Cattle Chutes

By May 6, 2009 Cattle

cattle-chute-red-river

calf-chuteMost cattle ranches have a piece of equipment called a cattle chute or called a cattle crush in other parts of the world. It is designed to be placed at the end of an alley and one cow at a time is pushed into it.

Once inside two metal side pieces trap the cows head and a metal piece drops preventing the cow from backing up, and the two sides squeeze the cattle gently so it is completely immobilized. Well, it can still wiggle a lot so you need to be careful.

They are very useful for administering shots, examining and treating wounds, castrating or even dehorning. As you can imagine cows aren’t very happy about the idea but it really is a safe way to handle them. Once the work is done all the metal pieces release and the cow can move forward normally.

Most cattle chutes are designed to be operated by one cowboy and fancier ones have hydraulic controls. Some can even rotate the entire cow so you can more easily get to the right spot.