Ideas to catch "wild" cows

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Warren they are on a 40 acre property, about 30 is pasture.
The perimeter is fenced but I wouldn't trust it to hold anything in. They were in the neighbors cornfield this fall, and one morning there were a couple out on the road that just walked back in with no sign of fence damage. So I was told. The more I have talked to the neighbor it sounds like his dad should have sold these cows a long time ago. The only way he has caught them is to put some hay out and whenever the ones he wanted to sell came up he would shut a gate and call a hauler.
The original pen that is there is in terrible shape and falling down without cows pushing on it.
No idea what they would do with horses around them, I doubt they have ever seen one as they are on a dead end road with no horses on it. I could just imagine chaos of them running through the fence on the other end.
The idea to put fence posts in to tie panels down with would have been a great idea if he had done it before the ground froze. Should have been done when he had the lightweight panels, but now I have the big panels in there. Should take care of the going under.
By moving some of the 24' panels I took over I could fence in the water but it would also rely on the crappy remnants of the old pen that is there and a short fence into the yard. Not sure the water would be a big deal to them now as we just got 10 inches of snow that I'm sure they will lick for water.
I'm sure I would get the same response to fencing them out of the water that I did to the idea of shutting the gate to the hay at night and just opening during daylight. Which is he's scared they will go through the fences.
After he talking to him the other day he still voiced the same concerns and has no new solutions of his own I told him to just call the sale barn and see if they know anyone that catches cattle like this in the area. Told him I would go over today to see if I could figure anything else out and he said we might as well wait till monday being as he was going to his daughters to babysit if he could make it with the snow we had. I'm not really sure how to read him at this point when he keeps telling me he is almost out of hay but acts as he's in no hurry.
Pretty sure I'm just washing my hands of his situation. I'll help when he asks but other than that I am staying out of it. I guess I see no point in asking someone for ideas and then dismissing them right after they are suggested without even trying when what he is doing hasn't been working.
Thanks for all the suggestions and ideas to try.
 
Lazy M said:
May be an awful idea but may be worth a try: one of my neighbors had some yearling feeder calves. 7 or 8 were idiots that he couldn't bring up to his corral. He ended up selling the rest and was about in the same fix as your buddy with the flighty ones. I brought 5 of my old gentle cows onto his place and let them comings with his for about a week. After a week I called my cows up to his corral and sure enough all the feeders followed them in
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Actually, aside from biosecurity, it's a great idea. Friend of mine had a bunch of feeder steers bust outta prison years ago and they were everywhere; couple got hit/killed on the highway, but one ended up somewhat close to one of my pastures. This steer had been on the run for 2 days and wasn't remotely tame, but we managed to get him in the pasture, and he immediately hooked up with my bred heifers and their bull. My cattle are extremely gentle, so we let him hang with my crew for another day before we moved the portable corral and he followed them right in.
 
Some cowboys will team rope but most team ropers arent cowboys. If you go that route you need cowboys. However outside the true western range land there is usually a better way. 40 ac. with questionable fence wont end well with 17 head to catch. Might could get 1or 2 that way.

Alot of good advice above but it will take patience and feed bags with a little creativity to get them caught. If he wont listen to advice he can learn the hard way. If your gonna be stupid you gotta be tough.
 
Not proud to say it but been in on some real ordeals. All cattle here are pretty tame now except stocker calves whole different deal. Got lot in with feed and patience. Darted more than should have. Worst one i putted around on cab tractor for a hour to ever get half way close enough to dart best long range shot i ever made. Can remember several not about to come into to feed. Went back couple hours after dark shut the gait loaded next morning. Turned off water burned hay hid in blind once they smelled me. Guy thats scared get someone hurt heat of moment. My guess will be catchable other than handfull then will need cowboy or someone can deal with idiot cows. Or dart gun and still gonna need that guy. They don't drunk and waddle on trailer in open field. Be safe these deals can get western fast.
 
Can make a corral out of lots of things - square bale wagons, chopper boxes, banged up farm vehicles, etc.
 
uplandnut said:
Warren they are on a 40 acre property, about 30 is pasture.
The perimeter is fenced but I wouldn't trust it to hold anything in. They were in the neighbors cornfield this fall, and one morning there were a couple out on the road that just walked back in with no sign of fence damage. So I was told. The more I have talked to the neighbor it sounds like his dad should have sold these cows a long time ago. The only way he has caught them is to put some hay out and whenever the ones he wanted to sell came up he would shut a gate and call a hauler.
The original pen that is there is in terrible shape and falling down without cows pushing on it.
No idea what they would do with horses around them, I doubt they have ever seen one as they are on a dead end road with no horses on it. I could just imagine chaos of them running through the fence on the other end.
Click to expand...
The other 10 wooded? Yeah, you wouldn't be able to push these cattle too much with anything: horses, dogs, 4 wheelers, or whatever. Contrary to what some of the cattle geniuses on here have eluded to, no cowboy anywhere, real or rodeo, would attempt to rope 17 head in a 40 acre pasture like that. What they would do, is gather them up and ease them down to, then into, the pens. If these cows have never seen a horse, then they'd be ok with someone that knew what they are doing. Cattle are not afraid of horses, unless they have had a bad experience with them.
I never , ever, got in any pasture with my cattle on foot. Always on horseback. Some groups I had over the years would, however, be afraid of a man on foot out in their pastures. Suited me, too. Those would be a little more rustler proof, and it helped keep people out of my ponds, if a bunch oh wild =eyed cattle started running arpound snorting! LOL Especially with a groupp of Bramas or Criollo cattle. :)
uplandnut said:
The idea to put fence posts in to tie panels down with would have been a great idea if he had done it before the ground froze. Should have been done when he had the lightweight panels, but now I have the big panels in there. Should take care of the going under.
By moving some of the 24' panels I took over I could fence in the water but it would also rely on the crappy remnants of the old pen that is there and a short fence into the yard. Not sure the water would be a big deal to them now as we just got 10 inches of snow that I'm sure they will lick for water.
I'm sure I would get the same response to fencing them out of the water that I did to the idea of shutting the gate to the hay at night and just opening during daylight. Which is he's scared they will go through the fences.
After he talking to him the other day he still voiced the same concerns and has no new solutions of his own I told him to just call the sale barn and see if they know anyone that catches cattle like this in the area. Told him I would go over today to see if I could figure anything else out and he said we might as well wait till monday being as he was going to his daughters to babysit if he could make it with the snow we had. I'm not really sure how to read him at this point when he keeps telling me he is almost out of hay but acts as he's in no hurry.
Pretty sure I'm just washing my hands of his situation. I'll help when he asks but other than that I am staying out of it. I guess I see no point in asking someone for ideas and then dismissing them right after they are suggested without even trying when what he is doing hasn't been working.
Thanks for all the suggestions and ideas to try.
Click to expand...
Yeah, @uplandnut, sounds like you have already went above and beyond the call to be a good neighbor to him. No one would fault you if you just decided to wash your hands of the whole situation. I guess the boy needs to start looking for some hay, if he wants them to make it through the winter.
 
SmokinM said:
Some cowboys will team rope but most team ropers arent cowboys. If you go that route you need cowboys. However outside the true western range land there is usually a better way. 40 ac. with questionable fence wont end well with 17 head to catch.
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Might could get 1or 2 that way. Well, be it a "real cowboy" or a rodeo cowboy, no body would try to rope 17 head, no maatter how big the pasture was. Like you said, they'd get 1, maybe, for ever how many cowboys were there. You are right about rodeo ropers, and doggers...not many know anything really about cattle. Not so bad with team ropers, like USTRA and Booger Barter competitors.. more of them may actually be experienced with cattle. Even worse, is that in all my years of rodeo, I could count the number of actual horsemen (or horsewomen...the barrel racers) on one hand. They buy made horses, and a lot of them don't... maybe even can't,. ride outside of the arena or practice pen. A lot different than at a show, or a cutting, or any actual equine competition, where nearly everyone there is horseman.
SmokinM said:
Alot of good advice above but it will take patience and feed bags with a little creativity to get them caught. If he wont listen to advice he can learn the hard way. If your gonna be stupid you gotta be tough.
Click to expand...
 
Mi
SmokinM said:
Some cowboys will team rope but most team ropers arent cowboys. If you go that route you need cowboys. However outside the true western range land there is usually a better way. 40 ac. with questionable fence wont end well with 17 head to catch. Might could get 1or 2 that way.

Alot of good advice above but it will take patience and feed bags with a little creativity to get them caught. If he wont listen to advice he can learn the hard way. If your gonna be stupid you gotta be tough.
Click to expand...
Snow country cows get really really hungry in December, so feed works best.

If you want to cowboy in the snow - - then you can run them in open country with a snowmobile. Deep snow tames them quickly. Please post a video.
 
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If they were close enough I would make him an offer of 2 to 3 hundred dollars a head with $100. bills in hand.
Along with this I would offer him fair market for what hay it took to feed them until I got them corralled.
Then I would put some ground corn in little piles leading to the corral In five days to a week my tag would be in their ear.
If he said no I would smile, wish him good luck and go on with life. Been there, done that. <period
 
uplandnut said:
This fall my neighbor has finally convinced his 85 year old dad to sell his last cows. The cattle were very mellow according to him when his dad was healthy and would go for walks out in the pasture just to talk to them, they would be right next to you when you fed a round bale. This was 2 years ago and his dad has had health issues since and the cattle have basically gotten to a "wild" state as the only time anyone is around them is when they are fed hay. They are to the point that my neighbor is afraid of them and really tries to keep his distance when doing anything with them.
He started the feat of trying to catch them back in october and thought that some horse corral panels set in a lean to would do the trick. Unfortunately they had other thoughts and went right under them, he tried this multiple times. After trying to get him to use some 24' freestanding panels since he started he finally gave in on december 2nd. We set the panels so they had to go through one pen to get into the lean to, which is the other pen where he is feeding hay. He is still feeding hay in the lean to, to bait them in but they have gotten wise to the game after 3 months and only go in at night now. Other neighbors have offered to help try to herd them into the lean to for him but the cows have always thwarted the attempts and escaped.
He is getting frustrated as heck and keeps asking me what he should do. My thought was he almost has to regain the "trust" of the cows. For me I find it is easier to get them to work with me when they are use to me. I told him to try walking feed out to them daily in a 5 gallon pail just so they start to get some trust with him but he is to scared to get that close to them. I mentioned trying to shut off the hay at night so they get use to him opening the gate to hay in the morning, but he's afraid they will go through the fence to find something else to eat. He went over one morning to find 3 cows and a bull on the road about a month ago but can't find where they went through and they came back in without him doing anything.
So I am asking you who have considerable more experience than me for any other ideas to try and catch this small herd of about 17 head, of which have are bulls.
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If they're coming to a pen to eat figure out a trigger gate. If you don't know how you might find something on YouTube.
Basically just a live trap.
 
I'm late to this conversation so will only add that cows that have never seen horses will, in fact, be scared of them.
It used to be easy to get our cattle out of the neighbours. Just go in on horseback and their cattle would evacuate the immediate area and we could pick ours up and go home. Getting cattle horse broke doesn't happen in one session.
 
BC said:
I have heard some good ideas in this thread and one really bad idea. The thought of shooting a cow because you are not smart enough to figure a way to trap or have her roped just blows my mind. That is too much money to leave on the table.
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Ever heard of someone getting hurt or killed by a cow? One emergency room visit could easily exceed the value of that whole herd.
 
Warren Allison said:
The other 10 wooded? Yeah, you wouldn't be able to push these cattle too much with anything: horses, dogs, 4 wheelers, or whatever. Contrary to what some of the cattle geniuses on here have eluded to, no cowboy anywhere, real or rodeo, would attempt to rope 17 head in a 40 acre pasture like that. What they would do, is gather them up and ease them down to, then into, the pens. If these cows have never seen a horse, then they'd be ok with someone that knew what they are doing. Cattle are not afraid of horses, unless they have had a bad experience with them.
Click to expand...
Maybe not nowadays, but up until the early 1970s, my county was open range and there were thousands of 'domestic' cattle and hogs running in the 163,000 acre national forest here. (My family did not run cattle in the govt land and we fenced ours all off which led to frequent cut fences as the river bottom here had better grass and this property had been open to public access for several decades before my father bought it) About once/year, the cattle and hogs were worked and thee owners gathered the stock with dogs and horses and.. ropes and whips. Thick underbrush in most of the East Texas national forests but there was a different kind of 'cowboy' still here back then. Some of the cattle had been in the woods so long they had never seen a man much less a man on horseback. Lots of them had to be roped in the woods and more or less drug to the temporary pine sapling pens the cattlemen put up each year. (our cut pine don't last long in this wet climate and bugs)
Those old cowboys are all dead & gone now as is open range...just a memory from my teenage years.
 
The cattle then that ran the govt land were 99% rangey, wildassed, horned Brahm/Herf crosses that could survive, calve and grow on yaupon, vines, native woods grass and whatever was growing along the sides of the road. Bred to whatever bull came along.. lots of hybrid vigor in those old girls and their calves.. Not much to look at but they made $$.
(except the ones that got run over at night or hit by logging trucks in the daytime)
 
greybeard said:
Maybe not nowadays, but up until the early 1970s, my county was open range and there were thousands of 'domestic' cattle and hogs running in the 163,000 acre national forest here. (My family did not run cattle in the govt land and we fenced ours all off which led to frequent cut fences as the river bottom here had better grass and this property had been open to public access for several decades before my father bought it) About once/year, the cattle and hogs were worked and thee owners gathered the stock with dogs and horses and.. ropes and whips. Thick underbrush in most of the East Texas national forests but there was a different kind of 'cowboy' still here back then. Some of the cattle had been in the woods so long they had never seen a man much less a man on horseback. Lots of them had to be roped in the woods and more or less drug to the temporary pine sapling pens the cattlemen put up each year. (our cut pine don't last long in this wet climate and bugs)
Those old cowboys are all dead & gone now as is open range...just a memory from my teenage years.
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Aren't those kind of cattle referred to as "moss backs"?
Awh, back when cowboys could cowboy. Great memory. Would have been really cool to see.
 
SBMF 2015 said:
Aren't those kind of cattle referred to as "moss backs"?
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Not a term I'm familiar with except in regards to snapping turtles..
May have been some LH crosses in the woodpiles but most of the horns went up, not out. Made them easier to rope tho easier to get stuck with too.
You had to go on horseback because the dang ticks were just terrible back then.
(we were raising polled Herefords during that era on open fenced pasture)
 
If you want to cowboy in the snow - - then you can run them in open country with a snowmobile. Deep snow tames them quickly. Please post a video.
Click to expand...

Nothing like stress, physical exhaustion and some frost bit lungs to tame a cow down.
 

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