Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883

Chutes and Cattle

Roughrider Feeds offers new line of equipment to local ranchers

Roughrider Feeds, a local full-service Purina feed dealer, has recently partnered with Arrowquip to provide new equipment to livestock producers in the area, including safe and effective hydraulic and manual cattle chutes.

These chutes allow ranchers to separate and safely restrain cattle in order to provide medical care or any number of necessary procedures.

On Tuesday, Jan. 17, local ranchers attended an open house in western Eddy County to view the new equipment on offer. Roughrider Feeds' owners, Jeff and Leann Schafer, greeted attendees, discussed with them the new equipment and even offered drinks and warm chili.

Jeff Schafer told the Transcript he's excited to partner with Arrowquip, and had nothing but positive words to say about their equipment and its safety for both humans and cattle.

"We're excited to include Arrowquip equipment with some of the things we offer at Roughrider Feeds," said Schafer. "We think the value with Arrowquip to the livestock producer is going to be huge moving forward."

He added, "If you want help designing a cattle-working facility, [Arrowquip] will actually help you ... design a system if need be, and it's all about the safety of people and animals."

There was plenty of equipment and a number of chutes on display at Tuesday's open house, one of which was the Q-Power 107 Series, a hydraulic cattle chute.

This chute has been designed to provide a calm, quiet cattle handling experience, and has features like coated slam latches, a nylon head gate roller and additional poly bushings, which helps minimize noise by eliminating metal-on-metal contact.

Russell Evans, Arrowquip's regional manager for much of the Great Plains area, was in attendance Tuesday to help with the event, and he said chutes like the Q-Power 107 are safe and effective tools for ranchers.

"Our brand promise is if you get hurt using our equipment, we will refund your money," said Evans. "So safety is a big part of what we do. ... We want every cattle operation, every time they handle cattle, to be safe - for both the handler and the animal."

Coincidentally, Arrowquip first began manufacturing in North America back in 2003, the same year Roughrider Feeds began helping local livestock producers in Eddy County and the surrounding area.

"We set out on our journey to make the best product, make it as easy as possible for both the humans to use and the cattle to go through," said Evans. "Low-stress cattle handling is a big part of it."

He added, "We're looking forward to Roughrider Feeds being a dealer for us, and Jeff and Leann have been fantastic to work with."

On their website, Arrowquip states that they're, "the only cattle equipment manufacturer to employ a team of engineers and experienced cattle ranchers who are solely dedicated to creating cattle equipment in our industry."

Those interested in purchasing or learning more about the equipment that Arrowquip and Roughrider Feeds are offering, are encouraged to place a call to the Roughrider Feeds office at (701) 947-2568. They can also be reached via their website (www.roughriderfeeds.com) or by emailing them at [email protected].

Roughrider Feeds is also active on Facebook, where they post a variety of information about the services they offer and much more. Be sure to follow their page.