Cow-Calf Handling System

This ranch in Texas has 600 mama cows that pass through this facility every year. They sort cows and calves in the pens before going to the working chutes. The cows go first; then, a calf tilt table is moved in front of the squeeze chute and chained to the head gate to keep it in place. The table tilts for castration. To prevent calves from turning around in the single-file chute, they push calves one at a time up the chute and into the tilt table.

They used oil field pipe for fence posts, top rails, and gates. The solid sides of the curved fence are 5′ x 10′ 10ga—steel sheets that bend around the curved fence by hand and overlap by about six inches. Grooved concrete floors reduce stress and prevent injuries from falling on concrete. A metal catwalk not yet installed goes around the curved alley’s inside radius, and the crowd pen’s outside radius. The catwalk meets the raised concrete platform on the inside radius of the single-file chute. This system is ideal for 100+ cow/calf pairs.