In my life, I have never been able to catch every cow, calf, and bull on my place at the same time. That is a feat that I have truely never accomplished. I've put an honest effort in it many times. Just can't do it. I calve about 10 months out of the year, so I have calves on the ground from 5 days old to 8 months old.
Some odd hang up on here, about posting numbers, so I usually avoid it. Guess I'll have to spill the beans. As of today, I have 84 cows, 51 or 52 calves on the ground, 3 bulls, and 9 short bred heifers.
I need to do some weaning, some sorting, and some culling. I've tried all week, to catch as many as I can at once. Kinda successful, and kinda not.
My approach:
I put 50 pounds of feed in the catching pen. Do it everyday, for a few days. Just pour in my troughs, and go on like nothing is going on. They get wise, and start coming. After 3 or 4 days of that, I'll put out 50 pounds of feed, and scatter 2 bales of alfalfa hay (that holds in there longer). This whole process, will go on for a week or more. I eventually build up to getting 75% (or a little more) in my catching pen all at once. The 25% or so I don't get is enough to discombobulate the whole thing. I don't have a calf, that goes to a certain cow, or vice versa. I end up with about half what I need to be successful.
Starting tomorrow, I'm going to go back to my triedand true method. Keeping mineral in the catching pen, and nabbing the ones I can, as I can. This process will take til fall.
I also have the ability to catch any animal, at any time, with a horse. I'll end up resorting to that on a few. I don't like it, but it happens.
At the risk of sounding dumb, how do you people catch the entire herd at one time? I just don't seem to have the skill set to do it.
Some odd hang up on here, about posting numbers, so I usually avoid it. Guess I'll have to spill the beans. As of today, I have 84 cows, 51 or 52 calves on the ground, 3 bulls, and 9 short bred heifers.
I need to do some weaning, some sorting, and some culling. I've tried all week, to catch as many as I can at once. Kinda successful, and kinda not.
My approach:
I put 50 pounds of feed in the catching pen. Do it everyday, for a few days. Just pour in my troughs, and go on like nothing is going on. They get wise, and start coming. After 3 or 4 days of that, I'll put out 50 pounds of feed, and scatter 2 bales of alfalfa hay (that holds in there longer). This whole process, will go on for a week or more. I eventually build up to getting 75% (or a little more) in my catching pen all at once. The 25% or so I don't get is enough to discombobulate the whole thing. I don't have a calf, that goes to a certain cow, or vice versa. I end up with about half what I need to be successful.
Starting tomorrow, I'm going to go back to my triedand true method. Keeping mineral in the catching pen, and nabbing the ones I can, as I can. This process will take til fall.
I also have the ability to catch any animal, at any time, with a horse. I'll end up resorting to that on a few. I don't like it, but it happens.
At the risk of sounding dumb, how do you people catch the entire herd at one time? I just don't seem to have the skill set to do it.