Dead Cattle

[Just Curious]

I know of one rancher that will just leave a dead animal out in the pasture... Figures the coyotes, foxes, magpies, ravens will clean it up... They have a few thousand acres to play with... Would this make a difference in how you handled it?
Kinda makes sense to me... like when deer, elk, etc. die not many take there backhoe out to bury them... but was just wondered what others thought and do......

 

[dun]

We drag them to one spot so that the stink and varmints are centralized. Either that or we cal the knackers

 

[Just Curious]

Either that or we cal the knackers

Okay... I'll bite,
What's a knacker?

 

[dun]

Either that or we call the knackers

Okay... I'll bite,
What's a knacker?

A knacker is someone that deals in inedible animals and animal parts. We also call it the dead truck.

 

[milkmaid]

Most of my neighbors keep a "dead animal pile" out on the back 40 somewhere... relatively common practice in my area. We have coyotes, ravens, vultures, and random other scavengers that take care of the dead animals.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

i get rid of my neighbor's for em they drag em to the back ..and my dogs bring em to me piece by piece

 

[Just Curious]

i get rid of my neighbor's for em they drag em to the back ..and my dogs bring em to me piece by piece

Does it save you much not having to take them to the butcher.... I would think that a highly trained dog might know the difference between the different cuts!

 

[ALACOWMAN]

i get rid of my neighbor's for em they drag em to the back ..and my dogs bring em to me piece by piece

Does it save you much not having to take them to the butcher.... I would think that a highly trained dog might know the difference between the different cuts!

he brought a full skull to the barn a few weeks ago. carried it a 1/8 of a mile. :shock: the skull weighed more than him

 

[Just Curious]

i get rid of my neighbor's for em they drag em to the back ..and my dogs bring em to me piece by piece

Does it save you much not having to take them to the butcher.... I would think that a highly trained dog might know the difference between the different cuts!

he brought a full skull to the barn a few weeks ago. carried it a 1/8 of a mile. :shock: the skull weighed more than him

Well there ya go!!! That is a fine hound that you have!
It's really amazing how much meat is on a head... Most of the folks around here just pitch them... We'll skin them out and deep pit them... There's really a lot of meat around the face and jaws... The Tongue isn't too bad either... Now as for the rest of it, even though I have heard parts are edible (I.e. The Brains) we haven't gone there...

 

[pdfangus]

I have been told by some folks smarter than I am that leaving the dead out in the open makes problems with black headed or short tailed western vultures worse.

that is only a problem at calving time but at some times during calving it is a real problem. we have had them kill calves and once they ate a hole the size of a wash tub in the back of a cow that was calving.

i would like to compost our dead but deads are less of a problem for us than they used to be as I have gotten alot more ruthless in culling.

But those darn buzzards keep circling and hoping.

 

[Roadapple]

I guess my vet is just wasting time disinfecting his boots and whatever instrument he used in posting or doctoring a sick cow/calf, if all I'm going to do is drag it somewhere out of sight, and let the birds, animals, or family pet spread "whatever" all over the countryside. Lay 'em out so the vultures, buzzards, coyotes, and whatever can devour them, and spread the disease around, then wonder why they hang around, and seem to be getting thicker. Hmmm, I wonder why? We read it's hard to keep the fly
population down for our animals, which we're pouring, fly tags, fly blocks, and whatever, and then we say they don't work, when the problem is in our back 40. If you're on such a tight budget that you can't bury it, or call the "knackers", you're just da.. near out of the cattle business. I don't like flies and darn sure don't like birds eating off my neighbors dead, infected with whatever, dead animals, and then drinking out of my water tanks. But thats just one of my pet peeves. I have more.

 

[IluvABbeef]

I know of one rancher that will just leave a dead animal out in the pasture... Figures the coyotes, foxes, magpies, ravens will clean it up... They have a few thousand acres to play with... Would this make a difference in how you handled it?
Kinda makes sense to me... like when deer, elk, etc. die not many take there backhoe out to bury them... but was just wondered what others thought and do......

Sure, that's what we do when a steer dies. Just haul 'im out to the back pasture and let the coyotes, magpies, ravens, wolves, what-have-ya clean it up. The 'yotes are 'specially great at cleanin up the bones. Give it a couple years and the steer that was hauled out to the back'll be completely gone. Lucky we don't got no vultures to worry about. ;-)

 

[Wewild]

We try to bury ours now. The county use to do it for free. Now it takes a call and $40.

 

[Darhawk]

Gotta big swamp down by the lower pasture that serves as dead ground. "Bout a 35 wild hog pack lives in the swamp. Use the front loader to move the dead cow, donkey. horse, what ever down there and 24 hrs later there's nothing but clean picked bones left. Even the buzzards hate those wild hogs.

 

[onecowfarms]

we take them to back into deep ravine dump them over the side if you call the truck it $100 for cow and $300 for horse in are area

 

[dun]

We drag them to one spot so that the stink and varmints are centralized. Either that or we cal the knackers

"cal the knacklers"???????????????????????

Help me out Dun, what does this mean?? Is this mountain Ozark talk??


I either bury them with a front-end loader or burn them. The vultures get enough as it is, why encourage them? And why reinforce the population of coyotes? Can't complain about them if you feed 'em!!

4th post on page 1!
Be feeding the yotes it makes it much easier to do a bit of retroactive birth ontrol on them.

 

[rkm]

Its a law here dead livestock have to be buried or you have to call the knackers to pick them up. If the knacker can't pick them up the same day they die, too bad start digging! It cost atleast $50 to have one picked up

Most of us still drag some to the back forty, but if a do gooder catches wind of it you can expect trouble. At the same time the Town picks up dead deer and other animals along the road and dumps them on our property. Go figure.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Not all of them die af desease buzzards and coyotes have been naturals disposal system longer than any of us remember. If the old gal died of some bad desease i would burn her before i would bury her. The back forty is good enough around here.

 

[I luv herfrds]

Thanks JC I was eating until I read your post. Bleeaah!
We will normally haul the animal to our dump where no cattle are at and leave them there. Coyotes won't even touch them til they are ripe. The only exception is when one is found really ripe, we leave it there. They are normally the ones struck by lighting.

 

[simangus23]

ANY CATTLEMAN THAT CANT BURY HIS DEAD IS A TURD---- STEER CLEAR OF THOSE KINDA PPL AND TAKE A PIC AND SEND IT TO

PETA--- THAT WILL MAKE HIS DAY.