Farmers with small numbers of cattle on their farms struggle with adequate facilities to catch and doctor their animals because of cost. Farmers that are beginning farmers or have less the 10 cattle units on their farms need working facilities like someone that has 100 cows or calves on their farm.

The Wayne County Extension Office through the KSU Small Farm Program offers farmers the ability to use corral panels and a working chute to gather their cattle together to sale at the local livestock market, work their cattle with vaccines for disease prevention, and the ability to castrate the male calves to improve their value at sale time.

Farmers have been using the KSU cattle handling equipment for the last four years on a weekly basis. There is no charge for using the cattle handling equipment.

The success' that two farmers have told me about in the last three months are a farmer that hadn't used the equipment before tried to catch his 2000 lb. bull that destroyed his facilities. His facilities  haven't been upgraded in several years. He told me when the bull destroyed his facilities he wanted to shoot the bull but family members talked him out of doing it. He contacted me to use the cattle handling equipment the next week, so he could sale the bull at the local livestock market. When he drove off with the cattle corral panels with the swing gate he told me we will see how this goes. When he brought the panels with the swing gate back in about four days, he told me the operation went as smooth as possible without any problems from his bull as he was loading him.

The other beginning farmer and his wife had bought two highland cows and one of them had grown out hoof problems he was needing to trim off. The highland cow was limping and needed treated for her feet conditions. The beginning farmer contacted me on Friday night and wanted to know if he could use the KSU cattle handling squeeze chute. I said yes, and I told him I would help him pick up the equipment on Saturday morning , because the farmer had a full time auto mechanic job and could only use the equipment on the weekend.  He purchased antibiotics from the local veterinarian and treated her, trimmed her feet and when he brought the equipment back he told me she was doing much better.   

The savings financially to the small and beginning farmers is thousands of dollars, and the safety to the themselves and the cattle are priceless.