Brute Cattle Handling Equipment
Brute Cattle Handling Equipment
Every ranch and feedlot needs durable cattle-handling facilities. Even though there are many available today, some are more user-friendly and dependable. Austin Gubbels, Sales Manager for Brute Cattle Equipment, has been with this company for 10 years. “This is my family’s business–a multi-generational company in northeast Nebraska. My great uncle started it in 1968 as a manufacturing company that designed the equipment and hired another company to do the sales,” Austin says.
After his great uncle died, Austin’s grandmother owned the company for a little while. “My uncle purchased the company from her and at that time switched colors to tan, initiated the Brute Cattle Equipment name and began handling all sales in-house. That’s when we began a little different model, producing the heaviest equipment in the industry, to our knowledge. Our bread and butter has always been selling to the largest feedlots across the country, and more recently into cow-calf operations,” he says.
That doesn’t mean the facilities are any different. Ranchers must be able to restrain large bulls and need durable equipment. “Even for manufacturing it makes sense to utilize some of the same parts on all the chutes. It’s better to be extra strong than not strong enough. My great uncle believed in that goal because at that time everything—whether washing machines or TVs–were getting cheaper and only built to last 5 years. Cattle folks need something that will last. We are not just welders or businessmen; we are in the cattle industry ourselves. I use our equipment every day,” Austin says.
Today, Brute Cattle Equipment offers a full line of hydraulic cattle squeeze chutes, cattle alleys, tubs, and loadouts—designed to save time, withstand wear and tear of daily use and harsh weather and built with safety in mind for the operator and the livestock. “This is something we believe in, and also feel we have a responsibility to our fellow cattlemen to sell them equipment that will last forever; we know what they need.”
This company doesn’t utilize dealers. “Our customers deal with me directly, throughout the majority of the process. We have a hands-on approach, whether for customer service, quality control, etc. to make sure our customers actually receive the product they need. That’s also a way we can cut our margins and produce a heavy piece of equipment and still stay competitive in price. A dealership will want a 15 to 20% markup on top of our price, since they need to make money, too. If we sell something straight from the factory, we can give our customers a better deal,” he says.
Brute equipment has now gone into 40 states and 5 different countries. Over the years, quality control has become better, with a more consistent product. “Now with hydraulic chutes we not only have the heaviest, but also strive to be the quietest.” This makes a big difference when people are working cattle, stressing them less.
“We’ve made a lot of changes in the past couple years, making everything as quiet as possible as well as being as strong as it can be. We have a unique, patented angled headgate for these squeeze chutes. This is a simple design change, since cows don’t have square shoulders. Everyone else produces a square chute, but the angled headcatch spreads the impact across a greater surface area, which reduces stress and bruising,” Austin says.
“I know that cattle going through a facility or squeeze chute by themselves, if there are fewer bruise points, and less stress on the animal. The lower we can keep the cortisol levels in that animal and the less sore it is, the faster it will return to full feed. This makes for more efficient feeding.
Even on a cow-calf operation where cows may only be worked once or twice a year, if a cow has a bad experience in the chute, she doesn’t want to go into it again. “Our angled headgate sets us apart. People think our chute looks funny but it gives superior neck injection access—whether in front of the headgate or behind it. The animal also comes out more readily. The design encourages forward movement and the animal doesn’t back up in the chute as much,” he says.
A big factor is less bruising, fewer abscesses from vaccines, etc. “Antibiotics are going into healthy tissue versus damaged tissue, so the animal responds better to these drugs as well. Everything is geared to low stress handling. Temple Grandin has had an influence on what we do; we believe in keeping things quiet, and fewer bruise points.”
The way the Brute equipment is made, everything is built in sections. “We can talk the customer through many different scenarios based on their existing yard or pens or the setup they already have. We can outfit a barn that’s been there for 40 or 50 years. Also, we can help them remodel and improve what they already have. I can get a general understanding of what they need, whether through photos, hand sketches or visiting them in person, to get an idea how their operation works. Then I can put this through a computer program and drag and drop our pieces into that and see exactly how they fit, to scale with what the farmer or rancher already has,” he says.
“There are many different customizable designs that we can make work, in an existing infrastructure. This is a huge benefit and we can make a good, flowing system they will be happy with, utilizing a lot of what they already have. If they are going to spend a lot of money they want to do it once and do it right. I don’t believe in cookie cutter one-way-to-do things,” Austin says.
“We take a lot of things into consideration, whether we are using the equipment or hear from our customers; we are big on wanting feedback, all the time. We are always willing to change or see our product from a different point of view. In everything we do, we also use as many U.S. materials as possible. Our equipment is built here, our sales and shop are in the same area, using American hoses, steel, etc.”
March 2026
By Heather Smith Thomas
