The core of Conover Gate Co. all started in an old bank barn in January, using the same mixed matched gates and panels that we all have seen and used, tied together with bale twine, we would occasionally get some of the commercially available gates, and find ourselves saying, these work decent, but …..( fill in the blank) or why wouldn’t they just do …. (fill in the blank) instead, and if they made it through one lambing season they were what we considered the “good” equipment. Through this experience we started to realize that if we wanted to have the functional and durable equipment that we had in mind, we may just have to start making our own. It could also be said that it was partially motivated by the countless times trying to negotiate the ewes back into the barn/ lot/ pen they just escaped from( hence the tagline ” because catching escaped livestock is fun for no one!”)
In 2016 we started building gates for hire, from lambing pens, cattle gates, and show pens, the local projects continued to present themselves, and the theme that continued to show up was people who were tired of fighting with the same equipment that either didn’t last, or just didn’t work well for the needed use, and through the early years there was a lot learned from the customers about the ideal designs, and ideas they had to make something work better.
Today, having done 8 different fair pen set ups, a few thousand show pens, countless custom gates, feeders, and handling equipment we still hold strong to quality and usability first mindset, and are always looking for new ideas to make things better, we believe that we make the second best equipment period, the only equipment that outperforms, is the equipment we are working on developing in response to feedback and ideas we get along the way.
We are actively working on new products including aluminum truck bed boxes, trimming stands, feeders, fan racks, show boxes, calf rearing pens, farrowing crates, and creep gates just to name a few, and are always looking for feedback or input on anything that needs to be built, or built better.
Conover Gate Company 