Do people really do this?

[cypressfarms]

This past Sunday I brought a few culls to the Stockyard. Their sale is on Monday, I always bring in the afternoon before. When I walked up and stepped onto the platform the manager, who knows me by first name, said you might want to back away for a little while! As soon as I saw what they were bringing through I knew why.

Apparently someone had over 1300 acres of land, which for south Louisiana is HUGE, and had cattle on the land. The cattle had never seen people. They all had that look in their eye. Almost all of them were horned and huge. They apparently had never been worked before. There was almost an equal mix of bulls (no steers) and cows. One big girl looked heavily brahman influenced and had to be 1600# or better. She was so tall, when she lifted her head up she could see above the panels that were holding her in. One big group of cattle, all destined to be slaughtered. It got me to thinking, how many people have cattle like this - as in they just throw cows out and several years later they make a "round up" and sell all. The recent uptick in prices obviously had something to do with these coming in. I'm sure my cull's price was lowered by so many "slaughters" coming in.

After they all went through, I thanked the manager for giving me a heads up. I asked him if he saw this kind of thing a lot. He said no, that it was rare, but with the prices up, cows are coming out of the woodworks. All his people had to sort/work the cows through the various pens from outside with hotshots. Every cow and bull to a T was hot and looking for something to hit. I didn't get to go to the sale yesterday, but I bet there was some snot throwing all around that ring.

Anyone seen this before? A huge group of wild cattle, who knows what is bred to what...

 

[3waycross]

Doesn't surprise me much. I have seen a few of those come thru here but in this country they don't run wild much like that.

One this is for sure they will all be workin at McDonalds in a few days.

 

[randiliana]

Yep, we have a neighbor that is pretty much like this. Figured he was, but we were missing a calf this fall, and just to be sure we asked him if he had seen it. He actually told us that all he did to check cows was to drive down the highway (#1, Trans Canada) to make sure nothing was out....

Had a handful like that in the stockyards too this fall. 700lb yearling heifers, when you walked anywhere near the pen it was like you turned a blender on in there. Never had seen anything quite like that. 1 head maybe but not a whole pen full.

 

[Isomade]

Crazy ain't it. I see it from time to time around here. There is one ranch that runs 20,000 acres, they have a fall gather every year. No hay, no vaccinations, just go in by horseback and gather calves to ship to the barn once a year.
My neighbor operates the same way. He gathers in December usually, I aint ever seen him in the pasture otherwise.

 

[TexasBred]

Use to be a lot of this down in the area where CB lives as well as the Coastal Bend area of Texas. My dad always called'em "Saltwater Brimmers". Talking about a mama cow. Ain't nothing gonna bother that baby. They breed, they raise good calves and I guess most just die of old age. About the only way to work them is with dogs and I don't mean heelers.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Anyone seen this before? A huge group of wild cattle, who knows what is bred to what...

There's a place like that out west of Mineral Wells, TX. Send in the dogs and catch what you can and haul them to the sale barn. I got caught up in this mix once. Never again. Some of those cows have never seen a human before. Who knows what they are exposing the rest of the cows at the sale barn to?

 

[ALACOWMAN]

Crazy ain't it. I see it from time to time around here. There is one ranch that runs 20,000 acres, they have a fall gather every year. No hay, no vaccinations, just go in by horseback and gather calves to ship to the barn once a year.
My neighbor operates the same way. He gathers in December usually, I aint ever seen him in the pasture otherwise.

it was alway fun hauling cattle for folks that operated like, this and they always had the worst chutes and facilities.. had to be pulled out with a dozer on one occation once a beefmaster bull that weighed a ton+ had to be darted and loaded with a backhoe..came too about have way to the stockyard almost lost control that time :cowboy:

 

[Angus Cowman]

yep they sure do
and it doesn't have to be large herd either
I used to make several dollars off of folks like this that couldn't catch their cows or ones that other people couldn't catch either

3 cowboys,6 horses,6 dogs a good set of portable corrals and lots of cussing, dogs barking and growling , cows bawlin and blood flying
and it wasn't cheap

went and caught 4 cows for a guy onetime and after I had hauled them to the salebarn and collected my check he owed the barn $53
one reason I always collected my check from the barn when I dropped the cows off

 

[TexasBred]

Angus about 35 years ago I lived next to a sizeable ranch. They ran a lot of these brimmer influenced stuff...had one fo the rodeos you mention to liquidate the herd....about a year latter I was down in their creek bottom squirrel huntin' and walked up on a skeleton still tied to a tree with a lariat rope. :lol2:

 

[novatech]

This past Sunday I brought a few culls to the Stockyard. Their sale is on Monday, I always bring in the afternoon before. When I walked up and stepped onto the platform the manager, who knows me by first name, said you might want to back away for a little while! As soon as I saw what they were bringing through I knew why.

Apparently someone had over 1300 acres of land, which for south Louisiana is HUGE, and had cattle on the land. The cattle had never seen people. They all had that look in their eye. Almost all of them were horned and huge. They apparently had never been worked before. There was almost an equal mix of bulls (no steers) and cows. One big girl looked heavily brahman influenced and had to be 1600# or better. She was so tall, when she lifted her head up she could see above the panels that were holding her in. One big group of cattle, all destined to be slaughtered. It got me to thinking, how many people have cattle like this - as in they just throw cows out and several years later they make a "round up" and sell all. The recent uptick in prices obviously had something to do with these coming in. I'm sure my cull's price was lowered by so many "slaughters" coming in.

After they all went through, I thanked the manager for giving me a heads up. I asked him if he saw this kind of thing a lot. He said no, that it was rare, but with the prices up, cows are coming out of the woodworks. All his people had to sort/work the cows through the various pens from outside with hotshots. Every cow and bull to a T was hot and looking for something to hit. I didn't get to go to the sale yesterday, but I bet there was some snot throwing all around that ring.

Anyone seen this before? A huge group of wild cattle, who knows what is bred to what...

Back in the fifties it was fairly common along the gulf coast. We worked the cattle with dogs once a year. The calves were cut out and taken to the auction barn. Some of the cows were culled and replacements were brought in. Almost all were Brahman influenced if not totally Brahman. The pens were built of 3x material and there was no such thing as a squeeze chute or head gate for that mater. Dehorning and any other doctoring was done on a snubbing post along the chute. You were considered successful if you had 90% of the cows still alive and a 75% percent of those with calves. The cows were tough but screw worms still took their toll. Probably why docility is second only to fertility in my list of traits today.

 

[plumber_greg]

Had a customer up north of me, his name was Max, ran about 400 cows, and he bought a batch, maybe 75 head of Charolis purebred cattle. (Please, I'm not bashing a breed, just telling a story). Max told me he bought the cattle very cheap cuz' they were crazy, registered and he thought mated with the right bulls, he could keep heifers and calm them down.
In the 15 years or so he had them, they tore the rotar cuff out of Max's shoulder, broke the hired man's leg, and tore everything they saw up. Max said that he couldn't get out of the pickup in the pasture when they were with calves until he got them in and weaned them. He had the calmest bulls I ever saw and every generation was as bad as the last. Simply couldn't calm them down.
Max was killed in a car wreck, and when his widow sold the cows, the first salebarn couldn't get them in the ring to sell. They took them to another barn, couldn't get them in the ring there either. The kill buyer finally bought them and they were sent to God to handle. Why anyone would keep them that long is beyond me. gs

 

[jkwilson]

went and caught 4 cows for a guy onetime and after I had hauled them to the salebarn and collected my check he owed the barn $53

I had a cow several years ago that I'd have gladly paid $53 to be rid of. We called her The Crazy B!+(#

 

[Gelbvieh 5]

This past Sunday I brought a few culls to the Stockyard. Their sale is on Monday, I always bring in the afternoon before. When I walked up and stepped onto the platform the manager, who knows me by first name, said you might want to back away for a little while! As soon as I saw what they were bringing through I knew why.

Apparently someone had over 1300 acres of land, which for south Louisiana is HUGE, and had cattle on the land. The cattle had never seen people. They all had that look in their eye. Almost all of them were horned and huge. They apparently had never been worked before. There was almost an equal mix of bulls (no steers) and cows. One big girl looked heavily brahman influenced and had to be 1600# or better. She was so tall, when she lifted her head up she could see above the panels that were holding her in. One big group of cattle, all destined to be slaughtered. It got me to thinking, how many people have cattle like this - as in they just throw cows out and several years later they make a "round up" and sell all. The recent uptick in prices obviously had something to do with these coming in. I'm sure my cull's price was lowered by so many "slaughters" coming in.

After they all went through, I thanked the manager for giving me a heads up. I asked him if he saw this kind of thing a lot. He said no, that it was rare, but with the prices up, cows are coming out of the woodworks. All his people had to sort/work the cows through the various pens from outside with hotshots. Every cow and bull to a T was hot and looking for something to hit. I didn't get to go to the sale yesterday, but I bet there was some snot throwing all around that ring.

Anyone seen this before? A huge group of wild cattle, who knows what is bred to what...

Back in the fifties it was fairly common along the gulf coast. We worked the cattle with dogs once a year. The calves were cut out and taken to the auction barn. Some of the cows were culled and replacements were brought in. Almost all were Brahman influenced if not totally Brahman. The pens were built of 3x material and there was no such thing as a squeeze chute or head gate for that mater. Dehorning and any other doctoring was done on a snubbing post along the chute. You were considered successful if you had 90% of the cows still alive and a 75% percent of those with calves. The cows were tough but screw worms still took their toll. Probably why docility is second only to fertility in my list of traits today.

I don't know why but I had you figured for a much younger man. Say early 40's .If you were working wild cattle on a horse in the 50's you have to be pushing 70 to 75 years old. :shock:

 

[hillsdown]

Back in the fifties it was fairly common along the gulf coast. We worked the cattle with dogs once a year. The calves were cut out and taken to the auction barn. Some of the cows were culled and replacements were brought in. Almost all were Brahman influenced if not totally Brahman. The pens were built of 3x material and there was no such thing as a squeeze chute or head gate for that mater. Dehorning and any other doctoring was done on a snubbing post along the chute. You were considered successful if you had 90% of the cows still alive and a 75% percent of those with calves. The cows were tough but screw worms still took their toll. Probably why docility is second only to fertility in my list of traits today.

I don't know why but I had you figured for a much younger man. Say early 40's .If you were working wild cattle on a horse in the 50's you have to be pushing 70 to 75 years old. :shock:

Gelbvieh 5, I think you have Novatech and Novaman confused .Novaman is the "youngster" that has the dairy .. ;-)

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Arkansas Game and Fish bought 2800 acres from a old man just north of me 5 years ago. Wasn't a gate left standing in the sale barn those cows sold at. Still one old cow down on that place.

 

[oscar p]

When I first got into cattle,I bought 11 braford cows from the local sale barn. The guy's said they were brought in from Mississippi sugar. Wild as a buck rabbit. That's what they said Mississippi sugar does. Said the cows just saw people twice a year.

 

[Brute 23]

Use to be a lot of this down in the area where CB lives as well as the Coastal Bend area of Texas. My dad always called'em "Saltwater Brimmers". Talking about a mama cow. Ain't nothing gonna bother that baby. They breed, they raise good calves and I guess most just die of old age. About the only way to work them is with dogs and I don't mean heelers.

Yup. Its not that uncommon. Just ask the guys who hire out as day hands. They do clean out jobs all the time.

 

[dun]

Back in the 60s a friend of ours that had multiple thousands of acres would pick one area each year. We would go in and catch as many cattle as we could, brand the cows and any bulls we caught, cut the calves and load them and most of the bulls out. Everything else we turned loose. The next year another area would get worked, and so on. While hunting up there I saw cows an bulls dieing of old age that didn;t have a mark on them. It was rough canyon contry with heavy timber and brush that a wild hog couldn;t get through. At that time I thought it was fun stuff, I guess my sense of adventure has toned down over the years.

 

[Angus Cowman]

I guess my sense of adventure has toned down over the years.

I agree with that statement :cowboy:

 

[Caustic Burno]

Use to be a lot of this down in the area where CB lives as well as the Coastal Bend area of Texas. My dad always called'em "Saltwater Brimmers". Talking about a mama cow. Ain't nothing gonna bother that baby. They breed, they raise good calves and I guess most just die of old age. About the only way to work them is with dogs and I don't mean heelers.

When we went in we didn't take one horse apiece either. I have seen some things at those rodeo's they were not for the novice.