Cattle theft.

[Travlr]

the following is not advice, do not misconstrue as such. depending on your state, i believe cattle would be considered both tangible and movable. the his is for information only.


Texas law allows a person to use a reasonable amount of force to protect their property. Under Texas Penal Code Section 9.41, a person in lawful possession of tangible, movable property, like a car, is justified in using force when they reasonably believe it is immediately necessary to prevent another person’s trespass or unlawful interference with that property. The key limitations are that the force must be what an ordinary and prudent person would consider necessary in the same situation and it must be immediately required. The law permits force to the degree it is believed to be necessary, but this does not automatically extend to the use of deadly force, which is governed by a much stricter set of rules.

So blowing out their front tires from a distance might be considered justified if they were loading your cattle in your pasture...

But deadly force would only apply if you were immediately visible and they went for a gun?

 

[504RP]

I have heard of nothing recently. Lots of old stories of various methods and numbers. The thieves don't get caught very often. Everyone brands here. The saying is trust your neighbors, but brand your cows. Almost every calf over 2 months old has a brand. The state has brand inspectors at all the sales. If you sell privately you have to have the brand inspector come out and inspect the brands before the cattle get on the truck. I am real close to the state line. If you have pasture on the other side of the line into Idaho there is inspection involved.
Of course there was the cow I bought 2 weeks ago that got shipped off to Canada.......... I still haven't been reimbursed for her. I would say something about Canadian cow thieves but we know that no Canadian would ever steal a cow.......

I am not so sure that No Canadians would still a cow. You do know Silver is a Canadian don’t you Dave

 

[504RP]

Sliver knows I am just kidding. Why if I was drinking coffee at a coffee shop and if I had a thousand dollars in my wallet I wouldn’t worry least little bit about leaving my wallet laying on the table while he was there and coming back later and that $ 1000 still in my wallet

Maybe just a little bit worried and not be real surprised to find only $ 10 in my wallet when I got back ! LOL !!!

Nah !!! I have never met or known Silver until here on CT but I can tell
he along with all the rest of the CT members are honest people.

 

[coachg]

One of the highs in the market back in the 70’s , folks came up missing new born calves . Easier to catch and load than bigger stuff or cows . I’ve been surprised as high as even small calves are this is not happening now .

 

[Lucky]

And everyone wants to be able to pen their cows with two shakes of a feed bucket. Easy pickins

 

[504RP]

There is a restaurant either in the panhandle of Oklahoma or West Kansas that has the best I can remember wooden walls on the inside with cathedral ceilings. That’s has hundreds of cattle owners brands branded or painted on the walls of that restaurant. I think the brands are burned into to wooden walls.

I have only been in that restaurant 2 maybe 3 times while traveling through there headed to Colorado.

But is very impressive to see that many different brands. And I might be exaggerating on there be hundreds of brands and there be more around just one hundred brands. I can’t remember my own name half of the time anymore. So I might be wrong about the number of brands too.

 

[504RP]

One of the highs in the market back in the 70’s , folks came up missing new born calves . Easier to catch and load than bigger stuff or cows . I’ve been surprised as high as even small calves are this is not happening now .

I have have thought that very same thing. And I remember when that was going on in the 70’s too.

 

[504RP]

I don’t know if or how it could be done. But it would be nice if there was some type Alert similar to an abducted or missing person that maybe could be put on the web so that cattlemen could look for cattle thief’s that has taken place.

I think if there were such a website and word got around about it. At least farmers could be aware that some cattle had been stolen in there area and could report any suspicious activity taken place around cattle in their locations.

Work similar to an Amber Alert.

Even it was only a National website to only be used to post cattle thief’s that has happened Nation wide So that if the thief took place close to your location. You would be watching your cattle closer.

 

[wbvs58]

We have a different system at our saleyards. Multiple agents work through our council owned saleyards and the agents have an association that have settlement rules for the agents. We don't get paid until 14 days after the sale when the money will be paid directly into my account, we never use checks. The buyer also has time to pay, I'm not sure of how long as I'm never buying but would be within that 14 day period however all monies are guaranteed.

Ken

 

[Travlr]

And everyone wants to be able to pen their cows with two shakes of a feed bucket. Easy pickins

I admit it... I like calling my cows rather than herding them. I worried some in Arkansas because I was in a valley with no neighbor in sight or even earshot of a gun.

I had one neighbor that was a retired Navy, gunners mate, and about a month after we moved in he showed up. After a while he let it be known that he was checking us out to see what kind of people we were... and he said if we ever wanted to hide a body he had 80 acres that were available. I'm pretty sure he was serious. I only had one time I thought about taking him up on it... but things worked out where I never needed to.

 

[Travlr]

I don’t know if or how it could be done. But it would be nice if there was some type Alert similar to an abducted or missing person that maybe could be put on the web so that cattlemen could look for cattle thief’s that has taken place.

I think if there were such a website and word got around about it. At least farmers could be aware that some cattle had been stolen in there area and could report any suspicious activity taken place around cattle in their locations.

Work similar to an Amber Alert.

Even it was only a National website to only be used to post cattle thief’s that has happened Nation wide So that if the thief took place close to your location. You would be watching your cattle closer.

We've talked about doing a "for sale" option on this site... Maybe the site managers might consider this idea as something to add. @ctadmin

 

[GoWyo]

I don’t know if or how it could be done. But it would be nice if there was some type Alert similar to an abducted or missing person that maybe could be put on the web so that cattlemen could look for cattle thief’s that has taken place.

I think if there were such a website and word got around about it. At least farmers could be aware that some cattle had been stolen in there area and could report any suspicious activity taken place around cattle in their locations.

Work similar to an Amber Alert.

Even it was only a National website to only be used to post cattle thief’s that has happened Nation wide So that if the thief took place close to your location. You would be watching your cattle closer.

Our Wyoming Livestock Board is in charge of the brand inspection program. They work with all the county sheriff offices when livestock are reported missing. They also work with adjoining states and sale barns. South Dakota seems to publish missing livestock reports in the Ag newspapers as I recall. Not sure what Nebraska does other than fight between the ranchers and the feeders with the feeders trying to exempt themselves from having to do brand inspections and the ranchers wanting compliance. Colorado does brand inspections, but they seem a little more loose with compliance.

 

[504RP]

Our Wyoming Livestock Board is in charge of the brand inspection program. They work with all the county sheriff offices when livestock are reported missing. They also work with adjoining states and sale barns. South Dakota seems to publish missing livestock reports in the Ag newspapers as I recall. Not sure what Nebraska does other than fight between the ranchers and the feeders with the feeders trying to exempt themselves from having to do brand inspections and the ranchers wanting compliance. Colorado does brand inspections, but they seem a little more loose with compliance.

It’s been so long since I registered my brand that I can’t remember all of the steps involved in registering it. I know I had to look through a book showing all of the registered brands so that I wasn’t copying someone else’s brand that was already registered so that I could get my electric branding iron built by the place that makes them. Seems like I did have to renew my brand after so many years.

 

[TCRanch]

I don’t know if or how it could be done. But it would be nice if there was some type Alert similar to an abducted or missing person that maybe could be put on the web so that cattlemen could look for cattle thief’s that has taken place.

I think if there were such a website and word got around about it. At least farmers could be aware that some cattle had been stolen in there area and could report any suspicious activity taken place around cattle in their locations.

Work similar to an Amber Alert.

Even it was only a National website to only be used to post cattle thief’s that has happened Nation wide So that if the thief took place close to your location. You would be watching your cattle closer.

There is one on Facebook, Lost or Stolen Cattle.

 

[Dave]

In Oregon you submit up to 4 choices along with location of the brand to the brand register at the Dept Of Agriculture along with $25. They will decide if conflicts with any previously registered brand. After I had 20 submits declined I was told that they require 3 characters in the brand (would have been nice to be told that sooner). Once accepted it is $100 every four years.
Washington is similar. One of the good things which they do in Washington is have a list of vacant brands which gets up dated. That allows a person to pick a simpler brand which is no longer in use. Oregon has some terrible brands with their 3 character rule. There is over 10,800 registered brands in Oregon.

 

[Travlr]

South Dakota issued me a brand. They have letters and symbols and have six positions that a brand can go on an animal. I would have preferred a left hip, but I got a left shoulder. It's funny, because you can sell your brand. Mine cost fifty dollars and private sales can be, and often are, in the hundreds. Mine got $250 at my farm auction after selling the place.

 

[Nick Wagner]

IMO it would be hard running a cattle sale barn. You get a bounced check and can't get your money from a buyer, and the cattle are gone, you are left holding worthless paper. It is hard to get blood out of a turnip. We had a sale barn to close a few years ago because of this or at least one of the reasons. I envy those people for the risk. A sale barn right now on a busy sale may sale millions in cattle so they better know their customers and screen wisely.

Any new customers IMO would not be out of the way to request a credit report and financial statement. Banks do this loaning way less money than accepting a check contract from customers.

While all you say is true, I sold four head at the local sale barn last week and had $193.03 in deductions from my check. Costs of doing business, but doggone.

 

[farmerjan]

While all you say is true, I sold four head at the local sale barn last week and had $193.03 in deductions from my check. Costs of doing business, but doggone.

We sold 21 back in August.... 1298.82 in total deductions... Over $61. each in deductions... The biggest plus is that we were selling more beef, all that time and feed, and then having people back out... It is alot of money to pay for a quarter or half and I get it... but then what do you do with the beef.... now, they leave at 450-600 lbs... sometimes after weaning and backgrounding... some right off the cow with the current prices... and get a check a couple hours later when we stay at the sale... Raise enough beef for regular customers, send the rest off without all the time and money invested in them. And a check in hand right then.

 

[Warren Allison]

There was a rustling ring around here in 81-83. A whole family-- 6 brothers and cousins Back then this area was still very rural...even still had some dirt roads around. Some of these buys did work for local farmers, like fencing, hay, etc., and knew the cattle and where they were etc. They'd go at night to the place they had picked out, and go into the pasture in a back way. If there was no gate handy, they'd cut the fence ( and often fix it back when they left). They'd pull in side the pasture, set up some portable panes, and shake the feed buckets. They knew which farmers had their cattle feed-bucket trained. They had a 32 foot, tri axel GN , with brackets on the sides to hold their panels. They only got cows...didn't fool with any that had calves. They'd go the night before a sale and get a trailer load. Take them back to one of their places, and change out ear tags if they needed to., then haul them to a sale. They got caught one night by a game warden who was looking for poachers that spot-lighted deer. One of the boys was onyl 16-17, and he spilled the beans to the sherrif. Told him how many times they had done it, whose cattle they had stole, what sale barn they would carry them to, etc. , in exchange for just probation. The ring leader of them , worked for me at a company that built Ideco and Dresser portable drilling rigs, and was a preacher!

This is one reason I never worked my cattle on foot...always on horse back.

 

[Nick Wagner]

We sold 21 back in August.... 1298.82 in total deductions... Over $61. each in deductions... The biggest plus is that we were selling more beef, all that time and feed, and then having people back out... It is alot of money to pay for a quarter or half and I get it... but then what do you do with the beef.... now, they leave at 450-600 lbs... sometimes after weaning and backgrounding... some right off the cow with the current prices... and get a check a couple hours later when we stay at the sale... Raise enough beef for regular customers, send the rest off without all the time and money invested in them. And a check in hand right then.

Guess I got a bargain, thanks for the comparison.