How Grandpa Called The Cows

[greenwillowhereford II]

When I was a child, some of my older married cousins decided to help Grandpa "work" his cows. They brought in their horses, and had those gentle Herefords scared and milling around. Grandpa said something to the effect of "Let me show you how it's done." He backed "The Old Dodge" pickup out of "The Old Garage;" (As opposed to the "new garage," which was attached to the house instead of out by the pasture fence) and laid on the horn. Presently, a stream of red and white came pouring into the corrals of their own accord.

 

[user1]

Speaking of that, there used to be a chant that I heard an oldtimer use. Don't know the words.
Something a "dollar and a half and calf" etc and so on

 

[ALACOWMAN]

i got a funny way of call'in my cattle sound like a indian chant mostly gibberish

 

[Santas and Duhram Reds]

I say wooo

Dad says suckcow

Grandpa was more of a pig man. He had a few cows but I don't remember him working with them. He was in his 70s and 80s when I remember him.

 

[VanC]

We used to call them by yelling "come, boss....come, boss."

 

[angie2]

We used to call them by yelling "come, boss....come, boss."

Thats how I call ours "Come Boss"
If they are too far, I whistle through my fingers. They hear that.

 

[sparky1]

Funny how just the sound of my feed truck gets them running. They dont even pay attention to our nieghbors feed truck when he goes by. Quess its just what they r used to

 

[jcarkie]

i call "woooo souck" or "come on" :lol2:

 

[grubbie]

Dad use to holler "Come Boss", I just holler "Come on girls". But if they see the ranch truck or four wheeler, you don't have to say much at all. Horses will scatter them in a hurry cause they are not used to them anymore. We use four wheelers and motorcycles to move them around. They seem to respond to my wifes voice better than mine. Probably because of my impatience in working them in the corral, she is much gentler with them.

 

[pdfangus]

My cows come to call. :nod:
but I have a distinctive and loud voice. :secret:
The cows know the difference between my tractor and my neighbors even though they are both fords with a loader on.
His is a 5610 and mine is a 3610 but they know by the sound.

Our bulls are out now doing warranty work behind AI.
Have a four year old bull on one side and a yearling just back from test on the other side.

I feed the bulls on any day I am home during day light. I call the bull up and give him a little grain. Paid off this year as the old bull got a sore foot and it made it easy to treat him.

The yearling bull will now come to the pen and eat and the cows don't come with him becasue I call bulls differently than I call cows.

They are pretty smart if we will take the time to listen to them. :cowboy:

 

[MissouriExile]

I don't have to call them. When I get home from work at 4:30 every day they are waiting for me. Just in case I might put out a little feed. If its been more than 3 days since I gave them a treat they all hollar until I remember.
Sometimes I call them during the day on weekends; then I use "COME BOSS" since that's what I heard an old friend do on his place.

Jon

 

[Ziggy Pop]

We always yelled, "Hoooo!". I worked for a man that yelled "Sa-bah!". Never figured where he got that... LOL

 

[jbar]

my dad tells of a man ,back when it was open range in these part,calling his stock with shoo pig or get out somthing like that. point is his would come running and everybody elses would leave so only his stock got the feed.a lot of them old timer where full from toe to top of there head with common sense.

 

[CKC1586]

I hear you there! I wish my Dad and Grandpa would have written books! They forgot more than I will ever know.

 

[sedrick_hall]

All we had to do was blow the horn on the truck and they'd come get it.

 

[cypressfarms]

I hear you there! I wish my Dad and Grandpa would have written books! They forgot more than I will ever know.

Ain't that the truth! Back in the day the real cattlemen knew their stuff. They had no EPD's, no frozen embryos or A.I.

Imagine how good these people would be WITH all of the science we have today.

By the way, my grandpaw had an old red Chevy truck. He would drive it through the pasture and look at all of the cows a couple of times a day. He would even let us grandkids take the wheel (with him ofcourse hitting the gas and brakes) Now that with a bottle coke was a good day!

 

[CKC1586]

I hear you there! I wish my Dad and Grandpa would have written books! They forgot more than I will ever know.

Ain't that the truth! Back in the day the real cattlemen knew their stuff. They had no EPD's, no frozen embryos or A.I.

Imagine how good these people would be WITH all of the science we have today.

By the way, my grandpaw had an old red Chevy truck. He would drive it through the pasture and look at all of the cows a couple of times a day. He would even let us grandkids take the wheel (with him ofcourse hitting the gas and brakes) Now that with a bottle coke was a good day!

Dad had dairy cows (Holstein) and I can remember many of those darn bulls. I had strict orders to stay out of the barn yard when he was out. The last one he had had to be put back in his pen with the tractor he got so ornery. One day he nearly tipped the tractor over (JD 50) Dad told Mom that's it, no more bulls and he started AI'ing, Mr. Fryover was the first guy in our area to handle AI. This was in the 60s. Sure was a huge difference with the Herefords that my brother raised. They were just plain sweet.

 

[cattleluvr18]

we say boss too. everybody i've ever heard has said boss. they also come to the sound of the tractor.

 

[3waycross]

My Missouri Grandpa called the cows, Soo Cow and the Pigs, pig pig pig.

My Colorado Grandpa used the horn on the truck (1950 Ford) . He didn't need to call much when they smelled that Silage they came like racehorses. He also drove thru the cows at least once or twice a day in the winter, when they were up at the farm. In the summer they were at the Ranch 13 miles away across the prarie so they got a visit 3 or 4 times a week.

When I was a kid I never got tired of hearing him recite the lineage of every cow in the herd( 100 to 120). He knew them all by heart. He could also watch us run 30 or 40 calves thru a gate and tell us within 100 to 150 lbs what the whole bunch weighed, seemed to be magic to a bunch of snot nosed kids who thought they were the wild bunch. He also always dehorned and castrated by the Moon, the only time I ever remember calves bleeding much was when we worked them other than when he said cause we thought going to a dance in town was more important than the cattle. We sure never did that again.

 

[cypressfarms]

He also always dehorned and castrated by the Moon, the only time I ever remember calves bleeding much was when we worked them other than when he said cause we thought going to a dance in town was more important than the cattle. We sure never did that again.

Now that's interesting. Do you recall what phase of the moon he used to lessen the bleeding?