the alley with both gates open. When he passes the first gate and gets to the second gate, someone starts closing the second gate. The steer turns broadside and then the second gate is closed on him and serves as a squeeze chute. The head can be then tied up to do whatever needs done. Very simple and intelligent design but does take two people. I made my own but it's lacking in some areas that the Bry gate has.

 

[4hfarms]

I rope them to castrate in a pen between pastures when about a month old and they dont get anything else during the time spent here but ivermectin, if needed. All raised here on my farm. Don't bring any animals home from anywhere. I would not sell at a barn either, do to lack of shots. Round here a fellow would get a bad name for delivering dead cows. Ill deliver to your choice of butcher, lol, so I have a 8ft longx4ftwide chute to load them in my trailer.

 

[4hfarms]

There is a chute/gate made by BRY. It basically consists of two gates about 30" apart in a 10' alley of your working pens. It is taller than the working pens and has no vertical bars. The steer walks down the alley with both gates open. When he passes the first gate and gets to the second gate, someone starts closing the second gate. The steer turns broadside and then the second gate is closed on him and serves as a squeeze chute. The head can be then tied up to do whatever needs done. Very simple and intelligent design but does take two people. I made my own but it's lacking in some areas that the Bry gate has.

That chute is genius! My boys got a heck of a thick neck holding up them horns all the time. Think it's strong enough....... Or is it for cows?

 

[Texas Ranch Hand]

That chute is genius! My boys got a heck of a thick neck holding up them horns all the time. Think it's strong enough....... Or is it for cows?

They show bulls in it. I would think it's more than strong enough. I built mine with oil field pipe. I did ask them what happens when one goes apesh!t. They said it flat hasn't been an issue. Apparently the gates being tall and the overage you have overcome nastiness.

 

[ClinchValley86]

There is a chute/gate made by BRY. It basically consists of two gates about 30" apart in a 10' alley of your working pens. It is taller than the working pens and has no vertical bars. The steer walks down the alley with both gates open. When he passes the first gate and gets to the second gate, someone starts closing the second gate. The steer turns broadside and then the second gate is closed on him and serves as a squeeze chute. The head can be then tied up to do whatever needs done. Very simple and intelligent design but does take two people. I made my own but it's lacking in some areas that the Bry gate has.

That's the longhorn neighbor's setup exactly. I think it could work great for him with some adjustment and some more panels. Plus your explanation of how to properly use it makes be feel dumb. Lol. We got them into it the hardest possible way it sounds like. So thank you. I'll pass along the good instructions.

I thought the gates needed aome more verticals in the middle so you could hold them better to one end. Probably operator error on our part though.

 

[Brute 23]

They have a name for it but i cant think of it. It's like the one in the video but with out the rope bs. You just put 2 gates perpendicular in like a 10' alley and you close them down until the animal is in it with a gate on each side. We use them even on big bulls if you don't want to run them down a small chute or through a headgate. Ours feeds the chute or is part of the chute, how ever you want to look at it.

It's just slow because it's one animal at a time.

 

[Texas Ranch Hand]

They have a name for it but i cant think of it. It's like the one in the video but with out the rope bs. You just put 2 gates perpendicular in like a 10' alley and you close them down until the animal is in it with a gate on each side. We use them even on big bulls if you don't want to run them down a small chute or through a headgate. Ours feeds the chute or is part of the chute, how ever you want to look at it.

It's just slow because it's one animal at a time.

One video shows a third gate on the opposite side of the alley from the two parallel gates. That third gate closes over one of the gates to get leverage to force the gate tighter against the steer.

 

[Texas Ranch Hand]

Here's a crude plan showing the third gate

 

[Brute 23]

I can't think of the name of it and when I search online it brings up all these contraptions.

 

[crossbreed]

We have three full blood longhorns left and they all have plenty of horn probably 5 1/2 foot wide at this time. We use two panels similar to what brute described when we AI them. It worked very well. Otherwise, as we were told with Longhorns, there is no cattle working. Ours have never been wormed or treated for anything 10 years. They are the healthiest cattle on our place.

 

[Texas Ranch Hand]

Yep. Why I like and admire them. About as tough as yo can get

 

[Brute 23]

Medina gate is what I'm thinking. It just came to me.