Development of an energy-absorbing headgate for cattle squeeze chutes

This research was conducted to develop a headgate for cattle squeeze chutes that would minimize bruises on the animal during handling. The headgate on a hydraulic squeeze chute was instrumented with load cells and then tested on 12 heifers, each with a mass of approximately 413 kg (911 lb). The measured impact forces ranged from <1.3 to 8.9 kN (300 to 2,000 lb_f). A new headgate equipped with air bags was then designed and developed. Tests on the new headgate involving 100 heifers showed impact forces of up to 12.9 kN (2,900 lb_f). Impact tests indicated that the air bags absorbed from 19 to 46% of the energy, depending on the initial pressure inside the air bag.