randiliana
Well-known member
As many of you probably remember, I work at the local stockyards. Today was a presort yearling sale, and Wed and Thurs we took in cattle to be weighed and sorted. Not all of the cattle came in on trucks. About 1700 head came in on foot. Here are some of the pictures of the first bunch to come in, they arrived at about 4 pm on Wednesday, Sept 30. There are 900 head and they walked about 15 miles in about 8 hours. The other 2 drives came in on Thursday. At least one of them was a 2 day drive, they brought in 530 head. The last one was about 200 head and it arrived just before noon on Thursday.
It took us (the crew) about 12 hours to sort and pen the 900 head. We finished the heifers at midnight and did all the steers the next day. The other 2 bunches were sorted mostly by their owners, and took quite a bit less time :nod:
Now for the photos of the big bunch coming in.
Here they are about a mile out, making the last turn before the stockyards. They are coming down a grid road.
All lined out, they probably cover close to 1/2 mile in length
If you look close, you can see the lead horse. He is there to make sure the leaders don't get into mischief and also makes sure that they turn when they are supposed too. Also he is there to get to the hill tops and warn any oncoming traffic of the herd.
Crossing the highway, they're coming across pretty good right now. It is just starting to rain.
They have kinda stopped now. Not sure where they really want to be. A bunch of them did go back, but overall it was an uneventful crossing. Sometimes they just won't cross, or you get 1 or a few that have to be manually forced across (as in roped and dragged) fortunately that didn't happen here. Nothing like getting 900 head of yearlings worked up :banana:
Ahhh, here they go, heading across. This is the only kinda traffic jam we see in this country :lol2:
And here they come, the gate they go in is just out of sight on the left.
Getting closer and closer
Just a little bit further. ...
And, in they go
Pics are just a bit blurry, it was raining, and my horse just would not stand still, but hope you get the idea....
It took us (the crew) about 12 hours to sort and pen the 900 head. We finished the heifers at midnight and did all the steers the next day. The other 2 bunches were sorted mostly by their owners, and took quite a bit less time :nod:
Now for the photos of the big bunch coming in.
Here they are about a mile out, making the last turn before the stockyards. They are coming down a grid road.
All lined out, they probably cover close to 1/2 mile in length
If you look close, you can see the lead horse. He is there to make sure the leaders don't get into mischief and also makes sure that they turn when they are supposed too. Also he is there to get to the hill tops and warn any oncoming traffic of the herd.
Crossing the highway, they're coming across pretty good right now. It is just starting to rain.
They have kinda stopped now. Not sure where they really want to be. A bunch of them did go back, but overall it was an uneventful crossing. Sometimes they just won't cross, or you get 1 or a few that have to be manually forced across (as in roped and dragged) fortunately that didn't happen here. Nothing like getting 900 head of yearlings worked up :banana:
Ahhh, here they go, heading across. This is the only kinda traffic jam we see in this country :lol2:
And here they come, the gate they go in is just out of sight on the left.
Getting closer and closer
Just a little bit further. ...
And, in they go
Pics are just a bit blurry, it was raining, and my horse just would not stand still, but hope you get the idea....