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Western, New York | I'm not an expert cattleman by any means but we have a small setup and i've had alot of trial and error and finally have a handling setup that works where I dont spend an hour trying to get one cow into the chute. Concrete would be nice but not necessary if you keep them out of it and just open it up when you need to work them then you wont have a build up of bedding/**** etc. The area doesnt have to be big leading into it you just need some sort of alley or something to feed them into the chute. I have a small alley 16ft long coming off the "holding pen" (20'x20' pen in my barn with a hole cut in the wall to the alley) I pounded in Utility poles spaced 8' apart and used 2'x6's spaced 6" apart for sides. The entrance to my alley is pretty wide like 48" and then I have it essentially funneled down to the width of the chute.
To me you need an area with a minimum length of 32' (16' alley, 8' or so for the chute, and 8' for the exit out of the chute) coming off whatever you decide your holding pen is going to be (if you dont have a sweep tub to me the smaller the holding pen the better). Pick the best spot for load out put your chute there and work your way back. Your holding pen needs to be solid, guardrail, boards, something etc. Once you put some pressure on them they will push through the hog panels
Again no expert but I have struggled working with a small footprint and made it work
As far as wetness goes anywhere you put cattle for an extended period is going to turn into a mess, they are going to tear it up and then you will trying to scrape it out with a machine. Its worse with a small setup. Concrete is not hard to do especially on a small scale ( and not that expensive if your not paying to have it done just paying for material) the best thing we ever did was concrete our barn and barnyard I wish I did it years prior
Edited by k350024v 8/14/2025 08:57
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Advice on cowpens
