Loading cattle (sort of)

[sandhills]

I just read Srucegum's thread about throwing a track and it reminded me of yesterday morning.  The day before my wife, stepson, and daughters helped dad and I work our spring calves.  I still had first calvers and their fall calves at my pasture/field and thought I'd feed them in the catch pen that evening so I could lock them up and bring them home the next day to work those calves.  Well all went great, almost. I got them penned up that night and went back in the morning with the trailer, I don't have an actual catch pen there, it's all portable panels so I made a little alley to back the trailer to, backed up and fastened everything up, and lo and behold, exactly what I wanted was standing in the alley.  This was ENTIRELY too good to be true, got 2 of the heifers and ALL the calves standing there, gate shut behind them, and they start jumping in the trailer.  Only had 4 calves left to get in and one gets its head under the panel, lifts it a few feet up and away they go.  I never sorted a hoof or even opened my mouth, like I said, I knew it was too good to be true so tomorrow I'll try it again.   

[red oaks lumber]

man do i know that feeling sad thing is now they know somethings up
 good luck

[JV]

I got out of the cattle business years ago but have a neighbor who still raises a few calves.  He and I were talking this afternoon about cattle and livestock in general.  Dad had several friends who hauled stock and I remember loading cattle or hogs to go to the yards at Indianapolis a 70 mile trip one way.  Hauling in some of those trucks back in the 50's and 60's could get interesting to say the least.  Most places including ours really weren't set up with good pens so loading could get exciting sometimes.  I swear some of those critters were crossed with kangaroos or mules.  Mixed loads of hogs and cattle were a challenge.  I remember tailing and old sow up the chute when one of Dad's ornery friends zapped her with a hotshot.  Lit her and me up, both went up the chute and didn't stop until we hit the front.  He just stood there and laughed with me vowing revenge.  Most of those guys at sometime had broken ribs, arms, or worse.  I wouldn't even attempt it today.   

[Roxie]

Hauling livestock is how Cowboy Bob makes a living and there is a definite art to handling those critters.  I've got nothing but respect for those guys. 

For a really wild bunch that isn't accustomed to being handled, he puts a few scoops of feed in the nose of the trailer to keep them interested until he gets the stragglers on. 

You did the right thing in calling it a day and trying again tomorrow.  Stay calm, don't hurry and you'll get the job done.   

[Kansas]

I won't say their isn't a place for horses and ATVs.. But it was a lot easier using a feed bucket. Didn't even have to be much grain at all. I used to buy flyweight calves from the sale barns, usually in small bunches or singles. Some arrived pretty wild. Soon as they learned what was in the bucket, you could do about whatever you wanted. I always tried to have at least one bunk in the pen. That way they were used to following you. Just had to watch out you didn't get run over. They always remembered that bucket when they got turned out to pasture, too.

[Norm]

Shot the first one that gets out...it makes the others think twice about it. 

[Magicman]

Back in our cattle days, we had to shoot and eat a few that had bad habits.  It is truly amazing what cattle can do when they are scared or sometimes just decide to do it.

I have not had the first tree to jump a fence and get out.   

[Roxie]

The feed bucket stampede reminds me of an incident we had back when we rented a barn and pasture from a complete greenhorn who was a young classical musician. 

We had a line back steer we named Blue.  Since birth, Blue knew that big white five gallon bucket meant warm milk.  Admittedly, we kept him on milk way too long, but he never forgot that bucket.  One day, we were in the field working on a baler, and the musician decided he was gonna take some trash to the burn pit down in the pasture.  At first, we didn't think much of the event, until we heard Blue let out a bellow like a freight train.  Sure enough, the musician was strolling through the pasture carrying that trash in a white bucket.  Blue took off, the musician took off and we were screaming "drop the bucket!  drop the bucket!"  The guy finally dropped it as he climbed the nearest tree.  Blue sure was upset with that bucket of trash.  He knocked it all over the pasture in his frustration. 

We still laugh when we think of it. 

[sandhills]

Yeah, they've been getting fed in the pen everyday, I'd rather them follow me then me chase them.  Our cattle for the most part are really tame and used to being handled, but I also work at the salebarn in town where we see pretty much everything from time to time, including broken bones.  Sent another guy off 2 weeks ago to get his wrist pinned back together  .

[sandhills]

Roxie, we had a bull that was the same way with grain, but he'd knock you down to get it  .  He didn't last too long, don't think he'd hurt you but never hung on to the bucket long enough to find out  .

[Roxie]

Bulls are in a different category all together.  Cows and steers that act like bulls also go into that category. 

The very first bull that I rode with CB to haul, was a 2600 pound Angus.  CB put a cow in the nose and closed the front gate.  He backed up to the pen and made sure we were tight and then opened the back.  I stood there and said, "What do we do now?" because that big boy wasn't making a move.  CB said, "We wait for him to decide he wants to go on."  After about five minutes of sniffing he walked into that trailer acting a perfect gentleman. 

What kind of cattle do you raise? 

[LeeB]

I gotta load up a steer and take to the butcher whenI get home and don't really have any good set up for doing so. i sure was hoping to glean a little learning from this thread that would help. I was supposed to take him in several months back and even enticed him into the trailer. To bad it was two days early and 100 degree temps. I let him back out and haven't been able to get him near the trailer since. 

[Kansas]

Just start feeding him in the trailer. Back it up to wherever he is penned... put whatever you are feeding him in there, pull his other food sources. It won't take long. With luck, he might start laying down in there. Makes it a lot easier when you throw that back gate around.. because if he hits it at a dead run while your trying to shut it.. well, it was nice to know you.

[Roxie]

If you are hauling him to the butcher shop, loading him may be the least of your problems.  They can smell what that place is about and refuse to unload.  Fortunately, most butcher shops are set up to deal with the freak out that ensues.

There have been a few times when a skid loader with a bucket was useful to herd them onto the trailer.  This only works if your fella is more afraid of the loader than the trailer. 

Do you have a chute that is narrow enough to keep them from switching back or are you loading directly from the pasture? 

Kansas suggestion is the best method if you are loading him out of a pen in the barn. 

[LeeB]

Small pasture straight to the trailer. Another problem is that he is in the same small pasture as my old horse and the donkey. Keeping him off the feed is tough because he bullies the donkey for his. I don't want to freak him too bad. Not out of any kind of sentiment for him, his name has been steak meat since I got him, but to keep the meat tastier.

[sandhills]

Roxie, we raise angus, and yes bulls are a whole different creature, I hate bulls.  As far as transporting goes you should see some of the bone heads that pull into the salebarn to load cattle, how they remain among the living is beyond me. They may have a cdl and drive a semi but that's pretty much where the experience runs out, no livestock no how whatsoever  .

LeeB, Kansas has the right solution, much like training any animal just let it decide it's more comfortable in the trailer than out.  Do you have any neighbors that would loan you a few panels, or could you string up a hot wire between him and the other animals to keep him off their feed?  I don't think it would take him long to figure out where the feed is and shouldn't hurt the quality of the meat any.  Good luck!

[Roxie]

Sandhills, we've seen some of those bone head haulers too.  Not a lick of sense and just hollering and upsetting the animals for no reason, except ignorance. 

If we pull into the auction chutes next to one of these guys, we just move to a quieter unloading area.  CB was raised on a dairy farm and keeping them calm and happy is crucial to milk cows.  As anyone that has visited a barn knows, just something as simple as a stranger walking in will cause them all to start pooing to show their displeasure.  So freaking out and screaming is really very counter productive. 

You aren't going to out-muscle anything bigger than the 150 pound calf stage, but they are remarkably easy to outsmart. 

LeeB, I think your donkey and horse are going to have to spend the night in the barn or another pasture until you get the steak guy loaded.  If his water and feed are in the trailer, he will go in, quietly. 

[Corley5]

My Grandpa Whittaker wasn't a patient man especially when it came to the cattle.  It just wasn't his nature.  He'd get wound up and start running, chasing, yelling and waving his arms.  It just didn't work    He'd been around livestock his whole life and never figured it out.  The last few years we had cattle Dad and I would slip in and between the two of us we could sort the calves from cows in just few minutes with very little excitement    Grandpa always told us later we should have came and got him to help us 

[sandhills]

Roxie, you're spot on with the milk cows, I used to hate it when people would show up and try to "help out", it usually took twice as long then  .

Corley5, we have a group of cattle that come to our salebarn every year and they come in 2 days before the sale, for just that reason.  It takes 3 of us an entire day to sort those cattle, we've all worked together long enough not a word is spoken the whole day, no big movements, and it takes 2 sorting alleys so they have plenty of room to run out of steam before they start hitting gates.  In other words it's not fun, but of course if you ask the owners, those calves weren't that way until they got there  .  We can normally sort twice as many head in about an hour between the 2 alleys, and that's with other animals and people all over the place.  Some people just shouldn't have livestock.

[Woodwalker]

Some years ago I had trailered a couple of tame cows over to a buddies and left them there with his bull till they calved. He had a good set of working pens and loading chute.  I backed the trailer up, slid the gate open and proceeded to load one  cow and calf in the front of trailer, close the divider gate and load the second pair  in the rear of the trailer. Things were going real well, I had one pair headed up the chute and shooing them into the front of the trailer. I had them moving at a pretty good pace and was intent on closing the divider gate when my forehead made contact with the steel bar on the rear sliding gate. I distantly remember a dull gong sound.
I came to some time later with a goose egg on my forehead, a bad headache and both pair of cows and calves were back in the lot.