Cattle dogs on young calves

[Alan]

All my cows come to call, or see that I'm headed for a gate they come running, the ones that wear me out are the young calves. After chasing them up and down the fence line for an hour I'm just hoping to push them through the fence, since the herd is long gone in fresh pasture.

My question do you guys/gals with cow dogs use them on 3 to 4 week old calves?

Thanks,
Alan

 

[randiliana]

All my cows come to call, or see that I'm headed for a gate they come running, the ones that wear me out are the young calves. After chasing them up and down the fence line for an hour I'm just hoping to push them through the fence, since the herd is long gone in fresh pasture.

My question do you guys/gals with cow dogs use them on 3 to 4 week old calves?

Thanks,
Alan

I wouldn't suggest using a cattle dog on baby calves in that situation. If they get scared enough, that won't be the only fence that they crawl through. When we worked on a ranch a few years back, we had one take off after getting scared like that, and never found it again.

Chase all the calves up into the herd BEFORE you open the gate, and hopefully the mamas will find their calves, and at least the calves will be in the bunch when the gate is opened. Besides which, if the cows are all gone, and you push the calves through the fence, they will crawl back unless the cows come back to find them. Their instinct is to go back to the place that they last sucked/saw mama.

 

[Alan]

All my cows come to call, or see that I'm headed for a gate they come running, the ones that wear me out are the young calves. After chasing them up and down the fence line for an hour I'm just hoping to push them through the fence, since the herd is long gone in fresh pasture.

My question do you guys/gals with cow dogs use them on 3 to 4 week old calves?

Thanks,
Alan

I wouldn't suggest using a cattle dog on baby calves in that situation. If they get scared enough, that won't be the only fence that they crawl through. When we worked on a ranch a few years back, we had one take off after getting scared like that, and never found it again.

Chase all the calves up into the herd BEFORE you open the gate, and hopefully the mamas will find their calves, and at least the calves will be in the bunch when the gate is opened. Besides which, if the cows are all gone, and you push the calves through the fence, they will crawl back unless the cows come back to find them. Their instinct is to go back to the place that they last sucked/saw mama.

Thanks,

I do make sure that the herd is bunched up before I open the gate, I should say most of my gates are 2 strands of hots barbed wire, this is probably part of the problem. The cows know it is okay to go through but it seems like there is always 1 or 2 calves that get to where the hot wire should be and turn and flee back into the pasture, while the rest head to better pasture. I guess I could leave the gate down but it shorts out the fence and the calf may be in the wrong place for several hours.

Was just wondering if a dog would help my short fuse. I do not have a cattle dog and don't think I would use one enough to warrant one, unless it was okay to use on young stock.

Thanks,
Alan

 

[randiliana]

Was just wondering if a dog would help my short fuse. I do not have a cattle dog and don't think I would use one enough to warrant one, unless it was okay to use on young stock.

Thanks,
Alan

All that he'll do is make the fuse shorter, unless you can afford a trained one or are a dog trainer . We have 2, and they are great at times, but at other times all we want to do is shoot them... But, it just occured to me that if you took a dog (any dog would do) out there, it might encourage them girls to hang around and take their calves with them.

 

[dun]

If you have more then 1 calf, there will alwasy be at least one that doesn;t get the word. Don;t understand why your gates short out the fence. We have dozens of those types of gates and never have a problem.

dun

 

[andybob]

With livestock not used to electric fences, the presence of a visual barrier confuses them. When going into a new paddock, a line fo long grass gives the impression of a fence still being in place, try mowing a small area throughthe gate, and just inside the new paddock a few days ahead of the move. If the area on both sides of the gate is similar, and there is no visible line exists across the gateposts, there is no reason why the calves would not follow their mothers. This applies equally to pigs, sheep and goats when being 'gate trained' with electric fences.

 

[Alan]

If you have more then 1 calf, there will alwasy be at least one that doesn;t get the word. Don;t understand why your gates short out the fence. We have dozens of those types of gates and never have a problem.

dun

Maybe I'm just assuming they do, don't think I have ever checked them. I'm talking about when they lay on the ground, and can't hook them to the other hot because the they have to lay against a wooden post and I can't hook them well enough to the smooth wire or "hot" string hot wire.

Alan

 

[dun]

If you have more then 1 calf, there will alwasy be at least one that doesn;t get the word. Don;t understand why your gates short out the fence. We have dozens of those types of gates and never have a problem.

dun

Maybe I'm just assuming they do, don't think I have ever checked them. I'm talking about when they lay on the ground, and can't hook them to the other hot because the they have to lay against a wooden post and I can't hook them well enough to the smooth wire or "hot" string hot wire.

Alan

All of our gates are built so that they're only hot when they're hooked. As soon as you open them they go cold. Lats year I spent a day rewiring all of a neighbors gates because he had the problem with them snapping and cracking when he laid them down.

dun

 

[Alan]

If you have more then 1 calf, there will alwasy be at least one that doesn;t get the word. Don;t understand why your gates short out the fence. We have dozens of those types of gates and never have a problem.

dun

Maybe I'm just assuming they do, don't think I have ever checked them. I'm talking about when they lay on the ground, and can't hook them to the other hot because the they have to lay against a wooden post and I can't hook them well enough to the smooth wire or "hot" string hot wire.

Alan

All of our gates are built so that they're only hot when they're hooked. As soon as you open them they go cold. Lats year I spent a day rewiring all of a neighbors gates because he had the problem with them snapping and cracking when he laid them down.

dun

Great point, I'll add that to the "to do" list.... near the top, it always grows.

Thanks Dun,
Alan

 

[Bama]

If the cows are used to a dog put the dog on a leash and you can push the calves really well. Just the sight of the dog will have momma calling calves and the calves will get a little nervous and start looking for mama. If the dog is not on a leash it is mighty tempting for it to "chase" the little critters. The dog will try to work the calves like they were mature cows but the calves don't act like mature cows. Hence the chase is on. A leash will prevent this and it also improves on the dogs training. If the dog gets a little ansie tell him to go easy while yanking on the leash pretty soon he will get the idea he can't work calves like mature cows.