Just a reminder to a lot of you to practice what you preach.
SAFETY SAFETY SAFETY
I was putting some fly tags in, deworming, and tagging a few other animals the other day. Now grant it i was doing this by my self as well. I often find that i am the best help i can find
. Any way make sure your equipment is in good shape and working order. Now i know all of this and generally try to do it, but as with most accidents i was in a hurry and common sense seems to escape many of us when we get in a hurry. Treated the first several head with no problem (I should have known things were going too smooth), then i get my one beefmaster cow in the headgate and she isn't real happy about this. Now my headgate is pretty heavy and sturdy. I have it attached to some treated 8X8's. Never had a problem in the past. Well as i'm loading the tagging gun the cow tears the headgate off the poasts begins to flop around with it around her neck. Nothing like a 1100 pound cow flopping around with a close to 200# Steel headgate around her neck. I'm not totally ignorant so i step back and watch (what else could i do?) as she tramples all over my cattle box that has my tattoo set, tag applicators, syringes, needles, scaples, etc... in it. Luckily she didn't tear out across the whole pasture (which may have been a tough chore with 200 pounds of metal wrapped around your neck choking you to death). So i finally waited on her to wear her self out or choke down which ever came first and tried to release the headgate from around her. Needless to say she had so much pressure on it i couldn't release it. Finally i was able to pull the chain, that holds the headgate in place around her neck, loose and release the pressure. Of course by this time she has her neck in side ways and is still stuck. After some persuading with the toe of my boot she finally works her way out. Of course i was telling my friend about this and he says i should have used more than 3 wood screws to hold the head gate to the post. I told him to KMA i had 4 woodscrews on it and they were 2" long.
At least my friends got a good laugh out of this story, but they all also realize that i was lucky not to get knocked more senseless than i am already by the cow or headgate, not to mention the cow is fine as well.
So let this be the reminder to be careful out there.
Don't wait for someone to poast on here that someone died doing something with cattle, keep safety in mind before something tragic happens.
SAFETY SAFETY SAFETY
I was putting some fly tags in, deworming, and tagging a few other animals the other day. Now grant it i was doing this by my self as well. I often find that i am the best help i can find
. Any way make sure your equipment is in good shape and working order. Now i know all of this and generally try to do it, but as with most accidents i was in a hurry and common sense seems to escape many of us when we get in a hurry. Treated the first several head with no problem (I should have known things were going too smooth), then i get my one beefmaster cow in the headgate and she isn't real happy about this. Now my headgate is pretty heavy and sturdy. I have it attached to some treated 8X8's. Never had a problem in the past. Well as i'm loading the tagging gun the cow tears the headgate off the poasts begins to flop around with it around her neck. Nothing like a 1100 pound cow flopping around with a close to 200# Steel headgate around her neck. I'm not totally ignorant so i step back and watch (what else could i do?) as she tramples all over my cattle box that has my tattoo set, tag applicators, syringes, needles, scaples, etc... in it. Luckily she didn't tear out across the whole pasture (which may have been a tough chore with 200 pounds of metal wrapped around your neck choking you to death). So i finally waited on her to wear her self out or choke down which ever came first and tried to release the headgate from around her. Needless to say she had so much pressure on it i couldn't release it. Finally i was able to pull the chain, that holds the headgate in place around her neck, loose and release the pressure. Of course by this time she has her neck in side ways and is still stuck. After some persuading with the toe of my boot she finally works her way out. Of course i was telling my friend about this and he says i should have used more than 3 wood screws to hold the head gate to the post. I told him to KMA i had 4 woodscrews on it and they were 2" long. At least my friends got a good laugh out of this story, but they all also realize that i was lucky not to get knocked more senseless than i am already by the cow or headgate, not to mention the cow is fine as well.
So let this be the reminder to be careful out there.
Don't wait for someone to poast on here that someone died doing something with cattle, keep safety in mind before something tragic happens.
