Last week I posted a thread about an open cow and how she was beating up on the other cows with calves. I stated she was growing wheels. She later went through the fence and I felt I was lucky she had ended up in the drive which doubled as an alley to the chute system where I load cattle. She ran up the drive and right into the chute system holding pen, no seperating her, just five minutes and a repair to the fence, she was seperated and caught up ready to load and ship....just that easy (I stated with a little boast).
Well the morning of the sale came, my wife got up early to get her chores done in time to help me load her. I got the trailer hooked up and back into spot. I tied an extra panel to the trailer and use a swing panel to push the cattle into the trailer. I usually have panels all they way to the trailer, but you guessed it I was in a hurry, and I left about a 3 foot area of just barbed wire and hot wire fence instead of setting up the panel I usally do. Yep, right through that section of fence, tore out a slightly rotted post with it, that happened to have a 16' 2x4 screwed to it that had our satellite TV cable attached to it, which was attached to another 16' 2x4 across the driveway (kept the cable off the drive). Yea, she tore the whole thing down. my wife and I chased her around the yard for a few minutes before she went through another fence into our heifer pen. 2 fences to fix, no TV until I fix the satellite system, a mad wife and I'm fix'n to get my 30-06 and drop her where she stood (the cow not my wife). My wife was in agreement, but we decided we could only make hambuger and we both wouldn't eat it out of spite.
No way was she going to load that day so she stayed with the heifers and ate more grass and hay for another week. In the mean time I went out and bought a good hot shot.
Chapter 2: The rabbit trap
The auction yard sells on Tuesdays, so the next Monday, my son came up to help me get her caught up. I knew since she had gone through 3 fences in a short period of time she had it figured out and I wouldn't get her into the working system again. So my son and I set up a long funnel type system with 10 panels. This funneled down to my pasture gate, I could get her caught up and back the trailer to the gate and load her up. We dumped some grain at the end of the funnels system and the heifers where quick to come into our trap, the mad cow soon followed and chased the heifers out of the funnel system. The idea was to catch what we could with her included by going to the open end of the funnel system and closing it before she could get out, seperate out the heifers and have her caught and secured.... again. She would not let me get within 50 feet of her before she ran out of the funnel system and to the far end of the pasture. Now for the rabbit trap. We tied about 150 feet of rope to the end of the last panel, narrowed the opening to about 12 feet, and gave it a test by pulling it close using the rope, it was slow but seemed to work. We reset the trap hid the rope as well as we could and waited for everyone to settle down for about 1/2 an hour. We put some more grain at the end of the trap and waited at the end of the rope hiding behind my truck. She came right up to our trap and to the grain, chasing the heifers off on the way, she was in our trap alone, my son and I pulled as fast as we could, and we had her again. This time we tied the "be nice" out of everything and gave her some water and hay and waited to load her until morning. Tuesday morning, again my wife got up early, my son stayed the night to help and we were ready, my son, my wife and me and my new hot shot wanting to give her a couple extra shots just because. We used the gate as a panel and tied it to the trailer door, but just to take no chances I sunk two t-post for extra strength to the gate, my son was to simply cut the baling twine that tied the gate to the trailer door when she was loading and shut the door. So my hot shot and I entered the trap to run her into the trailer, she went full speed head first into the gate, luckly it held, she banged around the panels for about 5 minutes then gave up and ran into the trailer... we got the door closed. My gate is now shaped like a "C" and no longer fits the hole.
Fixed two fences, a satellite system and my son and I had to jump on the gate to get it straight enough to use again.... yea I'm the one who said it was just that easy. I felt like such a "wannabe" hiding behind my truck with the end of the rope, hoping to catch a crazy cow.... again.
CB, please forgive me! She did bring 52. cwt at 1200lbs.
Alan
Well the morning of the sale came, my wife got up early to get her chores done in time to help me load her. I got the trailer hooked up and back into spot. I tied an extra panel to the trailer and use a swing panel to push the cattle into the trailer. I usually have panels all they way to the trailer, but you guessed it I was in a hurry, and I left about a 3 foot area of just barbed wire and hot wire fence instead of setting up the panel I usally do. Yep, right through that section of fence, tore out a slightly rotted post with it, that happened to have a 16' 2x4 screwed to it that had our satellite TV cable attached to it, which was attached to another 16' 2x4 across the driveway (kept the cable off the drive). Yea, she tore the whole thing down. my wife and I chased her around the yard for a few minutes before she went through another fence into our heifer pen. 2 fences to fix, no TV until I fix the satellite system, a mad wife and I'm fix'n to get my 30-06 and drop her where she stood (the cow not my wife). My wife was in agreement, but we decided we could only make hambuger and we both wouldn't eat it out of spite.
No way was she going to load that day so she stayed with the heifers and ate more grass and hay for another week. In the mean time I went out and bought a good hot shot.Chapter 2: The rabbit trap
The auction yard sells on Tuesdays, so the next Monday, my son came up to help me get her caught up. I knew since she had gone through 3 fences in a short period of time she had it figured out and I wouldn't get her into the working system again. So my son and I set up a long funnel type system with 10 panels. This funneled down to my pasture gate, I could get her caught up and back the trailer to the gate and load her up. We dumped some grain at the end of the funnels system and the heifers where quick to come into our trap, the mad cow soon followed and chased the heifers out of the funnel system. The idea was to catch what we could with her included by going to the open end of the funnel system and closing it before she could get out, seperate out the heifers and have her caught and secured.... again. She would not let me get within 50 feet of her before she ran out of the funnel system and to the far end of the pasture. Now for the rabbit trap. We tied about 150 feet of rope to the end of the last panel, narrowed the opening to about 12 feet, and gave it a test by pulling it close using the rope, it was slow but seemed to work. We reset the trap hid the rope as well as we could and waited for everyone to settle down for about 1/2 an hour. We put some more grain at the end of the trap and waited at the end of the rope hiding behind my truck. She came right up to our trap and to the grain, chasing the heifers off on the way, she was in our trap alone, my son and I pulled as fast as we could, and we had her again. This time we tied the "be nice" out of everything and gave her some water and hay and waited to load her until morning. Tuesday morning, again my wife got up early, my son stayed the night to help and we were ready, my son, my wife and me and my new hot shot wanting to give her a couple extra shots just because. We used the gate as a panel and tied it to the trailer door, but just to take no chances I sunk two t-post for extra strength to the gate, my son was to simply cut the baling twine that tied the gate to the trailer door when she was loading and shut the door. So my hot shot and I entered the trap to run her into the trailer, she went full speed head first into the gate, luckly it held, she banged around the panels for about 5 minutes then gave up and ran into the trailer... we got the door closed. My gate is now shaped like a "C" and no longer fits the hole.
Fixed two fences, a satellite system and my son and I had to jump on the gate to get it straight enough to use again.... yea I'm the one who said it was just that easy. I felt like such a "wannabe" hiding behind my truck with the end of the rope, hoping to catch a crazy cow.... again.
CB, please forgive me!
She did bring 52. cwt at 1200lbs.Alan
