Pipe corral builders

[Giles]

I have just bought a quarter of land and would like to upgrade the cattle handling system to steel pipe . Looking for any info on anyone out there that does that and what kind of cost it is . Thanks

[Redfrog]

Where are you?

[Giles]

Bashaw / mirrior area

[norwestalta]

I've got wooden corrals and every time I have to use them I've got to fix them. I'm thinking about tearing them all out and going with portable steel ones.
Sucker rod seems to be hard to come by these days and I'd be curious to know if anybody has used wireline cable?

[norwestalta]

I have just bought a quarter of land and would like to upgrade the cattle handling system to steel pipe . Looking for any info on anyone out there that does that and what kind of cost it is . Thanks

I'd talk to the hutterite welder. Must be a colony nearby or camrose colony. Mike is the welder at camrose or he was.

[Northwinds]

The best panels are made out of 2 7/8 pipe,are 6' high and are free standing.
They are totally unbreakable,or bendable for that matter. Each panel weighs about 1000 lbs and are heavy enough to support a gate. The panels are high enough,that cattle will not even try to jump .When it comes time to clean corrals,move the panels of easy access.The best part of these heavy panels is that when it comes time to retire or you just are tired of cows,the panels will sell for what you payed for them or better.
Sucker rod bends or the welds break,cable cuts the posts and frays,replacing cable is a pain.

[hal53]

no doubt 73mm is the way to go, sadly the source has dried up, we can send absolute junk to North Dakota now for $100.00/jt...and they pay the trucking....

[cowmanbob]

The best panels are made out of 2 7/8 pipe,are 6' high and are free standing.
They are totally unbreakable,or bendable for that matter. Each panel weighs about 1000 lbs and are heavy enough to support a gate. The panels are high enough,that cattle will not even try to jump .When it comes time to clean corrals,move the panels of easy access.The best part of these heavy panels is that when it comes time to retire or you just are tired of cows,the panels will sell for what you payed for them or better.
Sucker rod bends or the welds break,cable cuts the posts and frays,replacing cable is a pain.

The free standing panels are the only way to go.

[Giles]

With the free standing panels , do you find it hard to get a good sorting pens and loading alley or alley to a squeez chute ? For bigger pens they would work great but woundering on the smaller tighter pens and alleys ?

[cowmanbob]

With the free standing panels , do you find it hard to get a good sorting pens and loading alley or alley to a squeez chute ? For bigger pens they would work great but woundering on the smaller tighter pens and alleys ?

I've got a fairly long alleyway into the loading chute and handling system and for this I made the panels with no legs,attached to posts in the ground. Did this to avoid pastern injury when bringing in yearlings on horseback. I always manage to raise a few unsociable ones.

[Northwinds]

If built correctly,you can use them anywhere.In the tight areas,I made special panels with the "deadman" or legs all the way to one side so there was nothing in the run for anything to stumble on.The deadman had 2 holes blown thru the pipe for pegging it down for these high traffic areas. Gate in frames were added for extra stability across runways.When working cattle,you push as hard as your facility's will allow,with the pipe fencing you push as hard as you want when working your livestock,your stress level is way down,processing time is waaaaaay shorter and both owner and livestock are happier. Pipe still is available if you know where to look.When I was welding and selling these,after the first one was built and square(that was brutal on the ground) I built a jig.The pipes moved on roller's.from the pipe rack,into the chop saw,crimped,rolled into the jig and welded.The panel was stood up and then finished including caps on all the vertical posts,welds were all done with a mig with .030 wire.I also put hooks and chains on one end.Start to finish just under a hour to complete by one person.A good day yielded 10 -12 panels.I encouraged guys that wanted steel corrals to buy10-20/year and keep adding till they were done.

[CaberTosser]

I ran some gas lines at 2W Livestock Equipment in Nanton and their manufacturing facility was very modern & impressive. As a city-slicker myself I have no idea of how well their equipment works, but it was well constructed, shot-blasted, fully powdercoated and locally made. I was impressed at how modern the facility was for a wee place like Nanton, there's robotic welders in there the likes of which you'd expect on an automotive assembly line.

[amosfella]

2w generally welds light panels. They're ok for general moving, but we have big cattle, and for squeezes, light panels will get broken easily. Our last bull was 3500 pounds... H just got stuck, and broke 2 panels. Good thing he was really tame and cooperative...
Dad and I were looking at buying a pile of drill stem to to build some new corals and feeders with.

[SLH]

Our last bull was 3500 pounds

Really!!!
:bad_boys_20:

[Taco]

Our last bull was 3500 pounds... H just got stuck, and broke 2 panels

Big bull, must have been hog fat. Not many usin' bulls over 25-2600 anymore, can't travel and too hard on cows. Biggest one I ever laid over and foot trimmed was hog fat at 3300lbs

[amosfella]

He wasn't that fat. he was 5'9" at the shoulder and was very heavily muscled. Our farm was known for producing really big cattle, and we've never bothered to move the genetics to size them down...

[binocular]

I am on the same page for the portable panels. I am currently setting up a new facility and pretty much the entire system is portable. Few critical gates will be hung on steel posts, and some frames around the waterers. I have quite a few joints of pipe left that I will be selling as well. Both 2 3/8 and 2 7/8. PM me if you are interested.

[Rafter_G]

We pounded 10' 2 7/8 pipe into the ground saddled them and welded a top rail at 6 feet. For holding pens, we ran e-line cable with turnbuckles at both ends to get the slack out with a temperature change, or a bull fight. Those pens don't work with calves as they just bolt out. There are pens with sucker rod welded on the same post set up as the other pens, and we use them as cow calf pens. The portable panels are good, and we kinda use them where we have to.
As far as cost, I am NOT a welder, but after 4 years of screwing around, I made the gas welder I bought look pretty smart. I've hired some Hutts over the years as well as whoever needed day work.
It seems to me pipe is the same price or close to anyway. I have resorted to buying it out of Brooks, they load me, and it simple and fast. Its 30 bucks a joint. Sucker rod comes up every now and then, and I just buy it as I find it. I've paid as little as 5 bucks, and as much as 10.
Not sure if that helps you at all, but if you can learn to weld that crappy pipe, you can weld about anything..

[FreeLantz]

We built a sorting corral/ bull pen out of railroad ties and highway bridge guards, the corrugated stuff you see alongside bridges to keep cars on the highway. Works like a hot damn and it holds together extremely well.

[pa_of_6]

I have my kid building corral panels this summer for his summer job.
The panels are 6 feet tall, 12 feet long, 6 bars
2 inch oilfield tubing.

I plan on setting them up and putting in a couple post to hold them from falling over.

Cost....well about 75 cents a foot for pipe.
plus labor.
I figure he can make one panel in about 1.5 hours...that includes cutting pipe, squishing the ends and welding it up on both sides.

I figure I will also put either 2 x 8s on the bottom couple spaces so the calves cannot get thru or maybe find some conveyor belting...

Still looking for the belting.

Gives the kid a job and gets me the much needed panels.

I will use these panels for both callte and buffalo.

Message me if you want to put an order in for my kid to fab them up for you...

[Lefty]

When Meridian used to be Wheatland Bins they had scraps available of the ends of the sheet steel they use. Some of them were 10 to 14 feet long and were either 4 foot or 5 foot wide, and came in 12, 14, and I believe 13 gauge. Guessing they still have them as they used to sell at scrap price. They are pretty handy for fencing where you don't want the cows to see through.

[Northwinds]

Lefty,
I thought I was the only one that used that material .Those roll ends make some of the best portable tubs imaginable!They are 13 ga and tough as heck.A little tough to manage because of there weight and thickness but well worth the final results. The smile that came over a truckers face when he pulled up to do a pasture haul and saw a tub feeding a chute, was reward enough.

[bloopbloob]

When Meridian used to be Wheatland Bins they had scraps available of the ends of the sheet steel they use. Some of them were 10 to 14 feet long and were either 4 foot or 5 foot wide, and came in 12, 14, and I believe 13 gauge. Guessing they still have them as they used to sell at scrap price. They are pretty handy for fencing where you don't want the cows to see through.

I work there, and yes, we have lots of 12-14ga scrap that is usually 5' wide, by whatever the scrap length ends up being depending on how it works out. And yes, they sell it to general public, I think the local Hutterites buy a lot of it.

[binocular]

Hey bloopbloop-would you have a location and contact for the place? Sounds like some handy scrap to have around.

[bloopbloob]

Pm sent