How you do it

[jennibluis]

I use a bag of corn most of the time, sometimes have to wear them out with the truck. If theyre not used to corn I sometimes tie a barrel on a rope to the back of the truck and drive around. The cattle follow it right out the gate.

Do you put something in the barrel or does the bouncing make them curious?

 

[nenmrancher]

we use everything, horses, pickups with feed, 4wheelers & motorcycles, on foot and with dogs. Course from reading posts and I might be wrong most on here are working with small herds and acrearages. We have close to 1200 head and despending on what we are doing any where from 2 to 5 people doing the work.

 

[farmer rich]

I use a bag of corn most of the time, sometimes have to wear them out with the truck. If theyre not used to corn I sometimes tie a barrel on a rope to the back of the truck and drive around. The cattle follow it right out the gate.

Do you put something in the barrel or does the bouncing make them curious?

I think theyre just curious.

 

[Rod]

I feed a little sweetfeed twice a week and I only feed it inside my holding lot in front of the corral. That way they are confortable comming inside the lot. I also honk my horn on the way up and they usaully beat me to the lot. Then when its time to work them I'll give a few honks on the horn and throw a little feed out and walk to the end of the lot and shut the gate on them. We push about 15 at a time into the corral and work them and release them out the back and gather up the next group and so on. Its best to not make alot of commotion and alot of noise while working them as this could cause panic and increase the risk of them hurting one another. I cull any trouble makers that make it diffulcult to work as they tend to get the other ones worked up along with them. Enough cant be said about having good and sturdy facilities which could bring up a whole other disscusioin. Best of luck!

 

[sidney411]

You know I've heard that your not suppose to get your cows used to comming in to the lot to get fed. Makes it a lot easier for the thieves to get your cattle.....that being said, I do the same thing. A bag of cubes and they'll come running and follow me just about anywhere.

 

[dun]

You know I've heard that your not suppose to get your cows used to comming in to the lot to get fed. Makes it a lot easier for the thieves to get your cattle.....that being said, I do the same thing. A bag of cubes and they'll come running and follow me just about anywhere.

That's interesting about not coming in for food. Ours won;t come up if someone they aren;t familiar with is around.

dun

 

[jersey lilly]

Ours will come to the truck for cubes. but that never works 100% of the time when your wantin to work em. At least if its in big numbers, there's always a few cows that figure out what's up and refuse to come into the lot. And the calves don't know what's goin on. So we've ended up with the calves we wanna work standin out there watchin. I don't feed mine cubes on a regular basis tho. So it's just easier to let the dogs out, bunch em up, and ride horses and bring em into the lot.

 

[milesvb]

a sack of cubes and a kawasaki mule with some generous honking

 

[Rod]

As long as i'm by myself then mine will come up but if someones with me then a few will hesitate. I make my helpers lay low until the gates closed. I have to be by myself as well to get my bull in the corall, he'll follow me anywhere as long as I have a bucket but if someone else is around he's stuburn as an old jack.

 

[bwranch]

a sack of cubes and a kawasaki mule with some generous honking

We just picked up our new mule on friday. Pretty excited about the prospect of herding cows with the new addition. Went out Saturday to try trailing a couple of heifers but the full time 4WD locked up and wouldn't budge. Think I'll have to spend some time in the round shop this week. Might have been a mistake buying the "Missouri" brand instead of the "Kawasaki" ;-)

 

[skyeagle]

I use a Norwegian Elk Hound Hes like an extra person. He moves to the area I point to just have to move slow or the
calves try to go through the fence.
It took a year and half to train him though.He would rather
herd them all up on a dead run and take the cattle down
to the pond.

Skyeagle

 

[Ryder]

On foot and slow.
Prefer horse, it's the cowboy way, but I don't have one at this time.

 

[Sugar Creek]

I use to work them on foot and with dogs. The dog I have now is trained more to provide protection from coyotes and the cattle are so use to her they don't cooperate much and I've quit trying to get her to gather.

Our hills are so steep horses have never been much help. Am using feed to lure them in the lot more and more. Cows handle well but a calf often senses something is up and lingers back watching. Here the kids come in handy.

This is something there is no sure fire always works solution to. I always dread it but it is fun when it works and the job is over.

 

[TheBullLady]

We have our feed bunks in a large corral...so they are more than happy to come up and pen themselves. We have a smaller pen with a feeder and a creep feeder gate on one side for the calves. It works wonderfully when we want to ship calves. Just block off the creep feeder gate and load them up.

We don't have to worry about anyone stealing them out of the pens, they'd have to drive past the house to get to them.

 

[CowCop]

~

Hollar "come you old witch," shake the white bucket... and get out of the way.

They will come a mile in about 4 minutes or less, gives me time to rearrange gates while encouraging them to hurry. And they do hurry--always.

2 weeks ago it really paid off.
We had a horrible wind & rain storm that resembled a hurricane. I watched trees being blown over and I knew the herd could be injured if they remained in the timber.

I had minutes to get the herd out of the woods and into a open field across the street. My boss doubted I could do it without being blown away or losing the cows down the road.

I yelled--twice. The wind carrying my voice.
I heard the cows yell back instantly.
They came a running full gallop.
I opened gates on the other side of the road while being blown all over the place. I prayed no vehicles would be driving on the road--since I couldn't see or hear a thing because of the driving rain and wind.

The herd stampeded across the road and into the upper open field--all of them--cows, calves and bull.

A miracle.

The voice is mightier than dogs, horses, vehicles, grain sacks or neighbors.

 

[GaryDG]

First, train them with mollasis-based corn or grain. Call them, use a bucket to place the grain on the ground so they see it. Have them eat it. Once they eat it they will be addicted.

After a few times of this training they will follow you everywhere when you present the bucket (whether or not there is grain in it).

This approach works best for us. They follow us into an arena or pen then from there we separate using outstetched arms or long sticks into sub-corrals or wherever we want them.

This has worked perfectly on a herd to 24 head.

Our herd is pretty tame but when they recognize the call and the bucket they will come running so have a place for protection, if required.

 

[Bama]

I use a big ole dinner bell. If I'm out in the pasture they don't come a running unless I ring that dinnerbell. They know if that bell rings, Dinners a waiting them. Once they get to the bunks I just start working the gates.

 

[samm]

bama...sounds like you have Pavlov's cows.....

 

[NewCowboy]

4wheelers and cubes. They all follow, sometimes too closely. Me and my brother bring up the rear with the stragglers on 4 wheelers. It is fun.

:cboy:

 

[jbar]

i send my dog to fetch um. my young dog i have to go help a little. other wise i just stand at the gate and the dog puts um in the catch pen. training a stockdog is easy if the dog wants to work you can train him. you have to train your cattle to be worked by dogs