I have to many cows

No really, I went out to my barn a couple weeks
ago and there's a strange looking cow standing
there looking at me. She didn't look familiar to
me. We have had 19 cows for over a year but now
I have 20. I share a fence with a neighbour so
thought maybe it was his. Him, his son, and his
grandson all came over and looked at her and
said its not there's. The only other close
neighbour has all black cows and this one is
brown. He said its not his. I've notified a few
local gossipers to get the word out but no one
has come forward to claim her. She has no tags
or markings of ownership.

So what do I do? Is she mine now? I don't want
to "steal" someones cow

I'd be more worried that she may be bringing a disease of some kind.............
Good luck.......

She looks 100% healthy, even the neighbours said
that. There is nothing suspicious looking about
her

Report it to the local law and then if no one claims it after something like 90 days it is yours. You do by law need to post an ad etc in the newspaper but you should be able to get that info from the cops

check with the sherrif, see what abandooned livestock law is locally. Health check may be needed as noted. Couple possibilities- someone with a loose gate on stock trailer came up one cow short at destination and doesn"t know quite where cow could get away- and driver may have marked it as a statisticly expected death in transit, collected insurance. Next possible- seasonal prank for the Samhain got away from drunk college students and cow may not have been reported stolen yet- is it dry?- then may have been out to remote pasture and not checked/counted daily. Third possible: tight times and somebody can"t feed pet, take with after a foreclosure so they decided to find a "good home" for old pet, 4H, FFA project and your address came up as good home with company for "lost" cow- is it friendly, halter broke?- check with fair grounds , farm youth groups. Another possible: owner has recently died and cow has wandered off looking for food, water, and bovine company- no report stolen/lost because owner is dead-- and maybe nearest relative decided mother"s cow isn"t going to slaughter house. Other possible: stolen cow that got away in transit and maybe from out of state, stolen report won"t be available awhile. Teasing Alert! last possible- the "brown" cow saw that deer hunting season was close and decided to hide out until hunters with poor eyesight out of field, decided to hide in your herd for cover. Some people that leave homes after loss of job will release horses, hogs, sheep as well as cats and dogs- a released cow wouldn"t be a surprise. Ohio river valley has some released, escaped domestic and some exotics wandering around, Emus supposed to be a breeding population now and causing some traffic accidents there, feral hogs a problem in S E Wisconsin, some goats in southern Illinois also. Have fun figuring out what happened, beware of naming new herd member, get back when you figure it out or Sherrif says yours after 90 days. RN

Steve,

I don't know where you are located, but here in Middle Tennessee, you are required to contact Animal Control for the county where you are located. They will either pick up the animal and take it to a farmer that has made prior arrangements with them to care for stray animals, or they'll ask you if you want to keep the animal on your farm.

If the owner doesn't claim the animal within a certain time frame, it can become your animal - if you want it. If the owner does claim the animal, the owner has to pay transportation cost for the animal plus a daily "boarding" fee for each day that the animal was cared for .

If Animal Control asks you to care the animal while they search for its owner, and if the owner does claim the animal, then you are paid the "boarding" fee for caring for the animal temporarily.

Your situation / location might be entirely different from this.

Good luck,

Tom in TN

I think you've just been counting wrong up til now. wink wink,nudge nudge

I am sure when the word is out the owner will be found. Don't they require a brand in your state? In California your cattle should have a brand, registered to you, if you raise cattle. When cattle are moved a brand inspection is also necessary. stan

I'm located in Ontario Canada, I called the police station and told him the story and kind of laughed. Said no one had reported any missing then took my name and number and said he would call if someone called looking for one. Then he said he had another call and left.

The cow has calved before but looks dried up. She nuttier than a squirel turd. I tried to get her locked in the barn one day and she beat me to the gate. She seems content in the pasture with the other cows and bull.

With the price of cattle, I can't see someone "releasing" a cow into the "wild". The number of cattle farmers around here is very limited now. No 4-h club anymore either. Nearest fair ground is 30ish km away and that fair was 6 weeks ago. I called the guy who owns and runs the local sales barn and he said he hadn't heard anything. I still think its my neighbours but he said he didn't have any with the white on her belly like this one has.

Maybe she heard how good you take care of your herd.
Came up with a plan to escape and pulled it off.

Pete

Well not sure of the hay crop up your way but in this area a lot of cattle was sold off cheap due to lack of hay and the cost to feed this winter. A few years back there was 5 calf's that where running free in this area and where very wild. Neighbor about 5 miles away owned them but could not keep them fenced in so they roamed all over. Never did find out what ever happened to them

here, basicaly if you feed it for so long its yours. most folks put a ad up in the sale barns,feed stores etc where other farmer ranchers are likely to be.and sometimes in the paper. as someone else mentioned its not all that hard to lose one out of a trailer,bro in law lost six one time when he didnt get endgate latched good.he never did find one. also do you live in a area with a lot of so called ranchettes? when times get rough and guys are losing their place for some reason or another its not at all uncommon to find strays wandering around.never did figure out why they dont haul them to the sale barn myself, but some folks if they dont have a trailer or whatever and cant keep them anymore simply turn them out. Sure dont want to alarm you any,but watch your cattle close for another reason than their health. If this is a older cow with a bunch of young ones they often will follow her,even into a trailer. with cattle prices what they are,rustling is a real problem and getting worse.if a guy can load up even a few young cattle at todays prices its a pretty good paycheck for someone whith the guts, and the odds of getting caught are low. an old judas cow that will load anywhere is a perfect cover.fellow simply drives in ,throws the gate open,old cow loads and he pushes afew more in with her. anyone shows up hes just picking up his cow and those others followed her in,if they dont show up,he simply drives away.be accross a county or state line in a couple of hours lots of times and if law doesnt know your brand or that youve lost cattle he's home free in most cases.

Keep a lock on the barn door, or you could end up with a few more, and maybe a horse or two as well.

You did right by notifying the police. There are probably laws on the books in your Province for handling the situation. Most likely if the owner is found he/she will have to compensate you. If no owner is found after a certain waiting period, the animal will be sold at public auction and you'll be compensated out of that sale.

I remember reading about a court case that happened here in Minnesota back in the 1800s. A farmer gave up on his farm and moved away in the fall leaving his cattle to fend for themselves. A neighbor took pity on the starving critters and fed them all winter at great expense. The delinquent owner returned in the spring and demanded his animals back and refused to compensate his neighbor. The court awarded the cattle back to him because that was the law. The animal control laws were expanded soon after.

One day we're stacking hay in the barn and a car stops and informs us our cows are out. I make a quick run out to the pasture and all of our cows are present, I hear a ruckus on the fence line and all of a sudden two more steers show up, not ours but in our pasture. We herd all the cows up to the barns and separate the newbies into a stall in the barn. About that time one of the local haulers comes driving buy real slow and rubbernecking. Flag him down and ask him if he's looking for anything in particular, well yes a holstein steer. Seems he loaded with the swing gate on the trailer and didn't realize the slide gate wasn't locked. The year I lived in Oklahoma we had a strange black bull show up on one of the range 1/4s. Didn't recognize the brand and none of the neighbors knew anything about it. About a week later some old boy from two counties over comes by asking if we'd seen a black Brangus bull?

Did you get a close look at her ears for a tattoo?

I had four steers that wandered off around 25 years ago and went cross country about three miless, where they joined another herd belonging to an old aquaintence from the phone company. We went over to get them back, but they were wild enough that we couldn't corral them , so Jasper said he'd get them in the next time he shipped a few, and bring them back over to my place. About four months later, I was wondering where they were, and found out the SOB had rounded them up and sent them to the auction. When I confronted him about it, he simply said,"Oh, them. They died." Then he had the orbs to want me to sell him hay a few years later when we had a drought, I had plenty of hay, and no one else would sell him any. I just tripled the price I was selling it for, and he didn't like it. He also said he thought we had been friends for such a long time. WRONG.....

Maybe after 31 days, and all efforts to find the owner, including some newspaper ads, you should check your freezer- might be one missing. Past owner would appreciate if you grain him while in your custody.......

i havent been able to get that close to her, shes a little on the crazy side. when i bring the rest in, in the fall, ill get her in the shoot and have a good look.

Had this happen to us once. Cow wandered down the county road, we penned her up. Contacted all the neighbors and no one claimed her. We also contacted the sheriff. No one ever claimed her.

How come that kind of luck never happens to me?

Don't you folks have Brand Inspectors, or is that just a western thing? That is the brand inspectors job, and is she branded? That would make it easy to find the owner.

David

Freezer ??

I'd call the sherif and the local radio station.
I still remember when still in highschool, we were woke up at 3:00an in a summer storm by the dog going nuts. we went to look and found 10 holstien hiefers and a herford steer in our yard. we didn't recognize them, so we put them in a small pasture by the barn. The next morning, during milking, a neighbor from a few miles away came looking for his youngstock that had escaped during the storm. He came in the barn saying he had seen their tracks headed east and wondering if we had seen anything. my older brother , who has a dryer sence of humor looked at him and asked, " would this be 10 hiefers about 900 pounds and a herford steer??". The neighbor excitedly says, "YES thats them!!". My brother says, "Haven't seen 'em" And goes back to milking. I thought dad would fall in the gutter he was laughing so hard!!.
The neighbor brought a trailer and retrived then that afternoon.

If someone comes along to claim her,how will you know they are genuine?. No brands No tags. Just let her run with the herd. Time will work it out.

No branding in any eastern states.

Be a good place to have a brand inspection, oh wait,we are all for eid tags so we can identify and find in 24 hours. What a JOKE!!! A good hot iron brand is still the best!!!

In 1995 I brought in a load of calves from out west the night before pheasant opener. Right across the road is public ground for hunting. These were the first cattle on the place that fall, and guess what? Cattle were out the next afternoon, jumped over the cable fence and wandering around. We never did find 14 of them. There was most of the crop still in the field that year, and I didn't break even on that load.

These weren't dairy cattle though.