# Pig loading chute



## SnowyNorth (Jul 24, 2009)

I built this this year in the corner of the pig pen so that the truck could pull right up to it and incredibly it took under two minutes to load and lock three hogs on today!! Anyone else built anything similar?? Works great!


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## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

There was a guy in IN that fed his pigs on an elevated feeding stand. When it was time to butcher, just pulled the truck up there and threw some feed around and they self-loaded.
I like your plan.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

We have a loading ramp too that we dock our cargo van with. Works slick. The pigs go from the fields to a feeding area. From there we advance some pigs to a sorting pen. Then we move the ones we don't want out and the ones we do want we let up the loading chute to the van. Works like a charm every week.

We have doors at each division including an extra one built into the cargo van so that we can load some pigs, then pick more and load them or even remove pigs who accidentally got into the van.

I don't have any good current photos of how we do it. The post below shows an earlier evolution of our setup. The ramp is the same one as now although we did widen it slightly.

http://flashweb.com/blog/2007/04/loading-pigs.html

Note that in that article we were still using the smaller minivan. We now have an extended body cargo van. I like vans better than trailers due to our climate and road conditions.

This shows the interior of the cargo van which is an animal transport section in the back allowing us to take up to six finisher pigs to market per trip:

http://flashweb.com/blog/2009/04/this-little-piggy-didnt-go-to-market.html

http://flashweb.com/blog/2010/04/hand-cart.html

We have a chest freezer in the middle of the van in front of the animal area. In front of that is passenger space and then the driver. We joke that we can transport six pigs, six pigs of pork, six people and a dog. The van is wide enough in the back to take pallet loads which I can put in or take out with our fork lift such as crates of apple pomace, cheese, etc. We work hard to double up our trips so the van is always running with a load both ways.

Normally we're just loading finisher size pigs but two weeks ago we loaded a 650 lb sow. She was almost as tall at the spine as the side boards and her shoulders just barely fit going up the chute and into the van. She insisted on doing it backwards but was a fine loader.

We use both treats and sorting boards for loading.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa


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## Welshmom (Sep 7, 2008)

Looks like a nice simple plan. Are those 2 ft. gates?


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## SnowyNorth (Jul 24, 2009)

The posts are about 2'. If I were to do it again though I would have made them smaller as they can turn around in it if they really are up to it. I thin if the fence were say maybe 18" with the posts on the outside of it - would work even better.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

We are likely going to be rebuilding our loading chute this year for winter. The turning around can be a bit of a bother but sometimes we need to load big sows like the one recently who's shoulders barely fit and most of the time we load smaller 250 lb finisher pigs. I'm wondering about setting it up with an adjustable wall to handle this. It sure would be nice not to have pigs spin around in the chute.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa


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## Mare Owner (Feb 20, 2008)

For loading I back up the trailer to the south barn door. There is enough of a slant there that the rear of the trailer lands perfectly to the bottom of the door and the trailer can get snug to the building. We can then run the pigs down the barn aisle and right into the trailer w/o a problem.

What I do need/want to build is a narrow alley/lane/chute for running the hogs thru for eartagging, vet treatment, etc. A rare thing, but sure is handy when it's needed. Have to come up with the plans for this hopefully this winter for next summer project.


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