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Calving pens

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Longrope

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Dec 19, 2011
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Location
mt/nd border
I am going to purchase a pen in the next month. Am leaning towards the Souix but am not sure yet. Have had a Box S and Hi-Qual. Won't be going back to either of those. I am looking for everyone's input as to which are the good and the ones to stay away from. Also pros and cons to the Souix if anyone has one they've been using. Thanks.
 
I have a Ranchers welding tub style. Seems to work pretty well. But then again I am sure if mom walks in and the baby is alright they all work. I like mine from a safety side once she is in she is in no chains to fumble with or pins to drop.
 
Is there a dealer in eastern mt/western nd for the Morand pens? Also how does the "crowd gate" latch when you are putting an animal in the headcatch? I couldn't see how on the company website. Thanks.
 
Longrope said:
Is there a dealer in eastern mt/western nd for the Morand pens? Also how does the "crowd gate" latch when you are putting an animal in the headcatch? I couldn't see how on the company website. Thanks.
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what's the point in calving pens? Pardon my ignorance
 
4Diamond said:
Longrope said:
Is there a dealer in eastern mt/western nd for the Morand pens? Also how does the "crowd gate" latch when you are putting an animal in the headcatch? I couldn't see how on the company website. Thanks.
Click to expand...
what's the point in calving pens? Pardon my ignorance
Click to expand...

Farmers.

I meant this as a joke most people have there own version of a calveing pen mine is made with a old autolock headgate with a home made chute which we use for semen testing our bulls and weighing them it is set up to pin portable corral panels so the pen can vary from 3 panel to whatever you desire. I'm a farmer,rancher,welder,ditch digger, well man whatever so being called a farmer does'nt bother me. As everyone ages I think safety is in our first thoughts.
 
Longrope said:
Is there a dealer in eastern mt/western nd for the Morand pens? Also how does the "crowd gate" latch when you are putting an animal in the headcatch? I couldn't see how on the company website. Thanks.
Click to expand...

There was a dealer around Great Falls, Mt. We went to Canada and got ours.
The crowd gate latch on ours is a chain, and Mr. FH says "it's a good deal."
He wouldn't change a thing about it. He likes how you could suckle a calf when needed. Works so well.
You might call the number on the Morand website and I bet they'll give you a dealer name. We saw them at The MATE in Billings. We thought of becoming a dealer, but didn't. We bought the chute and scale and the maternity pen. We were well pleased with all of it and we had looked at a bunch of different ones. The only thing with the chute, is the distance
on the gears were too far apart but we remedied that. It's tough and I loved
the way the end gate opened and closed. A 3-year old could run it.
 
4Diamond said:
Longrope said:
Is there a dealer in eastern mt/western nd for the Morand pens? Also how does the "crowd gate" latch when you are putting an animal in the headcatch? I couldn't see how on the company website. Thanks.
Click to expand...
what's the point in calving pens? Pardon my ignorance
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Well I'm about low-stress in our cattle and roping a heifer to a post and chocking her down to pull a calf or trying to get a calf sucking doesn't make for the gentlest cattle in the long run. I love roping cattle horseback but I've got older cows in a 600 acre pasture calving the same time as my heifers. We are a purebred operation and we weigh and tag our calves. So to save time and stress a pen makes it a little easier.
 
Denny said:
4Diamond said:
Longrope said:
Is there a dealer in eastern mt/western nd for the Morand pens? Also how does the "crowd gate" latch when you are putting an animal in the headcatch? I couldn't see how on the company website. Thanks.
Click to expand...
what's the point in calving pens? Pardon my ignorance
Click to expand...

Farmers.
Click to expand...
Not trying to be a smart-mouth but we run on 13,000 acres on the ranch that I'm on(I'm by myself right now,hoping to get new hired man in by next spring) and we don't have one ounce of farm ground. We don't even put up hay.(Just buy it all). Calving pens were thought up by farmers no doubt but sometimes they are handy. I know nobody was calling me a farmer but just wanted to clear up who I am and what I do.
 
4Diamond said:
I understand. Is using regular working facilities out of the question?
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The maternity pens are so nice to have included in your working facilities.
Makes it so much easier to pull a calf, suckle a calf, just any of those
little chores. When you have one that works well, you wonder how you
did without it. Suckling a calf in a squeeze chute, works, but it ain't easy.
 
4Diamond said:
I understand. Is using regular working facilities out of the question?
Click to expand...

A calving pen is a small enclosure with a headgate, and it is usually set up inside a barn. Regular working facilities are generally out in the elements, and they usually don't allow a calving cow to lie down like a calving pen does. We have a manufactured calving pen in one of our barns, and have pulled countless calves there through the years. It works very well. In our other barn, we have more of a homemade-type calving pen, and it maybe works even better. It allows a cow to lay in either direction, and there is 180 degrees of room in which to work. Calving pens are quite handy, and are sure an easier way to pull a calf than it would be catching a cow with a lariat and tying her to a pole in the barn. I've done plenty of that when Dad ran registered horned Herefords. The horns wouldn't allow them to fit in the stanchion that we used for cows with no horns.

Calving pens and Polaris Rangers make ranching much easier, not to mention just plain more fun. :)
 

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