Pipe corrals, pens, and arenas

Working pens and corrals for cattle: a holding pen, a crowding area, an alley to the chute, and a loading chute, all welded pipe. Round pens for starting and working horses. Roping and riding arenas fenced in pipe, with roping boxes, stripping chutes, and return alleys laid out for how you rope.

It's all pipe welded to pipe posts set deep, with gates hung where hands and stock actually move. Layout matters more than the pipe. A good one lets one or two people work cattle quietly. A bad one fights you every time.

Pens usually sit near the barn, the road, and water, so trucks and trailers can get in and cattle can be gathered off more than one pasture. An arena needs flat, well-drained ground with room around it for trailers and people watching.

Pens tie into the shelter and buildings around them. We build loafing sheds, barns, and covers, so a shed row or covered working area can be laid out with the pens. We also handle the dirt work for the arena pad and for grading pens to drain.

Oklahoma State University Extension's guide to corrals and working facilities gives the numbers most layouts start from. Holding pens need about 14 square feet per head for cattle under 600 pounds, 17 square feet for 600 to 1,200 pounds, and 20 square feet for cattle over 1,200 pounds. A quarter-circle crowding area with a 12-foot gate handles up to 8 mature cows at a time.

Size the pens for the most cattle you'll work at once. Then plan the flow: pasture to holding pen, holding pen to crowding area, crowding area to the alley and chute, and out to sorting pens or the trailer. We lay it out on the ground with you before anything gets built.

OSU recommends cattle corral fence at least 60 inches tall with posts set 30 inches deep, and working chute sides 45 to 60 inches tall depending on cattle size. Pens take more pressure than any pasture fence, so corners, gate posts, and the crowding area get the heaviest pipe and the most bracing.

Sides can be open pipe rails, or sheeted solid in the crowding area and alley so cattle don't see people and balk. Pen pipe can be new or sound used tubing, and we'll spec size and wall with you. Welded caps keep water out of the posts. Paint slows rust.

We walk the site with you and talk through how you work: how many head, how many hands, what hauls them, and where they come from. Then we lay out pens and gates on the ground, adjust until it works, and price it on site.

Ground comes next, clearing and grading so the pens drain and the arena sits level. Then posts, rails, gates, the chute and loading areas, and paint. The layout, ground, and weather set the timeline, and we'll give you a schedule with the quote.

Running horses and cattle on the same place? Read pipe fence for horses vs cattle before you settle the layout.

Gates make or break a set of pens: sorting gates in the alley, a crowding gate, pen gates that swing both ways where you need them, and wide gates so a tractor can clean pens. We build pipe gates to fit the layout.

Pens tie into the pasture fence around them, whether that's pipe fence, a pipe top rail over wire, or barbed wire coming in from the pastures, joined at braced posts. On a game place the pens may sit inside high fence. If cattle come up from a creek into the pens, that crossing needs a water gap.

Pens take the most abuse on a place. Over time you'll see bent rails, broken welds, sagging gates, and posts worked loose by cattle pressure.

We re-weld and replace rails, reset posts, re-hang gates, and rework old pens that don't flow. A few new gates and a moved alley can fix a layout that's fought you for years. See fence repair and rebuilds.