Cattle are large animals that need a lot of care put into how they’re handled. Not only can they easily harm themselves by accident if they’re panicking, but they can also harm those around them and the machinery that you need to keep them healthy.
If you’ve never worked with a squeeze chute before, they may look wild from the outside. These boxes with tilted walls look more like something you’d buy to transport an animal than something you’d get to help administer medication or tag them.
These are the top reasons a squeeze chute works and why every farm with cattle needs at least one.
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Safely Tricks Cattle Into Thinking They’re Escaping
Cattle will try to escape. This is a simple rule of life for them; if they can see the light and an opening, they will assume they can move forward and get out. Fortunately for those raising cattle, these animals can be tricked rather easily, so most squeeze chutes have an open-appearing front the animal can walk towards that will guide them into the position you need.
Closes In To Hold Them From Going Back or Sideways
A squeeze chute can work through hydraulics or your arm power to safely squeeze the animal into place. There’s no real pressure applied to the cattle, and instead, it creates a barrier on all four sides around them so that they can’t back up or ram against the sides. Instead, the animals move forward and use the grips on the floor to keep from slipping or falling.
Protects Both You and Them
Cattle that are nervous or upset are dangerous. They move around and bite or topple you or other animals and move very quickly when agitated. If you’re trying to tag many of your animals, many risks come into play if they’re not in a chute.
Can Aid In Weighing and In Adding Tags
If you’ve ever tried to weigh cattle on anything besides a chute: you know it isn’t very easy. These animals like to move around and take in everything around them. Unfortunately, that can lead to the numbers being hard to read. Cattle chute scales allow your animals to be as still as possible so that they can gather a clear reading without causing your cattle any distress. Weighing and adding tags safely means that you can track your animals’ health and ensure that they’re doing as expected.
Releases Them Easily Without Stress
Stressed animals are more likely to become unhealthy or attempt risky behavior. A cattle chute allows everything you need to complete, from weighing to medication, to happen all at once so that you can soothe them and then send them on their way. This is awesome because it keeps your animals happier, which in turn means they’ll be healthier, and when it’s time to process them, they’ll make better products.
Cattle are incredible animals that can weigh up to 2,500 pounds. So it’s important that they’re held still when they need to be and that doing so doesn’t stress them out or cause them to react poorly.
