regolith
Well-known member
It turns out you can make your calves too tame...
This must be the quietest group of calves I've raised yet - they come through the vet race twice a week for an oral drench, so they're accustomed to close handling and I thought they'd walk easily onto the loading race.
I was right. The problem is, they walked easily onto the ramp then stood there and didn't move, while any calves that had already reached the truck pen would look out the door and come back down.
I've had way worse rodeos with wild cattle that won't even see the entrance to the loading ramp, but this took much longer than it oughter have done and I woke up this morning trying to figure out how I got old over night and like... oh yeah, I learned yesterday that I don't have the strength to physically shove a nine month old calf up a loading ramp. The truck driver who was at least twice my size was learning much the same.
Without the hotshot (which I had been about to tell the driver to put back in the cab when I saw it) and tail wrenching we'd still be trying to push them up that ramp.
There's been a few anti-tail wrenching articles in the papers recently. I can tell you that pushing, noise, slapping rumps; had no effect whatsoever at convincing these girls to take another step forward. One of them I was getting tempted to go and get a set of nose pullers and haul her up with those... even though it might have taken several minutes for her to figure out how nose pullers work and that she oughter follow them.
Any other methods of getting tame cows to move that don't cause sufficient pain to horrify a greenie? One of the truck drivers that used to pick up my calves always brought a plastic bag on a stick to rattle. It worked on those calves.
I think if we'd had the loading set-up I used at a former neighbour's last year there wouldn't have been any problem - the cattle walked down a long covered race to the ramp so there was no open space behind them to back up into. The whole herd was very relaxed and fast loading through that set-up when I moved farms.
This must be the quietest group of calves I've raised yet - they come through the vet race twice a week for an oral drench, so they're accustomed to close handling and I thought they'd walk easily onto the loading race.
I was right. The problem is, they walked easily onto the ramp then stood there and didn't move, while any calves that had already reached the truck pen would look out the door and come back down.
I've had way worse rodeos with wild cattle that won't even see the entrance to the loading ramp, but this took much longer than it oughter have done and I woke up this morning trying to figure out how I got old over night and like... oh yeah, I learned yesterday that I don't have the strength to physically shove a nine month old calf up a loading ramp. The truck driver who was at least twice my size was learning much the same.
Without the hotshot (which I had been about to tell the driver to put back in the cab when I saw it) and tail wrenching we'd still be trying to push them up that ramp.
There's been a few anti-tail wrenching articles in the papers recently. I can tell you that pushing, noise, slapping rumps; had no effect whatsoever at convincing these girls to take another step forward. One of them I was getting tempted to go and get a set of nose pullers and haul her up with those... even though it might have taken several minutes for her to figure out how nose pullers work and that she oughter follow them.
Any other methods of getting tame cows to move that don't cause sufficient pain to horrify a greenie? One of the truck drivers that used to pick up my calves always brought a plastic bag on a stick to rattle. It worked on those calves.
I think if we'd had the loading set-up I used at a former neighbour's last year there wouldn't have been any problem - the cattle walked down a long covered race to the ramp so there was no open space behind them to back up into. The whole herd was very relaxed and fast loading through that set-up when I moved farms.
It is maddening, because there is no way an 1800 ld cow is going to move if she don't want too! (This is in the alley to the chute, never into the trailer. They jump right in the trailer.) I will usually try to entice them by putting a halter on and some grain first. Sadly there are times I am forced to resort to a hot shot. But with the older girls, all you need to do is barely touch them with it.
