Nice hydraulic squeeze chute

[Soapweed]

Here is a good looking hydraulic chute, if a person was of the mind to need one. A long-time friend sent me this youtube video. I bought a Palco chute and tub from him about 25 years ago, and we have used it hard through the years. At one time, before hydraulic chutes came into play, I asked our vet at the time which of the many systems he liked the best. He gave his vote to our Palco. Stronghold is the new name for the updated and improved versions of these same cattle handling products.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPLEqGFtl80&feature=autoplay&list=HL1339294678&playnext=1

My friend also has quite an invention on a manual chute. It has a hydraulic squeeze feature that gives a one-to-nine ratio. When you pull on the handle, for every one pound of pull, the squeeze exerts nine pounds of pressure. This chute looks like the cat's meow to me. The main reason a hydraulic chute is so handy is for the powerful squeeze feature. The 1100M version has the advantage of a high pressure squeeze, but uses less than a quart of hydraulic fluid, and still has the quietness and simplicity of a manual version.

http://strongholdmfg.com/cattle1.html

There is a place to click for a video of this, right below the Cattlelmaster 1100M Chute pictures. These fine examples of Yankee ingenuity, with a bit of Nebraska redneck country boy influence :wink: , will be on display at the Bassett Ranch Expo tomorrow and the next day.

 

[3 M L & C]

Do you know the price compaired to a silincer? Have you ever been around a Daniels? I saw one of those at Husker Harvest Days.

 

[4Diamond]

We bought our PALCO 10 years ago and have been very very happy with it. 2 years ago one of my best friends bought the 1100M and it is extremely nice. Very similar to the PALCO we have but with a few updates. I would like to try their hydraulic someday, looks like a very nice unit.

 

[High Plains]

Saw a Daniels chute with a remote control to operate it on a guy's place a few weeks ago. Looked like a pretty slick unit and he said he can sure process cattle all by himself. Only part I didn't like about the chute was that the head catch just moved straight in and out. I like the Silencer head catch better. Not sure I really want to process very many cattle by myself anyway, but for some situations it would cut down on the need for that valuable manpower. In the end, these really nice hydraulic chutes are so expensive that a person has to have a whole lot of head count to pay for them. Not a hobby-rancher's kind of toy.

Buddy of mine that runs some cows for me has a manual For-Most chute. When running cows through this spring I realized how spoiled I had been with using Silencers at other places for the past several years. The main problem was that almost every cow balked at going into the thing. No blinds on the sides seemed to be the issue. Also, the smaller overall size may have been problematic. A cow would be all the way to the head catch before her tail cleared the rear gate. Kind of hard to promote forward motion in such a short setup. Maybe I need to consider smaller cows! There again, I've been spoiled with Silencers so this is not meant to be derogatory toward the For-Most. Overall, probably a decent chute.