We have horned cattle and so needed a head gate that would allow us to catch anything from a calf to a large bull. We have found that this works wonderfully.
You might wonder how quiet it is with all that stuff up above the cattle's head, it makes no noise! This is thanks to the wonderful design created by a relative of ours, Chris Witschi. The locking latch is lifted when opening the gate and when you close it by pulling a rope, the latch is automatically lifted and so there is no ratcheting noise made. By being able to pull the rope you can stand behind the animal and urge it to go into the gate. You might wonder if we have animals go through it, the answer is very rarely, we have had some very wild animals (from a neighbor, not ours, we only have tame animals...) in it and they were all caught safely. The head gate opens so that anything that fits into the alleyway will fit through the head gate.
As you noticed from the picture, there is a simple chute attached to the head gate. It has a set of gates on each side that can be split and opened separately to work on the side of the animal. Also there is a vet gate at the back. Behind the vet gate is a sliding door (a blocking gate) that can be closed by pulling a rope and another rope to open it. This sure helps to keep the animals from backing up into the alley once they are in the chute but not in the head gate or keeps the other animals from crushing in on the animal in the head gate or the person checking the animal.
Last Updated 22 Apr 2003
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