COWS ARE OUT!

rrlund

Well-known Member
What a way to start a Sunday morning. I saw a heifer walking along the fence first thing this morning and things just didn't look right. The cows can get in that pasture,but don't usually because the feeder is in another field. She was walking kind of quick and looking at the fence. Sure enough,the gate in the corner of the feedlot was open and there was only about a dozen of the 65 or so that should be in there that were still there. I ran around back and about half were still on the concrete,so I shut the gate and got them back in and shut the gate.

There was a bunch still in that west pasture,so I dragged some gates around and got them back in the cow lot and shut the gate on them before I came in and got the wife. There was 8 of them around by the feeder to the east with the cows. We got all but one. He jumped up on a board fence right in the corner and smashed it down. I wired a gate up there. He'll have to settle down and come back on his own.

We usually only use that gate that they got open,to move cull cows in to the feedlot to load them out and I keep a wire on the chain so they can't lick the chain off. They must have rubbed on it and broke it off or something. The only bright side,there was still a bull calf out there that belonged to a cow we had to shoot a week or so ago. He was in with the first bunch that I got back in,so he's in the pen with the rest of the weaned calves now,so that's a good thing. Not how I had planned to catch him,but he's in there.
 
Every night about dark when I come in the house the wife ask have you got all the gates shut. I say yes, but the way my mind is anymore I hope so.
 
Dangdest part of it was,I was thinking about that gate and the other one to the south,just before I got out of bed,and what a pain it would be sorting cattle if they got one open. I guess I'm psychic or something. Or maybe psycho for even still having cattle. lol
 
You were in daylite. Even more fun is when it is 3AM in the morning and a new moon. Try chasing cows by touch and sound......and you can also smell their grassy breath. The pitter patter of little cow footsies. Fun fun
 
any time an animal gets out it can a real pain.
i had some get out this summer my fault i opened a gate and forgot i had. the bull ruined a fancy pine tree
 
BTDT. Extra fun when the light was from lightning flashing just a few miles away during a severe thunderstorm. It's sure fun fixing fence when you know a lightening strike could kill you at any instant.
 
Three words i hope i never hear....but the day is coming. I've got plenty of room and would like to raise some beef for personal use. My big issue with fences is the ash trees. Have a lot of them and they fall on the fences.
 
Rr, your post reminds me of when I was about 15 yrs old we had to have all our cattle inspected and inoculated for TB. We did all the dairy cattle first. Then the next day we worked on the young stock. Getting near the end, a yearling got excited and went over the fence. We ran after her then she went across a big drainage ditch into brushy area. We had a Hl of a time to get her back across the ditch and then back into the corral area. Wouldn't you know she went over the fence again. We were sweating and puffed out.Even the inspector. Finally he said " let her go, she sure as hl doesn't have TB". Ed Will Oliver BC
 
(quoted from post at 08:52:17 11/19/17) What a way to start a Sunday morning. I saw a heifer walking along the fence first thing this morning and things just didn't look right. The cows can get in that pasture,but don't usually because the feeder is in another field. She was walking kind of quick and looking at the fence. Sure enough,the gate in the corner of the feedlot was open and there was only about a dozen of the 65 or so that should be in there that were still there. I ran around back and about half were still on the concrete,so I shut the gate and got them back in and shut the gate.

There was a bunch still in that west pasture,so I dragged some gates around and got them back in the cow lot and shut the gate on them before I came in and got the wife. There was 8 of them around by the feeder to the east with the cows. We got all but one. He jumped up on a board fence right in the corner and smashed it down. I wired a gate up there. He'll have to settle down and come back on his own.

We usually only use that gate that they got open,to move cull cows in to the feedlot to load them out and I keep a wire on the chain so they can't lick the chain off. They must have rubbed on it and broke it off or something. The only bright side,there was still a bull calf out there that belonged to a cow we had to shoot a week or so ago. He was in with the first bunch that I got back in,so he's in the pen with the rest of the weaned calves now,so that's a good thing. Not how I had planned to catch him,but he's in there.


Yeah, Sunday morning and 3" of rain, forgot to shut a gate last night, actually trying to save and up and down off the tractor and then forgot...
40 bred heifers to round up, most fairly easy but always a couple renegades. Run them down with the Ranger, donuts everywhere in the soggy fields, Dad not too happy with all the pocks in his yard. Now I need a nap. Not the first time, not the last....
 
3:30,just caught that last wild,spooky SOB. He jumped a woven wire fence with a barbed wire on top,then I thought sure he was gonna run me over while I was trying to shut a gate on him.

On the bright side,we caught that other calf this morning so we can get him castrated.
 
Almost as dreaded a message as hearing your new neighbors are from the city. Back years ago, I had an accident and tried to bench press a TD9 in a silage pit. During my recovery, I stopped down to look at a loading chute the kids had built, and hobbled (I was on crutches still) back to the house, intending to go back down in a few hours. I hung the gate on a nail. About 2 AM the phone rings. Have you got cows? Are they black? Well, they're in the middle of the road! The worst part, was the next morning was opening day of shotgun season. I took a bale of hay, and half of them followed me back down to the pasture, but about half went over behind some neighbors and back across the road and down behind a development. Another bale of hay and they filed back into the pasture behind the tractor. They were all in in a couple of hours, and none got shot- but I was worried for a bit.....
 
rrlund- "On the bright side,we caught that other calf this morning so we can get him castrated."

Heck. I'd run from you too!
 
Been there done that. Nothing empties the house faster than someone at the door yelling, "COWS ARE OUT!"

Around here it's been, "SHEEP ARE OUT!" But it has the same effect. Feel for you Randy.
 
Wasn't the same one. The one I couldn't catch weighs upwards of 1300 pounds and is almost finished. The calf is just over two months old. His mother got down in the mud a few weeks ago and we ended up having to shoot her. I got real lucky that he was in the first bunch of fats I caught this morning.
 
I just went out there to check things and the chain was out of the slot in the gate again. It was caught on the board and hadn't come open yet,thank God. I had a wire around it and they got it up past the wire somehow. I slipped it through a link in the chain and wrapped it up tight again. I'll be sleeping with one eye open tonight.
 
Used to work on Grandparents dairy farm,Uncle was supposed to take care of things nuff said. It got to be somewhat comical to wake up early in the morning not listening to the birds chirping but the cows next to the bedroom window doing what cows do best eating and farting lol
 
Back in my young and dumber days I lit off a string of firecrackers at 12:00 AM new years morning. Next morning a pipe gate in the corner of the cattle lot was about half open, bent in a U shape and the stock cows were wandering around in the field. I threw hay down and called them and they all came home but that was the last of the fireworks on this farm as long as we had cattle. I had to take the gate off, lay it down on the ground and drive the tractor over it to straighten it to get it long enough to fit the gate opening. These were dad's cows and he was not a happy camper.

Then there was the time we got a load of sandhills yearlings at 2:00 in the morning. Two of them jumped the chute and disappeared into the darkness with no idea of where home was. We finally got them back a month later but they were wilder than the wind till they went to the packing plant as fats.
 
At home it was hog got out. We had a boar that learned how to jump the fence until the neighbor hit him with a new chevy, the we had a hole to dig.
steve
 
When I was a kid still at home, the neighbors cows were always out. Had just put in a new lawn and they walked right through it. MOM WAS MAD!
 
Randy Your chain coming off the gate is why we started using pad locks and chains on ALL the gates, both ends. The steers/cows can not lick/chew them open and also the two legged problems can not open the gates unless they are supposed too.

The biggest trouble was hunters/trespassers opening gate and not closing/chaining them. Had the cows out three times in a month period. Since the padlocks we have not had any cows/steers out. You more than likely genks me now. LOL
 
This one was right in the feedlot. Not the first one they've done that to. In fact I have a safety chain on the main gate where I go in and out all the time.
 
(quoted from post at 16:44:21 11/19/17) Back in my young and dumber days I lit off a string of firecrackers at 12:00 AM new years morning. Next morning a pipe gate in the corner of the cattle lot was about half open, bent in a U shape and the stock cows were wandering around in the field. I threw hay down and called them and they all came home but that was the last of the fireworks on this farm as long as we had cattle. I had to take the gate off, lay it down on the ground and drive the tractor over it to straighten it to get it long enough to fit the gate opening. These were dad's cows and he was not a happy camper.

Then there was the time we got a load of sandhills yearlings at 2:00 in the morning. Two of them jumped the chute and disappeared into the darkness with no idea of where home was. We finally got them back a month later but they were wilder than the wind till they went to the packing plant as fats.

We have had a summer "Family Campout" here on the farm for years. We used to have fireworks on Saturday night, then were surprised when the heifers were out the next morning. Finally realized it was because of the fireworks-duh. I started calling it the "Cowzout Campout ". No fireworks anymore.
 
Then there was the night the state cop showed up about 1 AM and told us we had heifers on Interstate 5, about a mile from home. Folks were gone, so me and the hired man hauled the 4 weight heifers home 2 at a time in the back of his '46 Hudson business coupe. Cops weren't thrilled- "You need to bring a truck". "The truck won't start- this is all we've got." Turned out that pheasant hunters had cut the fence so they could get off the road to park.
 
A gal who once worked for me told me that the only time she ever heard her father swear was when the hogs got out.
 
Did a lot of cow chasin' with a neighbor who didn't bother with feed, gates, and so forth. Seemed like his cows were out every other week. My wife is not a farm girl, but she turned into an expert cow chaser that summer, and could cuss with the best. Especially after she tripped over a field cultivator in the dark one night.
 
Same thing happened here, except we were 600 miles away. Neighbor kept an eye on em. Calves weaned a week ago. They didn't go anywhere and a few jumped the fence to be back with mom. We got the rest in this morning and will have to separate them again.
 
My neighbors brimmer (brahma) bull was forever squeezing out to visit my gals but I didn't complain cause he threw a first class commercial calf. It was pretty daunting to stare him down to get him back in his pasture. He was in love.
 

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