ever had trouble loading cattle?

farmerwithmutt · Oct 27, 2013

Sold 1 steer and a pig guy wanted to shoot and butcher on farm so far so good. shot and butchered pig no problem yet. ok went to shoot steer didnt get close enough with 22 steer went to his knees got up and figured it was time to leave jumped fence got on the road as luck would have in front of combine. now picture this steer going done road suffering from a head wound chased by a combine who was chased by two guys with guns it gets better. steer turns into neighbors and gets into large unharvested bean field somebody would be upset if draged out ok finnally takes off for hwy 1 mile away finally got shotgun with slugs and dropped him in harvested bean field ok reload bobcat drive 4 miles reload steer head back .finnally all done wrong while butchering steer pig slides of trailer onto gravel. who says we dont have fun on the farm

Anonymous-0 · Oct 27, 2013

Don't think I'd want any of that beef!!With all that running around and the adrenalin and all,that's gonna be kinda gamey.

Dave H (MI) · Oct 27, 2013

Around here we call that getting your A** handed to you.

Lazy WP · Oct 27, 2013

Kinda my thinking too. I have shot a lot of animals, but I do believe, an exotic sheep is the hardest to kill.

Matt in TN · Oct 27, 2013

How does "loading trouble" equate to "killing trouble"? I've had calves crawl under the trailer when I tried to load them, but next week, when I tried again, I outfoxed them. I've had bulls not want to load, but patience prevailed, and they loaded without any drama.

But damn, every animal I've killed was killed swiftly. And if I had a wounded animal jump a fence and take me on a wild goose chase, we'll the big guns would come out, and the dadgum thing wouldn't be long for this world.

Old Bob · Oct 27, 2013

This is going to be one tough piece of meat. Never want to kill anything for eating that is all spooked up.

PJH · Oct 27, 2013

"Sold 1 steer and a pig"

I think I would have said, "There goes your steer".

We had a mishap killing a hog years ago. Wasn't pretty, but we did have the victim confined to the barn so we didn't have to make a spectacle out of ourselves.

Anonymous-0 · Oct 27, 2013

Yeah that is not trouble loading that is trouble "Killing". I have had trouble loading and killing many kinds of livestock. I never use a 22 for anything bigger than a groundhog anymore(too old for the chase). Lady in the next county hired a guy to kill her husband--well a long story and 22 was involved-- didn't end well.

rrlund · Oct 27, 2013

OH BOY! You picked the wrong day to get on this subject. I've been trying to catch calves to wean them since Friday. We're getting down to the wild ones and the smart ones. I walked ten in to the corral first thing this morning. Backed the trailer up and we got them squeezed in to load all at once. One got her head between a gate and post,kept bucking and jumping,bent the bottom of the gate enough to get her shoulders through and get hip locked,fine let's get the rest. The biggest one got between the crowd gate and trailer gate and got past me and got back in the corral. We got 8 loaded,had to let the one that was hip locked go. Took the 8 across the road,went back for the one that was still in there,he got his head under the same gate,bent the rusted bottom tube up and managed to get away,so now there are two out there that are spooked.
Had one trapped on the south side,him mother was with him and she went berserk on us and wasn't going to give him up. We got him,but the old cow's still pretty pizzed at us.

Anonymous-0 · Oct 27, 2013

Yup, back in the day we had 110 milkers and a 70 cow milk barn. We kept the dry cows in another barn about 2 miles away. We were constantly moving cows and heifers. Didn't have a goose neck trailor. Just an old Dodge Power Wagon and the cattle box was quite high off the ground and the ramp angle was steep. Averaged about one broken leg a year, cattle on the loose many times a year, lots of smashed fingers, toes and such. yesirrreeeee Bob! Farming shore was a passle of fun!

Tech 7 · Oct 27, 2013

We were processing cattle at BIL's a lot of years back, had a heifer clear a wall on the end of the feedlot that no animal had gone over before or since, broke a front leg on landing. We go out in the field to bring her back in and she puts 4 of us back out of the field. Had that "look" in her eyes. Went into the field with an armed man in the back of stake truck, she took a run at the truck too before she was brought down...took carcass to butcher. Hung for 20+ days...couldn't put a fork in the gravy from that one...even the dog got tired of eating that meat.

gwstang · Oct 27, 2013

Yeowzer, that was sure a fun day. I raised a few horses many years ago, just for the swmbo and kids to enjoy. I would ride occasionally. I had this one stallion that would not load for nothing. I finally sold him, he was a Paso Fino. Nice riding and usually very compliant critters...but not him. The guy came in his little one horse trailer and tried to get him in. That wasn't working worth a darn. Tried to push him in...no go. Tried food..no go. Finally the guy had to go and said to get him in there any way I could. OK. Went and got the tractor and a long logging chain. Yeah, you know where I'm going with this. I ran the chain through the front of said trailer and hooked said chain on the bottom of the halter and cranked 'er up and that stallion got one heck of a loading lesson. Snatched his butt right in there. I talked to the guy about a year later and he said the horse would hop right in after that. :shock:

fixerupper · Oct 27, 2013

The neighbor lady had a Charolias (sp) bull calf she never had casterated and it grew up to be a really good looking bull, but she could never keep it in. No regular fence could keep it in. One fall we had our cows running the stalks and her bull kept coming to visit them. I finally got it separated and in our barn. We had a stock rack on the back of the pickup that was about 6' tall when the cattle rack was folded up so I backed the pickup with stock rack up to the barn preparing to load this bull. I walked the bull up the chute and when it got in the pickup it went right up over the top of the rack and lit in a pile on the ground beside the pickup. It was an awesome sight for sure. I thought it'd killed itself but it got back up and I ran it back into the barn after some coaxing, of course. After it was in the barn again I tied some cattle panels across the top of the pickup rack and re-loaded the bull. That pickup a-rockin-and-a-rollin with a 1500 pound bull romping around back there. I took the bull back home and unloaded it in her barn. Next day it was back so I put it in the barn and called her to tell her her baby was back here. That next Saturday she had someone come with a livestock trailer and it was hauled to the sale barn. I don't know if it sold as a breeder or as a baloney bull, but at least it was gone. Jim

todd hamilton · Oct 27, 2013

Neighbors across road when I was a kid had a crazy
angus bull for a while. One day when out in the
yard my brother and I heard one hell of a
commotion. The bull rode a holstein cow right
through the side of the barn! Lumber went
everywhere!

Anonymous-0 · Oct 27, 2013

Dad and I were trying tpo load two heifers into the trailer, finally after alot of effort they went in but one of us forgot to shut the front walk in door and through it they went, darn it!

Mike (WA) · Oct 27, 2013

ALWAYS had trouble loading cattle. That's one reason I got out of them many years ago.

JMOR · Oct 27, 2013

(quoted from post at 16:01:23 10/27/13) Dad and I were trying tpo load two heifers into the trailer, finally after alot of effort they went in but one of us forgot to shut the front walk in door and through it they went, darn it!

id that once. Who said, "we learn by the mistakes we make"? Never repeated that one!

da.bees · Oct 27, 2013

Another example of why on the farm it's ok doing it slow or fast but never half fast.

Cas · Oct 27, 2013

I always wondered about the old farmer"s story to never shoot an excited or nerved up cow. Meat would always be tough.

donjr · Oct 27, 2013

One thing that used to bug me was loading cattle in my earlier years. When I built another barn for cows about fifteen years ago, I decided to put in a decent set of loading chutes. I made several pens and a chute that we can run the cows either into a headgate or a trailer. While I am now getting ready to stiffen them up with some newer gates and cosmetic work, a decent set of chutes makes a lot of difference in loading them. We still have a crazy one now and again, but even they get the idea of where to go.

Harold Hubbard · Oct 27, 2013

My father told about some friends of his back in the 1940's or earlier, killing a hog. They had raised it in a barn behind their house in the village, which was not legal, even back then. One Sunday they attempted to butcher the hog. Something went wrong and the animal escaped. They wound up catching him and finishing him off in the middle of the village green.

Anonymous-0 · Oct 27, 2013

That's why you don't butcher on the farm, unless you have a facility that a shot steer can't escape from. Last one I did for my family was a hard headed charlet cross, 20+years ago. 5 44 russians, on the sweet spot, between the eyes, and ears. and it just stunned him. Time I took a knife to bleed him, the was up, and vaulted over a 5 wire fence, had to chase him around the farm, and finally had to shoot him with the 35 marlin, a couple more times in the head. Shinned out the head, and none of the 44 rounds penetrated the skull, he had an extremely thick skull!

Rob Hartman · Oct 27, 2013

Only way to load cattle is with a dog or dogs. Never seen a bovine that a austrailian shepherd or a heeler couldn't load!

fixerupper · Oct 27, 2013

Fifteen years ago or so in a town about 25 miles from here the police were called to a house on a report of a gunshot inside the house. When the police went inside the house they found the residents, who were of Asian origin, were butchering a small horse in the bathtub. Jim

ever had trouble loading cattle?

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