Livestock chute with both parallel and V-squeeze capability, a pull-up neck extender and a robust head gate track

A livestock head gate for use at an exit of a livestock chute, said livestock gate comprising;

• a pair of gate panels movable between an open condition allowing a livestock animal to traverse through said livestock gate, and a closed condition bracing against opposing sides of said livestock animal to hold said livestock animal generally stationary within between said gate panels;
• and
• a neck extender operably installed on said gate panels for the purpose of urging a head of the livestock animal forwardly and upwardly when said livestock animal is braced and held by said gate panels;
• wherein said neck extender comprises:
• a pair of neck bars supported in generally upright orientations at front sides of the gate panels at positions disposed respectively adjacent opposing sides of a central opening between said gate panels;
• for each neck bar, a respective pair of upper and lower support links movably supporting the neck bar on a respective one of the gate panels, each of said support links having a pivotal connection to the respective gate panel at a proximal end of the support link and a pivotal connection to the neck bar at an opposing distal end of the support link, of which the pivotal connection to the respective gate panel defines a horizontal pivot axis lying transversely of the head gate, about which the support link is pivotable between a stowed position hanging closely adjacent the front side of the respective gate panel, and a deployed position angling forwardly outward from the front side of the respective gate panel;
• and
• for each neck bar, a respective actuator that resides above the upper support link of the neck bar and has an upper end pivotally coupled to the respective gate panel at a higher elevation thereon than the pivotal connection of the upper support link to the gate panel, and a lower end pivotally coupled to the upper support link of said neck bar at a location situated between the distal end of the upper support link and the pivotal connection of the upper support link to the gate panel, whereby collapse of the actuator is operable to pull upwardly on the upper support link to swing the distal end thereof upwardly and outwardly from the respective gate panel from the stowed position into the deployed position, and extension of the actuator is operable to push downwardly on the upper support link to swing the distal end thereof downwardly back toward the respective gate panel and into the stowed position.