Efficiency, safety and longevity are top of mind for everyone who works cattle at home on the ranch or on the rodeo trail. Moly Manufacturing is synonymous with quality equipment that makes the romanticized version of ranching just a little bit closer to reality.
A pound of beef is worth a lot in 2025, and nobody knows that better than the cattlemen and women who raise the roughly 28 million head of cattle in the U.S. Every management decision either packs the pounds on or stresses them away.
One of the most important pieces of equipment at the rancher’s right hand is a squeeze chute. Gone are the days of bangin’ and clangin’ through the chute thanks to Moly Manufacturing and their flagship product: the SILENCER hydraulic squeeze chute. SILENCER is a registered trademark, and All-Purpose Corral is a trademark of Moly Manufacturing, LLC.
“I grew up in the cattle industry, and I always knew that if someone had a SILENCER chute, they were big in the cattle business — top tier,” says Jesse Pope, who is not only a world champion bareback rider, but also a full-time day-working cowboy when he’s back home in Garnett, Kansas.
Like Pope, Haven Meged was a ranching cowboy long before he entered the rodeo arena. He’s spent much time around cattle of every shape and size and watched what bad equipment does to their demeanor and the prices they bring on the rail.
Haven Meged
“I remember working at the sale barn, and that chute was big and loud. We couldn’t hear the person standing next to us when it was running,” Meged says. “Once they put the SILENCER in, the cattle started working much smoother.”
More than just the quiet, Meged noticed how easy the chute was to use. That also made a difference in keeping cattle calm during stressful situations. Even more than that, it kept people and animals safe.
“With those old chutes, if you put your finger in the wrong place, they were liable to get cut off,” Meged says. “With the SILENCER, we can have kids around without worrying about them being in the wrong place when something closes.”
Merging his life on the road with his time at home, Meged uses his SILENCER for the cattle he raises to make a living and the ones he practices on. The record-breaking calf roper has made six trips to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo so far in his career, so he has plenty of cattle to work, no matter if he’s back in his hometown of Miles City, Montana, or down in Stephenville, Texas, with his wife, Shelby (Boisjoli) Meged.
“Everything about the chute is universal. I can easily adjust the floor so when we’re working our roping calves, we can tighten up the floor a bit,” Meged says.
Adding the all-purpose portable corral to their lineup, Meged works a lot of different animals out in the center of a pasture.
“The panels are on wheels, so I can set the whole thing up in probably 10 minutes or less,” Meged says. “They’re sturdy too, so it doesn’t matter if we’re working broodmares, big Angus bulls or little roping calves.”
For someone who spends almost half the year on the rodeo trail, time is money. The SILENCER and portable panels help Meged make the most of his time when he’s a ranching cowboy, so he has plenty of time to dedicate to being a rodeo cowboy.
Jesse Pope
Pope earned his first dollar as a day-working cowboy, and he’s still doing just that in between rodeo perfs.
“If I’m not at a rodeo, I’m usually day-working for somebody, and the portable SILENCER chute makes that a whole lot easier,” Pope says. “I probably work close to 10,000 head of cattle in a year, and that doesn’t include my own herd. Not all of those go through my chute, but a large majority of them do.”
Selling himself and the portable SILENCER as a package deal has worked well for Pope. So long as he has a gallon of gas, Pope can run cattle through the chute all day long.
“I feel like God gave me the talent and the tools to run around and help people work their cows in a low-stress environment,” Pope says. “Humans are the only ones who can take care of themselves and other species; it’s our job to be stewards of the land and animals.”
Delving into the long-eared cattle business, Pope crosses Brahman bulls on Hereford cows to get tiger stripe heifers. Brahmans aren’t known for their easy-going disposition, but Pope’s doing his best to change that through quiet handling and equipment that makes life easier for everyone.
“All the hydraulic parts of the chute let me ease these heifers in, and once they’re caught, I can reduce their stress by the way they’re being squeezed,” Pope says. “I’m trying to give my cattle a good foundation so that whoever buys them will be able to work them easily.”
Pope added the palpation gate option for his chute, which is handy since he’s been artificially inseminating his heifers. He’s only had the chute for about 18 months, but he’s already noticed his fertility rates have increased.
“Moly Manufacturing has done a fabulous job of understanding how cattle work,” Pope says. “As with any type of manual labor, if you can control the uncontrollable factors, that makes the biggest difference. If you can stabilize a cow from her foot to her back, that reduces everyone’s stress and makes everything that much safer.”
Rubber padding, well-placed blinders and quiet mechanisms make the SILENCER a dream for anyone to operate. Each piece of equipment that leaves Moly Manufacturing in Lorraine, Kansas, was first rigorously tested on a real cattle operation.
Even though it’s the luck of the draw with every rodeo Pope and Meged enter, there’s nothing left to chance back at home thanks to Moly Manufacturing and their dedication to their customers.
“Rodeo was born of the working cowboy,” Pope says. “As the cattle industry has changed dramatically, rodeo remains kind of the same as it always was. Moly has done a great job of transforming the way we work cattle while staying true to the roots of the industry through their support of rodeo and the Western industry.”
