A different kind of lost calf

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Dave

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Last Friday I bought 6 angus heifers at the sale. It was after dark when I unloaded them so I couldn't back up to the barn/corral. So I put 10 other heifers from the barn into the little (1/2 acre) field along side the house. The 10 were already real suckers for a bucket of grain. It is surrounded by 47 inch woven wire fence with two strands of barb on top. It was all set up to go back to the barn. So I unload the 6 and they mix with the 10. I close the gate and hurry around to the other side of them. Shake a grain bucket at them and lead them into the barn. They run after me, I give them the grain and they go to eating. I shut the gate. Two minutes hadn't gone by. I counted them several times. It is tough to count black heifers in the dark. There should be 16. I come up with 15, 14 , 13, 15 but never 16. So I go back into the little field and walk around with the flashlight. Nothing there so I figure I must have them all.
Well the next morning in the daylight I only have 15 heifers. There was a heavy frost and I find tracks in the frost in the nieghbors backyard. She must have jumped the fence. But I never could find where she left. So I get in the pickup and drive around the nieghborhood. I see nothing. About 9:00 that morning I was talking to the neighbor across the street, asking if he had seen anything. While we were talking he says "there goes your heifer." A pickup pulling a trailer went by with a black cow(?) of some sort in the trailer. We sort of joked about it but there is no way that I could have run the 100 yards to my car and caught up with him as the road forks several times in about a mile.
Now I am 5 days later and there has been no sign of my heifer. I put up signs, let the sheriff know, and talked to pretty near everyone who owns cattle within a two mile circle of here. There are too many 5 acre places and fences here for her to go unseen for this long. I now think that probably was my heifer in that trailer. Someone probably caught her that morning and called a friend to haul her off. When I penciled this heifer raising plan I allowed for losing one but i figured that would mean that one would get sick and die not that I would just lose her.
 
We lost my daughters 4h Barbados sheep that way. It went to the neighbors and disappeared. We know they hid it and later sold it but no actual proof to file charges with. Same neighbors that drive up and down the road like mad men at weaning looking for that "lost calf" outside the fence.
One of these days ill get an opportunity to get even.
 
Nite Hawk":1x807rnr said:
Check the local auction barns, vet offices, SPCA?
Is there any way to ID the heifer? Brand, tattoo etc?

I already talked to the owners of the salebarn (the only sale in SW Washington). Vets? There are about a 100 of them close by but mostly small animal. SPCA. I will try the dog pound. I guess you never know who some other person might call. Generally those calls get forwarded to the sheriff and I already talked to them.
She didn't have a brand and didn't stay here long enough to get one from me. She had a fresh bangs vaccination. So there is that tattoo and the tag has a number that could be traced back. The problem is if someone put her into their pasture and fattened her up, she wouldn't cross anyone radar. We have farm slaughter trucks here. They don't ask for brand papers. I know in the past I have had steers killed that had others brands. I had the paperwork on them but was never asked.
The truck with a angus cow in the trailer went by fast and by the time I turned my head to see..... I would recognize the trailer but not the truck pulling it.
 
In our area there is both large and small animal SPCA.
Have you talked to any of the slaughter truck guys? Alot of times things go down the grapevine pretty fast (not always accurate of course) but the more people who know about something the harder it is for someone to get away with it in general, and if there is a small cash reward, that gets people's attention.
In our area there is only 2 vet clinics with maybe 6-7 vets working out of them, so a poster put up on their peg board covers alot of area. Also, the local coffee shop there is more gossip covered there than one would find in a newspaper, at least in this area it is like that, were people will sit for hours and yak about everything and everybody.
The local joke is that one has to go to the coffee shop to find out what they themselves are doing on a given day!!LOL.
Seriously though if I want to find out about something I talk to the locals who sit around and drink coffee by the hour. They can be full of "hoo-eey" or might have something of interest, as alot of people would carry on how they "scored" an animal by the road side and how good it was going to taste come butcher time.
hope you find your heifer...Hopefully still on the hoof and not in someones freezer...
 
I guess I am naive. I want to say I don't think that sort of thing happens around here but realize that would be stupid to think everyone around here is honest. I just want to think that way. I am sorry Dave for the loss of the calf, the aggrevation that you are spending time looking for it, and the frustration most of us have to face at one time or another in recognizing you have at least one local that is a scumbag.

I hope you catch this one!
 
If that is the worst of it, I guess I would not be so upset. Could have been worse. Neighbor could sue you for trampled lawn and flowers or got hit by a car. These days folks look for any reason to sue.
 
There was once a neighbor's cow that jumped the fence and disappeared, and didn't see her for 2 weeks so everyone just thought maybe she got to the next county and someone picked her up there, or she died. But about a month after her getting out, she showed up with a calf on her side, and picking out in a bean field. So they finally got her caught, and hauled off. Though I doubt yours is the same problem just thought I would give something to think about.
 
You would be surprised how far an escapee calf can travel. Last year the neighbor on the otherside of the woods called and said one of my weaned heifers was over there. I went over and it wasn;t one of ours. I left and figured he had acquired himself a decent heifer. The next morning it was in with our cows. Went through several barbwire fences and 2 hotwire fences to get there. I checked with the neighbors for a mile or so around and nobody was missing one. I just left her with our cows and figured one of the neighbors would realize they were missing one and come and get it. The next morning she was in a different pasture and had torn up a barbwire fence and a hot wire. That evening she was out by herself, sort of. The cows that had been with her in the morning had gone through the barbed wire fince she had torn down. We put her in the bull pen and a couple of days later hauled her to the sale barn. A week later a guy from 8 miles away stopped by. He had talked to one of the neighbors and mentioned he was missing a heifer and the guy directed him here. I handed him the check and away he went.
 
AllForage":8rxls847 said:
If that is the worst of it, I guess I would not be so upset. Could have been worse. Neighbor could sue you for trampled lawn and flowers or got hit by a car. These days folks look for any reason to sue.

A $900 heifer on the run isn't something that makes me happy. It sort of hurts the bottom line and as much as I enjoy doing this, I also do it to actually make money not for the tax right off. Nieghbors here aren't going to sue over a cow walking throught their yard. A car? That is why I pay for farm liability insurance.
 
Cattle can wander a good distance. A neighbor of ours got a call at round up time that one of their cows was 50 miles way. The only reason she came home was a brand on her side I.D. who she belonged to. There were plenty of fences that she had to jump or go through to get were she was found.
Another neighbor told me that he had, had steers wander about 40 miles in a different direction, and once again it was a brand on the side, and a call at round up time that brought the animal home.
I don't like hot brands that much, but even a freeze brand is better than nothing when it comes to recovering lost animals. Now I know that once in a while someone will snag a branded animal and not return it, but your chances go up if you can identify your animal, and a neighbor checking with the local brand inspector when a strange animal appears will often be returned to its rightful owner.
 
my cow had a calf the other day and i couldnt find that thing for 2 days...i only got bout 75 acres and i have no idea where that calf went..i figured belly up somewhere...

came in to feed with momma last night...sometimes theyre just hidin from ya...it might show back up in a few days
 
I had a steer come to my place, and stayed a year and a half. I asked everybody, put sign on the door of stock yard, and an add in the paper. Never did get claimed. When I sold it, I kept the check stub for years. Just in case. Never a word.
 
Found her!!! She showed up in a big hay field down the road. She had been hiding in the brush patches along the edges of the field and only coming out at night to graze. It took a little effort to get her back into my pasture but plan B did work. Once she got in with my cattle she calmed right down.
 
I have some friends that relatively let their cattle travel 20-30 miles in the high desert of Nevada. Come round up time its horses or ATVs. Usually the snow will flush them down to an accessible point.

They seem to have no problem moving quite a distance.
 

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