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Cattle Working Facilities - MP239 Cattle
Facilities
MP239
Working
A University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Program
University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
United States Department of Agriculture
and County Governments Contents
Table of
Site Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Pens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Crowding Pen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Working Chute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Squeeze Chute and Headgate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Loading Chute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Optional Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
Size and Space Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
Other Construction Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
Table 1 Size and Space Requirements for Cattle Working Facilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
Appendix A Facility Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
Appendix B Cattle Equipment Companies . . . . . . . . . . . .23
Appendix C Management Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
Author
Robert J. Felsman, Ph.D.

Extension Livestock Management Specialist

University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
Cattle Working Facilities Working facilities and handling equipment are needed for every cattle
operation. Essential parts of the working facilities include (1) cattle pens,
(2) crowding pen, (3) working chute, (4) squeeze chute and headgate and
(5) loading chute. Several optional items to consider are (1) scales,
(2) palpation cage and (3) calf tilt table. The optional items can be built
in with the working facilities and equipment or added on as needed.
The primary purposes of cattle working facilities and equipment are to
provide a fast and efficient way to handle and work cattle, provide safe
working conditions for people and cattle and provide the means to
perform necessary cattle management practices. Management practices
and activities ranging from vaccination of the herd to loading cattle into
trailers or trucks are easier to do with a good set of cattle working
facilities.
No particular facility design can be considered best. Design will vary
with the type of cattle (calves versus cow-calf, large versus small cattle,
etc.), size of the cattle operation, space restrictions and personal
preferences on facility layout.
Individual parts of the working facilities will be discussed in separate
sections. Each section will discuss the design needs of that part of the
working facilities and some of the problems often seen in the field.
More discussion will be devoted to working chutes, squeeze chutes and
headgates because they are the most vital parts of the facilities in terms
of actual work performed on cattle. Also, under field conditions, more
time and effort can be expended and lost with those items due to poor
design, selection and maintenance.
Site Selection
The first consideration when building cattle working facilities is location.
Facilities should be easily reached by trucks and trailers under various
conditions and be near the cattle for easy movement into the facilities. In
addition, some operations, due to their physical layout, may be better off
with more than one set of working facilities on the farm.
For convenience, working facilities should be placed along a central fence
line, in an area where several fence lines and pastures converge or in an
area where the cattle can easily be assembled. Fence lines serve as a way
to funnel cattle into the working facilities as shown in Figure 1. Fence
lines next to the working facilities should be built stronger than normal
fence lines to withstand the additional strain of funneling cattle into
the pens.
A major mistake often seen is building the working facilities in the
middle of a pasture. When this is done, the cattle cannot be easily driven
into the pens. They must be lured into the pens and trapped.
C
ATTLE
W
ORKING
F
ACILITIES
1 A final point to consider in selecting a site for working facilities is
drainage. The site should be well drained so that pens and chutes do not
get extremely muddy causing cattle to balk or bog down. On some sites it
may be best to haul in gravel or other fill materials to raise the level of
the site or fill in low areas for better drainage.
cattle
movement
FIGURE 1. Use major fence lines
to funnel cattle into pens.
cattle
movement
2 C
ATTLE
W
ORKING
F
ACILITIES Pens
Pens must serve several purposes to create a good set of working
facilities. Pens should be able to hold the cattle being worked. They
should also be used for sorting cattle into groups, and they should serve
as holding pens, hospital pens and quarantine pens for newly
arrived cattle.
Several pens should be built into the working facilities instead of one
large pen for the whole herd. Several layouts are shown in Figure 2. All
of the layouts are set up so that cattle can be sorted and held in groups.
FIGURE 2. Arrange pens and gates for easy cattle movement and sorting.
In addition, pens should be arranged so that cattle can be easily worked
in any order desired. Pen layout should allow for future additions. Pens
are often added to accommodate an increase in herd size or a change in
cattle management. Plans for pens should be checked to find one suitable
for the cattle operation and the site location.
Most of the major problems seen with working facilities are pens that are
too large, a lack of enough holding pens, gates that do not work properly
or gates that swing in the wrong direction.
C
ATTLE
W
ORKING
F
ACILITIES
3 Crowding Pen FIGURE 3.
Crowding pens should
move cattle easily into the
working chute.
The major use of the crowding pen is to funnel cattle into the working
chute. The crowding pen must be designed so that cattle can be easily
moved into it from the holding pens and then easily moved into the
working chute. The heart of the crowding pen is a swinging gate that is
used to reduce the size of the crowing pen and to push cattle into the
working chute.
The swing gate can be designed to latch at various positions as it closes.
An automatic or self-locking latch on the swing gate can speed up move­
ment of cattle through the crowding pen. The swing gate should be solid
planked, close planked or covered with plywood to prevent cattle from
seeing people or other animals and balking.
Crowding pens can either be straight sided or circular. Examples of some
crowding pens and swing gates are shown in Figure 3. The current trend
in working facilities is toward circular crowding pens and working
chutes. This trend takes advantage of the tendency for cattle to circle
when penned in a small area. Another trend in crowding pens is the use
of solid walls or close placement of planks up to 4 1/2 to 5 feet high. This
prevents cattle from seeing out of the pen and reduces balking in the
crowding pen.
swing
gates
swing
gates
swing
gate
swing
gate
4 C
ATTLE
W
ORKING
F
ACILITIES Working Chute A straight-sided crowding pen can be more easily built into an existing
set of pens than the circular type. If extensive rebuilding of facilities is
being done or new facilities are being built, then a circular crowding pen
can be considered. Circular crowding pen designs can use one-fourth of a
circle to almost a whole circle.
Major design problems with crowding pens are inadequate swing gates
or no swing gates and a failure of the crowding pen design to funnel
cattle into the working chute. Poor drainage and mud is another problem
seen in crowding pens. This causes poor footing in the crowding pen with
cattle balking (and possibly bogging down) and being harder to work. The
crowding pen surface should be well packed, well drained and well
maintained to retain functional efficiency. In some cases, a concrete slab
poured in the crowding pen may be the best alternative to maintain
good footing.
The working chute is use