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Bud box vs crowd tub

Which do you prefer and why

  • Bud box

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • crowd tub

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    0
N

Nicky

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 10, 2005
Messages
3,668
Location
N.E. Oregon
I know everyone has their opinion :) and would like to hear them. I know several others would too. Seems like alot of us are redoing corral.
 
I've never been around a bud box, but I've been looking at them on youtube and such. Looks like they work fine, but they do take up space. I don't see myself using one as the way we load the chute now works just as well. Like the bud box, (and as many on here have stated) the secret is to let the alley get nearly empty before putting more in and not crowding things up. We use a curved alley with solid sides leading up to the chute and cows seem to have no trouble going in. We think it is because they can't see around the corner and there is nothing to visually distract them.
 
I haven't used a "Bud box" per-say. We use a tub at home and if it's not loaded too tight which my son liked to do but I think had an epiphany this fall they seem to work fine. Where I like the tub in experienced help can load it and not be in quite as close contact with the cattle.
Our neighbors have a old corral system and it is actually built similar to a Bud box and it works pretty good for them. I think it's what you want to work with.
 
I think it is all who is running the gate. I think the bud box is fine, but you could have someone that isn't as good of a stockman running a tub, as long as they don't get it to full. You could tell them only x amount at a time. Also most videos I have watched on the bud box the people are in with the cattle. No matter what everyone has a few critters that you don't want to be in a tub or box with. I like this video, also I think you could get rid of one person using this system.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnGAQQ25WYQ
 
I'm good with any system that works. I've been in deals like bigmuddy is talking about and usually those old corals with boxes to load alleys work. Sometimes tubs work fine. Generally when I've been around slow working systems, tubs are involved. They are usually quarter circle tubs that cost a fortune and cattle circle around the tub and stick their head right back from where they came blocking the alley. Someone then climbs up on the tub door with a lightning stick and fires the whole mess up. They spin and climb on each other till someone finds a hole. Drives me nuts.
 
Dont have a tub and kinda have a bud box, but not really. In mine the cattle come out of the sorting pens into a 16 ft. alley going north then they make an uturn back south into another pen about 40 by 20 and then at the south end of that pen they make a uturn into the working alley way going back north. We run 10 cows in at a time. Calves we can only do about 5 because the entire alley way is not adjustable.
 
redrobin said:
I'm good with any system that works. I've been in deals like bigmuddy is talking about and usually those old corals with boxes to load alleys work. Sometimes tubs work fine. Generally when I've been around slow working systems, tubs are involved. They are usually quarter circle tubs that cost a fortune and cattle circle around the tub and stick their head right back from where they came blocking the alley. Someone then climbs up on the tub door with a lightning stick and fires the whole mess up. They spin and climb on each other till someone finds a hole. Drives me nuts.
Click to expand...

You know that guy too? :lol:

I've loaded timed event cattle at our rodeo for years. Sort them with the draw sheet in my hand. Not a great setup but once you figure it out no one waits.
The odd person comes by and offers to "help", I tell them there are two awholes in here already and they're doing fine. :wink:

I really enjoy working with a good stockman, they are who taught me the basics. Most times I would rather work alone or with Debbie. ( she leaves me alone at times) :oops:
 
Bud Box every single day of the week. We had a full sheeted tub for over 25 years and I absolutely hated working cattle. In the whole time we had it I only remember one day that the cattle flowed through it on their own. In all of those years it was a nightmare to work calves. I built my first Bud Box about 3 years ago as a loadout. The first time I used it I stood there with a stupid grin on my face as I watched the cattle flow through and literally run on to the truck. I never dreamed I would ever see anything like it. After that I vowed to get rid of the crowding tub and we sold the whole full sheeted alley and tub on a consignment a couple years ago.

Now I have a Bud Box feeding a double alley feeding a half sheeted alley. I can fill the alley and hit all the calves from one side with out ever getting off the ground. I intend to do some reworking because the box isn't big enough and the alley needs to be moved a little but overall it is a vast improvement to that cursed tub.

Having said that, if you have a lot of help that isn't very good around cattle and doesn't have the desire to learn a Bud Box probably isn't for you. It used to take me several hours with a half dozen helpers to work a couple hundred head. Now I am doing 60-70 in about an hour by myself and sometimes my brother helps me. I wouldn't even have dreamed of trying it alone with the old setup.
 
I hope this makes sense but i tried. I would like to put a tub entering alley way but i think maybe leave it all the same and put a bud box to the left of the back of the alley. But the only videos of bud box that i found were 3 or 4 head at a time. We put 10 cows in at once now. Maybe i will just leave it alone. Just at times cows get hung up on inside corner entering alley.

working_facility.jpg
 
eatbeef said:
Daniels Mfg has some good videos on you tube of abud box, i am 95% convinced that the way to go.
Click to expand...

I am going to watch the videos but on their web site they say " They share Bud's dream of eliminating solid fences and tub systems" then in the next paragraph or two they talk about putting cattle in the Bud box and closing the solid gate behind them.

So are they eliminating solid fences or just selling you new ones? :?
 
eatbeef said:
I hope this makes sense but i tried. I would like to put a tub entering alley way but i think maybe leave it all the same and put a bud box to the left of the back of the alley. But the only videos of bud box that i found were 3 or 4 head at a time. We put 10 cows in at once now. Maybe i will just leave it alone. Just at times cows get hung up on inside corner entering alley.

working_facility.jpg
Click to expand...

I would guess that if you changed the angle of the fence leading to your alley 45 degrees the other direction and the gate going into that pen to swing all the way into the pen, you would solve most of your problem.

Cows don't see sharp angle corners.
 
All the videos of the bud box look pretty good from what I have seen. But it looks to me like the person running the cattle in really has to know what he's doing. That might be a problem when you have a hard time getting help.
 
I have a tub and alley at home and a bud box and double alley about 5 miles from home. I much prefer the box. The cows only go through once a year and they flow really well through the double alley. I work calves through the tub and it's usually a struggle.
 
I really like the Bud Box. Agree on the operator experience issue. I find that the Bud Box is easier to work on horseback than using a tub so maybe that somewhat evens the playing field where others mentioned that it's a problem to have to be in amongst the cattle.
 
This is a great debate... I like a tub, because I can do it by myself like during A.I.ing. It's all in how you handle your cattle... We genrally don't put more than six at a time and they just head for the opening down the alley. But I still am opened minded..
 
Well I guess I have to admit that not only have I not used the bud box, I've never used one of those tubs, but I've been watching them work by searching google too. I think the poll needed one more option: Your Own Home Made Contraption" :shock:
 
This is all interesting, with various ways to consider. rancherfred is one of few mentioning numbers of cattle put through the system in a time frame.

Seems that saying how many cattle are worked through in a system, what is being done for them, and time it takes would be helpful in figuring out what a person in need of improved facilities might want to try.

And I realize 'trying' out a system may not be all that practical, but maybe mentally running cattle through would give an idea and maybe cause one to think of possible pitfalls or places in a given system that might not work for your situation. Better yet: either helping, or observing others work cattle through the different types of systems. Are cattlemen really more independent, even "my way is the right way for this ranch" types or is it my imagination, but I have had pretty close contact with them and observed quite closely all my 72 years!

mrj

Are ranchers really more independent, 'my way is the right way' types, or is it my imagination
 

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