pics. working cattle.

It was decided that today was the day. We ran the yearlings in and gave them a couple shots and brought them home so we can finish them out and it was time to get the cows and calves in and get them the shots they need untill weaning.
This will make chores a little easier during harvest and keep eveybody happy and healthy.


A pen full of the calves headed to the feedlot. They worked pretty easy and we got them home in good shape.


Some of the cows in the pens the calves were mixed in with them which we learned can be a problem.



Nick busy doing his part. I chase the cows in the mud and get yell and throw things and all he gets to do is give shots so I have the better part of this deal for sure! Seriously, how can some cows be soooo hard headed? I cant really complain much as its pretty calm group of cattle.


Everything was going pretty well untill totally out of the blue one of the old semmi cows thought she could go over this gate, she did, TWICE! I called her a couple of names and we left her out after the second time so as not to tear anything else up. It was quite a suprise, she is calm as can be but just wanted over that gate for some reason.

One of the cows waiting her turn in the chute.


This is our little freemartin heifer. Growing like a weed and cute as can be.


This is her brother. We still call them shake and bake. They are very good at stalking the other cows and stealing milk from them while their own calf is nursing. Once in a while they get caught and some of those cows dont like it much.

We spent alot of money here and one of out biggest concerns was saftey in handling the cattle. Just dont want anyone getting hurt. So of course, the first time we work cattle someone got hurt. The guys that own this farm and sold us some of the cattle and rent the farm to us stopped in with their wives this evening as we were near finishing. About this time we had a calf get down and half turned around going from the alley into the chute and then a bigger calf was wanting to go right over the top of the calf. I was working from one side trying to get him up and out of the way and nick was in front so the farmers wife reached in the alley to help push the calf back from the other side and I looked up just in time to see her pull her arm back and walk out into the barn lot. I hollered and asked if she was ok and I could tell from the response she wasnt. I got over to her as quick as I could and got a look and hollered down to her husband who was watching a gate. She showed me and her thumb was really torn open and the back of her hand had a pretty good cut. If we are lucky it will only be a bunch of stiches and nothing worse, I am a little worried it could be broke. Must have got pinched between the calves head and the side of the alley. They took off to see about getting her hand fixed up and I will check on them in the morning. I hope everything works out ok, just feel terrible she got hurt trying to give us a hand. They are both tremendous people and ALWAYS there to lend a hand when I need it and are fantastic neighbors. Just when I thought I had everyhing as safe as I could get it I realize that when dealing with livestock there is always a certain amount of danger that just has to be dealt with. So be careful out there.
bill

Have worked cattle all my life. No matter how safe you are, you still stand a chance of getting hurt. That just goes with the game.

I would suggest putting a type of anti backing up device in the chute run to keep the animal from backing up. Also on those metal gates, put a 2X6 or 2x8 along the top of the gate. It will save the gates and also will give the cow the illusion of how high the gate is. Most people will use an all most solid gate for the same reason. Ask me how I know......
If you park a tractor or such at the gate,the cows will be less abt to try to jump the gate and the tractor.
Once we had some steers to load and they were jumping all the orange gates. Finally chained a homemade gate to the front of the small dozer and pushed them down the alley to the truck. Now I know some Nebraska guys ain"t going to believe that, but that was a hard days work, loading those steers. We never went back to that guys correl any more. HTH
Good Luck and be careful
mb

Mount your red gate about a foot off the ground. This will give you more height and discourage jumping. Also on the chain or latch side dig a stub post in the ground for the gate to set on when closed. This will make the gate solid and if a cow does start to crawl over it will not give as easy and give her the idea shes winning. Also yellow Sioux gates are about the heaviest made and really stand up to heavy cattle. You can have the top of the line cattle handling equipment and still get hurt. Things just happen so quickly and all it takes is a second of inattention.

Cows and new working pin all look good. Corn looks like mine, would be nice if it had looked like that about mid August.

Dave

It's more of a pleasure working cattle with good facilities. I just went through rebuilding a loading chute because a bull jumped over a gate and broke it down. I made a new gate 6 feet high, a litle taller with it hung off the ground. It's made light, but covered with metal so the cows can't see a way to go through in so haven't challenged it yet. The boards in the chute are built about 6 feet high. Nothings tried to jump out, including the bull that broke down the gate. He's gone now.

I have a gate bent down worse that your red one. Hung the replacement higher.

KEH

Thanks Bill, I always enjoy the pictures, I am in the process of building new pens right now and like to see how others do it. Looks like a nice setup.

The "no back" devices I have tried(WW & Preifert)
work real well on even sized cattle, when adjusted
to that size.

It is often an advantage to cover a
gate or a section of fence or pen to discourage cattle from going through, over, or put pressure on; or to open up
a section where you want them to go to, but it is difficult to
predict from the start the best way to build it.
If you can start with a good set of portable panels and use tarps to cover the places you should, you can experiment until you learn the best configuration for your facilities before you make it permanent, IMHO.

I've never worked cattle, but know from horses, you do what you can to be safe and not get hurt, but accidents still happen.

Looks like your new cattle pen worked really good.

Your good work paid off.

Sorry to hear about the lady getting injured; got to be careful aroung livestock.

Thanks for sharing your photos with us; always enjoy them.

Help build corrals and gates for ranchers around here. Use 1 5/8 sched. 40 for the frame and 1 or 1 1/4 s.40 for the rails. 4 feet bottom to top. makes em 5 ft high when hung. Not too many try and few make it over. Seldom see a bent gate.
One guy ask us to come replace a gate, said his bull tore it up. When we checked it out we ask what color his bull was. 1 red and 1 black was his reply. The boss said the bull that tore up the gate was JD Green and left some hide on the gate as evidence.