Funny how cattle act!!!

Saw Dave for MN post on getting his heifer back home. It got me to thinking about all the years I have been around livestock. Had some fun times around them. I don't want to ever be with out a few cows.

My first wife loved to fool with the brood cows. She checked them every day, year round. She always took them some treats in a couple of white five gallon buckets, sweet feed, apple peelings,etc. They would follow her where ever she went. It was funny watching her try to pick berries with all of the cows following her around. We had over three hundred cows for a few years. We would have to move them from farm to farm as they eat the pasture down. This was long before ATVs where ever around. My wife had a three wheeled bicycle with the basket between the back wheels. She would put her buckets in that basket and just pedal along slowly up the road. Everyone of them cows would up and follow her just simple as could be. I would ride drag in the pickup. That brings back some memories that are over thirty year old.

Another funny happening. I had a heifer that my kids had shown in the county fair. She was halter broke and gentle as a lamb. (She was born on this farm and is buried here too) When this heifer was 5-6 years old she started to get out of the pasture. You would not know it until she would come up to the shop and bawl wanting let back in with the rest. She never would go to the road and I could not find out where she was getting out at. It would happen once or twice each week. I about had a path worn looking for holes in the fence. Found out how she was getting out. My Great Grand Dad was living with us at the time. He was in the early stages of Alzheimer's. He loved to work with cattle. He was calling her over to the gate and letting her out into the yard. He would then brush her and talk to her. He then would just go back into the house forgetting to put her back in. My sister finally saw him doing it. I just fenced in a small corner of the pasture with a small shed for the heifer and her calves. He would go there everyday he lived with us an brush her and talk to her. Even after he had to go to a rest home we would bring him out to the farm so he could visit her. He lived ten more years after he started brushing and talking to that cow. She lived to be 26 years old. I buried her in that small pasture lot under a big Oak shade tree that is there. She paid her way in raising calves and taking care of people. Funny how some animals seem to know how act different with people that have troubles.

So post some of your good times with your cattle/cows.

Different strokes for different folks, but I never did develop an affection for cows or horses. A natural result, I suppose, for spending 12 of my growing-up years inseparable from them due to the fact that we had a small family dairy. I was with those cows from 4:30 in the morning until 7, when I caught the bus to school. At 4 p.m. I rejoined the cows until 7 or 8, then homework and bed. There was time for little else.

We didn't have hired help so this was 365 days a year. Christmas was just another milking day. Bury Grandma, come back from the cemetery and milk. I'm not complaining about it, it was good for the body, good for the soul, but as a teenager there were just other things I'd have rather been doing.

Also, working with dairy cattle every day doesn't evoke the same imagery as might the "happy vaquero" out punchin' dogies. Even though our "girls" all had names, and we knew each one, mostly all we saw of them were their butts and their udders. Their faces were hidden in the stanchions, buried in their dairy ration.

Sure, we got to know their different personalities. We knew which ones were pets and which ones would kick the snot out of you if you didn't put the "kickers" on them. Some came into the world wild and crazy, and they were always wild and crazy. We even knew which ones were probably going to crap on the floor, prompting us to keep the shovel within reach when the tail began to twitch.

So, while I respect and applaud those of you who have kept this country's cattle industry alive and well, I have no nostalgia for it. I have no regrets either; that experience was a positive and formative part of my life but it is well in my past.

When my wife and I were first dating I had a cow with new calf in a lot next to the barn, she walked up to the fence alone as I was occupied to see the calf, 91 as she was always known had a nasty dispostion daily but was plain nuts with calf. 91 proceded to charge the fence but an old black baldy took it upon herself to t-bone old 91 and put her in her place.
Another favorite is simply that crazy old %#$&#. I bought 25 bred cows this spring and never did get her in the chute to work her or tag her. She had a nice heifer calf that nearly got me plowed under tagging it in the calving pen...but momma is the first to the pickup or feed trough and loves to be scratched behind the ears out on the pasture...just don't try to pen her up.
These old cows are my relaxation and about the only thing that keep old Harold going since he lost his wife of 57 years this spring.

Jerry I agree with you. You dairy guys were married to those cows. Even though I never milked, except when I helped my uncle out, I know how much work milking is.

I too got burned out on livestock.

Dad had a part time business that took off about the time I was a freshman in High School. So every morning and night I had to either help with or do the hog and cattle chores myself.


I received no financial gain from it. Dad needed every penny to pay the mortgage on the farm. By the time I was a junior I was doing the chores myself and working late nights 30 hours a week at a supper club to make some money for myself.

After high school I continued to care for the livestock on shares for dad. We 75 stock cows and about 100 sows and all there offspring. In the 80's I had to take an off farm job and still care for the livestock to make ends meet.There was no such thing as a weekend off. I was busy grinding feed and hauling manure so I could work in town during the week. And I still had 3 to 4 hours of chores everyday. In the mid 90's when hogs hit 13 cents a pound and a disease problem set in the hogs went down the road. What a relief on my back.

After some health issues of my own in 2005 I decided I was not gonna tie myself to the farm much longer. In 2009 the cows went down the road as well. Now if I want to get away for a week or two in between crop farming I can.

I have found there is life after livestock farming and it is great.

I kept a little equipment in case the grandkids wanted some livestock for 4H projects. But I am kinda hoping they don't.

I don't miss the cows one bit.

Gary

I agree with Gary i grew up on a Michigan dairy farm 40s and 50s. went in the service and got in the cow calf operation in the 80s.mostly brahmas and crossbreds these are a whole new ball game.i;ve been run over stomped and chased but i liked it i miss mine had to sell em in June combination of health problems and the drought. Had a heifer that was raised for show by my son climb in my new pickup after range cubes. And a brahma bull get a tomato cage wrapped around his neck like a horse collar he was so mad he was tearing trees down. When we finally got him in the chute the minute he felt me cut the first strand of wire he quit fighting and stood there like a puppy dog.

We left the farm In 1973. I was 17 I thought I was going to die but not because of leaving the animals.We had cows,horses,pigs,chickens,6or 8 hunting dogs,even 2 burros from Arizona. I don't miss any of them.I got more whippings for things I didn't do or did wrong with the animals. My family doesn't understand why I have no desire to own dogs or cats or even tropical fish.
Our last milk cow got belligerent one day and got out, after several attempts we finally got her back in the pasture we watched as she ran to the far side and over the fence back out again. Dad had had enough and went to the house and came back with his shotgun I didn't know what he was going to do. He got behind her at a distance and let go with a load of small shot in her back side and nobody had to herd her back to the gate and back in the pasture.

Ron

Good stories. Our little place has steep hillsides, lots of it unsafe for mowing, and we keep a few head of cattle to help keep the brush in check. We get rid of the crazy ones, but they have to show themselves before you know they're crazy. The Brahma bull/tomato cage story reminded me of a young brahma that had a habit of squeezing through the slats of a round bale feeder. One morning the feeder was gone, the fence was wrecked, and the cattle were out. That brahma had gotten stuck in the slats and tore up everything getting loose. Did she learn? No - it happened a couple more times before she got too big to fit between the slats. We slowly bred away from the brahma line. They were pets in the pasture, but some or most went crazy when you shut a gate behind them, at least in my experience.

I worked on a dairy farm in high school. No milkers for me.

I liked raising hogs, but I also liked making a profit, and in the eighties the words hogs and profit were seldom used in the same sentence.

When I was dating my wife, her dad had a real tame black bull that he couldn't keep in. One night I was leaving their house to go home. This was in the era when it was dark outside at night. I was gingerly feeling my way out to my black '56 Ford when I stumbled over the bull laying in the front yard. Scared the snot out of both of us.

Jerry, Marilyn has the same story as you. She has no time for cows because of her milking days when she was a kid. I kind of like the old bossies. Jim

I wouldn't know how to act if I didn't have at least a 1/2 doz feeders on hand to care for. Although they are alot easier to tend to than a herd of brood cows. I have a two ton and a one ton steer stuffer and automatic water. Just grind feed once a week and give them some beeding in the winter. Don't make much money on them but I just enjoy having them around. I am able to get away for a week or two at a time. Just fill the feeders and the neighbor will look in on them daily. I always tell my wife if something happens to me just have someone load them up and take them to the stockyard. I have a son and a couple of farm buddies that would step up in a emergency.

One of the best stories I have ever read.

I've seen dad with tears in his eyes only twice. The first time was when mom passed away. The second time was when he sold the stock cows. They went to the sale barn and after the sale we were sitting in dad's house talking about the personalities of the different cows. He had to quit talking about them for a few minutes to regain his composure. Jim

I had LOTS of good times with cattle; they involved loading up feeder cattle (500-800#), 24 head at a time and hauling them to the sale barn or feeder calf sale; actually, the good time was 3 or 4 days later when the check came in the mail.

We have a cow that was borrn and raised on our farm. Olivia had been shown since she was a calf and loved to ride in the trailer.She had made the trip from Oklahoma to Madison many times.One year when she was about 12 son was going to a state show and was loading up and she was insistant on getting in the trailer I said "Taker along it is not very far." A Friends daughter was at the show and saw her and asked "Can I show Olivia" Son said "Sure" knowing Olivia knew her way around the show ring. Guess what Olivia was Grand Champion.

Grandpa usually had black Angus. They would follow him around the pasture like puppies! He could load them on a trailer same way, just lead them! He also had 2 ducks one summer-they followed him like puppies again! Porch door slammed in the AM, there they were! Turn a garden hose on them and they were in heaven!

I was raqised on a poultry farm, laying hens before cages. Eggs had to be gathered four times a day. Same feeding and watering and hauling manure as any other livetock, but I thought dairying must be easier, you only had to milk twice a day. Can't say that I miss them dang hens, and I don't have any livestock around this place. Sure do enjoy my few acres of crops though, and mighty nice to come and go as you please pretty much..

I can still see my father sitting out side under a old shade tree watching his chickens peek and his two turkey gobblers strutting around him,He loved and lived for all his farm animals

jimmy

Grandpa would let the cows out the back gate in the winter to eat in the corn stalks. All he had to do at night was go out to the gate and call them. They would come back to the barn. They also knew the sound of the jd 630 (farmhand loader) meant some hay was on the way.

Had a cow once that one summer refused to stay in the pasture. This was rented pasture across town, so it got to be quite a pain in the butt going over to put her back in. Walked the fences, no sign of where or how she was getting out.

Finally John, the owner of the pasture, called me one day, said she was out, but he had her penned in a section across the street. By the time I got there she was out again, but this time John said he found how she was getting out. Said as he watched, this 1200 pound Hereford walked up the gate - a four foot gate hung 6" off the ground - and did a standing jump over the gate.

I liked that cow, but no way I was going to put up deer fencing just to keep her in, so off to auction she went...