Crazy Heifer

[YoungBlood]

I suppose that it is unanimous then she is gone. Lucky for us we never turned her out, we have a manditory intiation stay at the pens when we first bring in a new load of cattle, you knwo to calm them and get them used to hearing the horn knowing that when they hear the horn it is chow time and the like. She had not even been there 24 hours and we started having these problems. Here we are now though watching her and she is still squirrely and refuses to eat while we are there (possibly even when we are not) but will munch when the other cattle come around. Then as soon as they are gone again she starts getting fidgety again. She is an odd bird.

This is the next issue what are the effects on cattle when breaking what seems to be "bonds" between them. L&P, or Lea and Perrin as we have come to call her, has built what seems to be a strong bond with one of the other heifers. Will this effect her in a negatie manner or will she get over it?

YoungBlood

 

[dun]

Unless she's a borderline nut case herself she'll settle down after a day or two of looking for the other one.

dun

 

[Tman]

Well this ought to get me booted out the door, As most of you know we have had a bit of rain down here in central Texas. The heifers have been in the holding pen for sometime, the crazy one as well. Too wet to drive a trailer in at first and now to wet to drive a truck in at all. The 5 mile hike to the pens from the mainroad was fun for awhile but there was no longer any feed back at the pens, suffice it to say we turned crazy loose to roam 600 acres with the main herd two days ago.

She runs with the herd, seems calm enough and even will come to the horn with the rest of the herd, just not very trusting.

During her charging through the fence episode she seems to have injured one of her eyes, looked a bit weepy for a while now it has swollen shut, suppose that will cost me at the auction. Suppose the question is should I let her alone for awhile to see how things go, the eye and the weather, or should we go back there on horses and drag her out ?
Seems like with the bad eye she is a lost cause at the auction not to mention she is madder than a march hare when antagonized, throwing a rope on her and dragging her around ought to stir her and the rest of the herd up pretty good. We were gonna haul her earlier but it is just to wet.

 

[jw]

If you have already let her out of the pens, then leave her alone long enough to become a member of the group. She will probably never be worth keeping, but as long as she is calm and staying with the group I would leave her long enough for the eye to heal, and by that time she may be calm enough to coax her into the pens with the rest of your girls, sort her out and haul her.

 

[la4angus]

Let her run with the herd for a while: when you pen them next time just give her a shot of Colt 44 and make hamburger. If she is crazy she will be crazy as hell at the sale barn and go for killer prices.