Cowboy stuff is fun

[Dave]

A couple of my cows ended up on the neighbor's place. I won't go into that long story how they ended up there. But these two witches are a bit spooky. They were there for about 10 days until the cowboys had time to go get them. A black cow and a red brokle faced cow. The red cow had a calf while there. Three cowboys on horseback. My job is to guard the gate so the neighbor's cows don't get out. From my position I can't see a lot of the happenings. Apparently these two witches went through several fences and across the river at least 2 times. After a while here comes one to the cowboys with the calf in tow. They were hoping that the cow would follow the calf. No such luck. The calf got tied down and left. About this point the black cow jumped the fence on to my place. They left her be for a while. The red cow went and stood in the river. With the snow melt the river up high and running. Water is nearly up to her tail head. One cowboy loped up and came back with the truck and trailer. They roped the cow and used the truck to pull her out of the river. Using a rope on the cow. A horse pulling and backing the trailer up they got the witch into the trailer. Stopped and picked up the calf. While doing this the cow is pounding on the center divider. She isn't very happy. Now to find the black cow. I go on my quad to the right. Two cowboys on horses go up into the junipers and sagebrush to the left. I find nothing and start back. I see the cowboys starting my way. About then the cow runs by down slope from me headed the way we want her to go. There is a gentle old cow who came off the hill and through the open gate while all this was happening. She sees up coming and heads back through the gate. The wild black cow follows her. Hooray victory #1.
The trailer gets backed to the gate. Door opened to let red cow and calf out. The cowboy who opened the trailer is behind the gate. He has hold of his horses reins but it is not behind the gate. The red cow hits the horse hard enough to lift it off the ground. Maneuvering the field gate they manage to get the horse loaded into the trailer without letting this mad cow out. The cow isn't headed up the hill. She is standing there pawing the ground want to fight. We pull away a good 200 feet to load all the horses and discuss things. She just stands there staring at us for a good 4 or 5 minutes. She finally takes her calf and heads up the hill. The cowboys are all smiling so it must have been fun.

 

[Dsth]

glad the cowboys had fun. If I had cows that unpleasant to work, they would be heading to the sale barn.

 

[Dave]

glad the cowboys had fun. If I had cows that unpleasant to work, they would be heading to the sale barn.

These are old one and done range cows. I avoid the real snotty ones when buying but you still end up with one or two. The whole entire herd of cows will go straight to the kill plant in the middle of August. These are the late calvers. Once they get to summer range they will hardly see a human until they are gathered in August.

 

[wbvs58]

Is the horse OK?

Ken

 

[Dave]

Is the horse OK?

Ken

Yes. Muley cow. Maybe bruised a bit is all.

 

[cowman82]

glad the cowboys had fun. If I had cows that unpleasant to work, they would be heading to the sale barn.

i'm at a point where If I point to a gate and tell them to go.. and they go the opposite way.. they are headed to the barn.

 

[Dave]

i'm at a point where If I point to a gate and tell them to go.. and they go the opposite way.. they are headed to the barn.

This is an entirely different area than most on here are use to. The place where the ones who calves on time already went to is several thousand acres. There will be about 100 pairs over there by the time we are done. It is divided into about 4 sections. About once a month a cowboy will ride up the hill and open the gate into the next section. If there are some cows around when he opens the gate he will push them through. Any that are in the next canyon or behind some junipers will find the open gate on their own. Pretty easy for a cow to go all summer and never see a human. In mid August there will be half a dozen cowboys on horses to gather the cows down off the mountain. I asked one time if I should bring my quad over to help gather. The reply was that there is absolutely no portion of this where you can gather using a quad. Cows who live like this aren't pets. Some are relatively easy to handle. And some get to be a bit snotty.

 

[Bob Kinford]

A couple of my cows ended up on the neighbor's place. I won't go into that long story how they ended up there. But these two witches are a bit spooky. They were there for about 10 days until the cowboys had time to go get them. A black cow and a red brokle faced cow. The red cow had a calf while there. Three cowboys on horseback. My job is to guard the gate so the neighbor's cows don't get out. From my position I can't see a lot of the happenings. Apparently these two witches went through several fences and across the river at least 2 times. After a while here comes one to the cowboys with the calf in tow. They were hoping that the cow would follow the calf. No such luck. The calf got tied down and left. About this point the black cow jumped the fence on to my place. They left her be for a while. The red cow went and stood in the river. With the snow melt the river up high and running. Water is nearly up to her tail head. One cowboy loped up and came back with the truck and trailer. They roped the cow and used the truck to pull her out of the river. Using a rope on the cow. A horse pulling and backing the trailer up they got the witch into the trailer. Stopped and picked up the calf. While doing this the cow is pounding on the center divider. She isn't very happy. Now to find the black cow. I go on my quad to the right. Two cowboys on horses go up into the junipers and sagebrush to the left. I find nothing and start back. I see the cowboys starting my way. About then the cow runs by down slope from me headed the way we want her to go. There is a gentle old cow who came off the hill and through the open gate while all this was happening. She sees up coming and heads back through the gate. The wild black cow follows her. Hooray victory #1.
The trailer gets backed to the gate. Door opened to let red cow and calf out. The cowboy who opened the trailer is behind the gate. He has hold of his horses reins but it is not behind the gate. The red cow hits the horse hard enough to lift it off the ground. Maneuvering the field gate they manage to get the horse loaded into the trailer without letting this mad cow out. The cow isn't headed up the hill. She is standing there pawing the ground want to fight. We pull away a good 200 feet to load all the horses and discuss things. She just stands there staring at us for a good 4 or 5 minutes. She finally takes her calf and heads up the hill. The cowboys are all smiling so it must have been fun

These are old one and done range cows. I avoid the real snotty ones when buying but you still end up with one or two. The whole entire herd of cows will go straight to the kill plant in the middle of August. These are the late calvers. Once they get to summer range they will hardly see a human until they are gathered in August.

Still, 95% of the time the good cowboys make it harder than they need to...often just so they can rope something and have a good story to tell at the bar. Friend of mine had to gather a place he takes care of last month. Guy who owns the cattle sent three "good cowboys" and it wound up taking twice as long as usual because the "had" to rope them to get them in.

 

[GoWyo]

Still, 95% of the time the good cowboys make it harder than they need to...often just so they can rope something and have a good story to tell at the bar. Friend of mine had to gather a place he takes care of last month. Guy who owns the cattle sent three "good cowboys" and it wound up taking twice as long as usual because the "had" to rope them to get them in.

Gotta keep tuned up for when one really needs roped.

 

[cowman82]

This is an entirely different area than most on here are use to. The place where the ones who calves on time already went to is several thousand acres. There will be about 100 pairs over there by the time we are done. It is divided into about 4 sections. About once a month a cowboy will ride up the hill and open the gate into the next section. If there are some cows around when he opens the gate he will push them through. Any that are in the next canyon or behind some junipers will find the open gate on their own. Pretty easy for a cow to go all summer and never see a human. In mid August there will be half a dozen cowboys on horses to gather the cows down off the mountain. I asked one time if I should bring my quad over to help gather. The reply was that there is absolutely no portion of this where you can gather using a quad. Cows who live like this aren't pets. Some are relatively easy to handle. And some get to be a bit snotty.

yea I understand the country.. I'm sure they need to have a little crazy in them to survive in that environment. I move my cattle everyday and I just don't like to go out and deal with some dummy. I've about got them all culled out of my herd so its getting a lot better. My cows are not pets either, but moving them all the time I need them to work with me, not against me.

 

[Dave]

Still, 95% of the time the good cowboys make it harder than they need to...often just so they can rope something and have a good story to tell at the bar. Friend of mine had to gather a place he takes care of last month. Guy who owns the cattle sent three "good cowboys" and it wound up taking twice as long as usual because the "had" to rope them to get them in.

Roping was certainly not the first option.

 

[gcreekrch]

Still, 95% of the time the good cowboys make it harder than they need to...often just so they can rope something and have a good story to tell at the bar. Friend of mine had to gather a place he takes care of last month. Guy who owns the cattle sent three "good cowboys" and it wound up taking twice as long as usual because the "had" to rope them to get them in.

I can agree with you Bob but it sounds like these fellas did what was needed and got the job done regardless.

 

[Dave]

I can agree with you Bob but it sounds like these fellas did what was needed and got the job done regardless.

The gate to my place is on the west end of the field. They spent well over an hour with these two idiot cows running through the fences on the east end and swimming the river twice before the ropes came out. Of the three the one in charge is a mid 50's year old man who owns well over 1,000 momma cows. He is a cattle man who started out as a cowboy.

 

[Dave]

yea I understand the country.. I'm sure they need to have a little crazy in them to survive in that environment. I move my cattle everyday and I just don't like to go out and deal with some dummy. I've about got them all culled out of my herd so its getting a lot better. My cows are not pets either, but moving them all the time I need them to work with me, not against me.

It is not that they need to be crazy to survive. It is that they haven't had any human interaction. These two were ok in the middle of the herd. But off by themselves the flight or fight reaction explodes. And they figured flight in the wrong direction was the thing to do.

 

[gcreekrch]

It is not that they need to be crazy to survive. It is that they haven't had any human interaction. These two were ok in the middle of the herd. But off by themselves the flight or fight reaction explodes. And they figured flight in the wrong direction was the thing to do.

Exactly.

 

[Bob Kinford]

It is not that they need to be crazy to survive. It is that they haven't had any human interaction. These two were ok in the middle of the herd. But off by themselves the flight or fight reaction explodes. And they figured flight in the wrong direction was the thing to do.

I obviously wasn't there, but past experience tells me that

It is not that they need to be crazy to survive. It is that they haven't had any human interaction. These two were ok in the middle of the herd. But off by themselves the flight or fight reaction explodes. And they figured flight in the wrong direction was the thing to do.

If what little human interaction they have is the right kind, they wouldn't have that strong of a flight or fight reaction. The cattle in the video below were trader cows which came off two different ranches. One load was a couple of hours late because they had a hard time penning them. Second load was seven hours late because they had a hard time penning them. Five weeks later, they would actually come back to me (and I never spent more than two hours a week in that time.) I was needing to move them to the northeast side of the pasture so the yearlings I had to move through the pasture wouldn't see them. They had already started off of water when I got to them, and all I did was start to ride to them at the right angle...

 

[Travlr]

Still, 95% of the time the good cowboys make it harder than they need to...often just so they can rope something and have a good story to tell at the bar. Friend of mine had to gather a place he takes care of last month. Guy who owns the cattle sent three "good cowboys" and it wound up taking twice as long as usual because the "had" to rope them to get them in.

That can be said of a lot of professions. Firefighters, police, and emergency workers especially come to mind...

 

[Dave]

These cows are all old broken mouth one and done cows. I bought them at the sale. Absolutely no telling what their past history might be. Here they got run down the chute, a new brand, fresh ear tag, and a couple vaccinations. Turned out with the herd where they got fed hay every morning. Twice day I would ride the quad around checking for new calves. They were use to me and barely lifted their heads up as I cruised by. I previously missed the line about having a good story to tell at the bar. I know for a fact that 2 of the 3 who were here don't drink. Not even a cold beer on a hot day. I have watched those 2 many times. It is obvious they know what they are doing.

 

[Bob Kinford]

It is not that they need to be crazy to survive. It is that they haven't had any human interaction. These two were ok in the middle of the herd. But off by themselves the flight or fight reaction explodes. And they figured flight in the wrong direction was the thing to do.

I obviously wasn't there, but past experience tells me that their flight pattern was directly related to the approach of the riders as well as the rider's response. Lots of things not taught in stockmanship just because they are counter intuitive to what we've been taught. It's easier to blame the stupid cow rather than wonder if our reactions should have been different.

 

[Travlr]

I obviously wasn't there, but past experience tells me that their flight pattern was directly related to the approach of the riders as well as the rider's response. Lots of things not taught in stockmanship just because they are counter intuitive to what we've been taught. It's easier to blame the stupid cow rather than wonder if our reactions should have been different.

It would be interesting to turn you loose on some of the herds owned on these threads... and time your efforts until you succeed... and then let the owners demonstrate their own methods to do the same challenge a couple of weeks later.