Livestock Trailers to Fit Every Need
Livestock Trailers to Fit Every Need
Stock trailers have improved a lot in the last 60 years, in terms of durability and safety for the livestock and the people hauling them. There are also a lot more options for custom-built trailers to fit the specific needs of any rancher or livestock hauler. Here are a few examples.
Neckover Trailers
For over 50 years, Neckover Trailers has operated out of Troup, Texas—a small community between Tyler and Jacksonville. Today, this company is known for its unwavering commitment to building high-quality, custom livestock trailers that meet the everyday needs of ranchers across the country.
“We specialize in livestock trailers,” says Joe Galvan, General Manager. “That’s our bread and butter. While we also build hay trailers—including our 14-bale Hay Swift, 3- and 5- bale models—plus wagons, utility car haulers, flatbed dovetails, and truck beds, but our primary focus remains on stock trailers, built to perform.”
Unlike modular builds, Neckover trailers are custom-crafted to order. “We build bumper pulls and goosenecks ranging from 14 feet up to 40 feet,” Galvan explains. “That includes everything from mini-ground trailers to full ground-load models. Each trailer is tailored to the customer’s needs—pipe sides, plank sides, square tubing, you name it.”
Every trailer is unique, with options for dome lights, running lights, and light bars, walkout gates and extra cut gates, rubber or wood flooring (including cleated or smooth rubber for horse comfort), tire upgrades from 10-ply to 18-ply, four-foot centers and other structural enhancements. With over 50 employees, Neckover produces 30 to 40 livestock trailers each month. Lead times typically range from 90 to 120 days, depending on customization. Customers can choose from 12 different colors, and trailers are available with or without canvas tops—all fabricated in-house.
“We manufacture nearly everything ourselves, including the canvas tops,” Galvan says. “That gives us control over quality and flexibility in design. Neckover operates exclusively through a dealer-based network. We don’t sell direct to the public; our dealers are our partners, and they help us reach ranchers who rely on our trailers day in and day out.”
While Neckover doesn’t build horse trailers, many ranchers use their stock trailers to haul horses. “We can accommodate that with smoother rubber flooring that’s easier on hooves. Rubber floors are long-lasting, non-slip, and provide better cushion for feet and legs. Our specialty is ranch trailers,” Galvan says.
Shelby Trailer Service
The rubber flooring comes from Shelby Trailer Service, LLC, a small family owned and operated extrusion company in Comanche, Oklahoma that specializes in recycled tire rubber and plastic products. The Shelby family has been in the trailer industry since 1972 and has been manufacturing recycled rubber/plastic products since 1999. The owner, Ronnie Shelby, was looking for an alternative to some of the products on the market and decided to venture into extruding composite lumber (created from recycled materials) for the livestock trailer industry, and started this process in the mid 1990’s. It took time to develop a flooring product that could withstand the abuse, wear, and tear in a heavily-used stock trailer.
“He started out by creating livestock lug boards,” says J’Lynn Olah, general manager of the company today. “Lug boards have raised cleats for extra traction. Over time, different customers needed different products so we began making a tongue-and-groove board for horse trailers, cargo trailers and small implement trailers,” she says.
“The next board we made was for heavy equipment trailers and this board is a 2-by-8 size. Our flooring is a rubber-plastic composite made from 100% recycled material and it takes the place of wood in trailers—just like lumber, with the same dimensions—but lasts a lot longer. It’s not damaged by moisture and is much more durable, and comes with a 20-year warranty,” she says.
“Installation of our boards is the same as for lumber but the cutting is a little different.” These composite boards are easy to work with or add to an existing trailer. They can be installed on 12-foot centers for bracing. Someone with a trailer with old warped or rotten boards could replace them with this.
“Many trailer manufacturers use our flooring as a standard item in their trailers and some provide the option of either wood or our flooring. Many of their customers choose our flooring because they don’t have to worry about it.” Unless a person is diligent about cleaning out a trailer after every use and keeping wooden floors dry, they tend to rot and deteriorate over time and can become unsafe.
The recycled rubber tires and plastic for the composite flooring is all sourced in the U.S. and all the manufacturing is done in the U.S. This material never cracks and can withstand a lot of abuse. “Cow manure, urine, or even oil and diesel doesn’t bother it, so we also make equipment trailers as well as livestock and horse trailers,” says Olah.
“Our crew works around the clock four days a week and we produce about 10 million pounds of product a year, with just 5 people. We have a very good crew of long-term employees,” she says. They take pride in their work and don’t send anything out the door that they wouldn’t buy themselves.
“We don’t retail our boards, but send them to dealers all across the country. This makes it easier for our customers or anyone who wants to get these boards to replace a bad floor. If they have a dealer in their area they can go directly to the dealer, ask questions, etc. We also receive a lot of calls here and can answer their questions, figure out what they need for their trailer and then send them to the dealer closest to them.”
The dealers know how to install these composite boards. “We have some dealers who have been with us since the beginning, and we are particular about where we put dealers; we don’t put any right next to each other. They each have a large enough territory that they don’t have to compete with one another and don’t overlap. This gives them more incentive to help everyone in their own area,” Olah says.
As general manager, she oversees everything. “I’ve been the manager for 8 years but I’ve been in the industry since 1991. Flooring is a key factor for any trailer. I’ve seen so many trailers that are nice-looking until you look at the floor. The wood is warped and doesn’t hold up, and doesn’t make the trailer look as good. It’s not as sound or safe as it should be. It’s also noisy, whereas ours is quiet.” The rubber/plastic material absorbs impact and sound, and it’s a smoother ride.
The softer flooring is also easier on the animals, with less concussion and stress. “It’s better on their feet and legs, tendons, etc. because it offers more cushion than wood or metal. Even aluminum trailers with the mat on top are rough on horses’ (or cattle) legs. With these composite tongue-and-groove boards you can still put a mat on top if you want to, but it already has a lot of cushion and buffer,” she says.
“It’s real quiet when they get in and it doesn’t clatter.” A noisy trailer is scary, especially to animals that are not accustomed to trailering. If you are trailer-training a horse, for instance, it’s not as spooky.
“We take a lot of pride in what we make, and we offer a lot of support for our customers when they have questions,” says Olah,
Kodiak Trailers
This family-owned company in Lockwood, Missouri is owned by Aaron and Casey Alumbaugh with their two daughters. “The company was started by my cousins in 1989. My wife and I purchased it in 2019 to continue the legacy of providing our customers with high-quality trailers,” Aaron says.
“We are a small manufacturer and we build steel livestock trailers, hay trailers, utility and flatbed trailers. We are proud of the safety and durability of our trailers and proud of our team and their dedication to building high-quality trailers. Every component of these trailers is made here,” he says.
“Roger Keith, our Operations Manager, has been with us for 31 years, Cliff Horton is a Crew Leader with 27 years, and Dustin LaFon is a Crew Leader with 13 years at our shop. They have a lot of experience and are very good at what they do. We are a small company and can focus on quality control. We inspect each trailer and I look over each one before they are sent out—down to the lug nuts and operation of all the gates, the hardware and coating. Everything is inspected at every stage of the process. What separates us from many companies is our team and their dedication and loyalty to the company and our customers,” Aaron says.
“We build each trailer as if we were building it for ourselves and we are blessed to have a team that puts a lot of effort into every trailer and takes a lot of pride in their work. The welding, attention to details on the prep, the paint and the finished product is exceptional.”
Kodiak has a network of dealers, but also does a lot of custom builds. “We can do many different designs. Being small allows us to be creative rather than having an assembly line producing cookie-cutter trailers. People talk to me or my wife when they call. We do all the sales and the build designs all the way through; customers will be talking to one of us—the owners. I feel we have a better connect with our customers because we can continue this small family feel,” he says.
Part of their business is repeat customers buying additional trailers or new trailers to replace old ones. “We don’t have to spend money on advertising; it’s all word of mouth and we have plenty of business. Farmers and ranchers often have certain requests for something that fits their particular operation. We’ve worked with customers in California on designs for their large ranches. They were hauling not only livestock but their loading and unloading chutes. We designed some ways they can load and unload straight up a pod, for instance,” Aaron says.
Some of the key things are safety and durability. “The three components to safety include road safety, which involves quality in design. Each componentis designed to make our trailers safe on the road not only for the people pulling them but also the other vehicles on the road. Some of the trailers I see out on the road I’m nervous to be near them!” You don’t want to follow those in case something falls off!
“We also think about safety of the person using the trailer, in terms of how the gates are designed when the livestock are being transported and when they are being loaded and unloaded. All our gates are very strong and all latches operate from the outside of the trailer.” No one has to get in with the livestock to close or latch a gate.
“All gates have a swing latch and you can work them from either side of the trailer. Our gate latch design makes them easy to operate and safe. They are also placed high enough that they are not down by your feet.”
Livestock comfort and safety is also taken into consideration in terms of gate strength to keep cattle separated when transporting bulls or any animals. The gates will never pop open, and floors are strong and easy on the animals. “The flooring system is often overlooked in many trailers, but we use Shelby livestock flooring exclusively.” These composite “boards” made from recycled rubber and plastics are very durable—stronger and lasting-longer than wood, and not as slippery.
“It provides good traction and the animals won’t slip and fall down. That’s always been a big concern with slippery floors. A wood board can warp and rot, and if a large animal goes down though the floor it’s a disaster. Using Shelby flooring, we know we won’t have any issues with livestock falling down or going through the floors.”
Trailers have become more expensive over the years, and it’s important to have a trailer that will last a long time and hold up to hard use. “Many of our customers use their trailers every day; they get a lot of use. We make sure the frame, the hinges, the neck, and even the paint coating will hold up. A good prep to make sure the coating will stick. We do a lot of research on coating to make sure it will withstand acid and corrosion, manure etc. so the trailer won’t eventually rust. We apply the best finish possible, since this is always a concern with livestock trailers,” he says.
Murdoch – Swift Built Ranch Trailers
John Murdoch (Loveland, Colorado) says his trailer business started in 2013 when his company made their first trailers. “Then in 2017 we switched manufacturers to a Mennonite colony in Mexico. They build a lot of steel products so we have a partnership with that group of people who are building our trailers,” he says.
“We offer regular stock trailers and stock combos that have a tack room in the trailer. The tack room varies from the smallest size—a two-foot tack box which can carry four saddle racks with two on each side—to several larger ones. We offer a four-foot tack walk-in tack room and a four-foot room with a door on each side so you can go all the way through the trailer. Those generally have swing-out saddle racks. Our biggest tack room is what we call our Smart Tack; it has double doors on one side and a single door on the other. It has a separating wall with saddle racks mounted to it. This is a really handy trailer for horse trainers who are hauling horses and also need all their tack with them,” John says,
The ranch style trailers generally have a half-top or three-quarter top with a two-foot tack box in the front. “For the flooring of those trailers we generally have a cleated rubber floor, and on the horse-trainer style trailer we have a smooth rubber flooring and full top. We get our rubber flooring from Shelby Trailer Service. This is great flooring; we do a lot of smooth rubber for horse trailers and two types of cleated floors for horses and cattle or just cattle,” John says.
The cattle trailers can come in different sizes and length. “We can build a trailer any length between 14 and 36 feet. The most common are 20 and 24-feet trailers for general ranch use, but people who haul a lot of cattle, like feedlot guys, like the 32 and 36-foot trailers. We custom-build each trailer to suit the customers’ needs. Each one gets its own cab model and a lot of people put their brands on those caps,” he says.
“Our crew in Mexico has made life really easy for us. They do an excellent job with their welding and putting the trailers together. We haven’t seen very many quality control or warranty issues since we switched over to them; they are very good to work with and take a lot of pride in their work.”
These custom-made trailers are shipped directly to dealers in the U.S. “I have dealers across the western half of the country. When someone orders a trailer it goes to a dealer near them,” he says.
M & M Trailer Service – Emergency Repairs
This truck and trailer service business location is on Highway 7 going west between Marlow and Duncan, Oklahoma, and the owner is David McCarley. “We carry a full line of parts for just about any trailer—all the bearings and brakes, etc. That is to say, we repair all brands of trailers and have customers from South Dakota to North Carolina, to California. We have people come in here from everywhere,” he says.
“There are a lot of rodeo and bull riding events at the fairgrounds here at Duncan and many of my customers make arrangement for us to fix something when they are coming in. The one gentleman comes from North Carolina and we’ve worked on his trailer a couple of times while he was here,” David says.
“We also get a lot of emergency calls when people are traveling. One guy from South Dakota was hauling bucking horses to a rodeo in Fort Worth, Texas, and a guy from Fort Worth was hauling a load of bucking bulls to a rodeo in Kansas. We are not very far from interstate 44 and people traveling up and down that freeway might call us if they lose a hub, burn some bearings out or have some other kind of trailer problem. They can stop in here and we can fix it a short time. We just don’t do tires; we are not a tire shop, but we can fix anything else,” he says.
“We have almost everything right here in the store on the shelf. If someone comes in with an emergency, we have the parts they need.”
By Heather Smith Thomas
November 2025
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