Working Ranch Magazine March/April 2025

that’s an improvement BY TIM O’BYRNE

TIM O’BYRNE

Squeeze to Please The best features in chute design come together to make it better for the critters and handlers.

t the tail end of my 20 year cowboy adventure I spent several years on the large scale feedyards, including plenty of hours working every aspect of various processing and treating hy draulic chute setups.

Sherman. The side squeeze handle was the tank gun barrel. Here are features that I look for in a working chute: First, safety to both the critter and the handler. The three critical ele ments of chute work are the catch, the restraint and the release. Much of the success of the works depends on how

them dated back to the ‘50s, I’m sure. In fact, I think one of them was made from a repurposed Army surplus M4

Prior to that, I cowboyed on so many big outfits I can’t recall all the man ual chutes I’ve operated, but some of

22 I MARCH 2025 WORKING RANCH audited readers run 21 million head of beef cattle.