NEED IDEAS TO CAPTURE CALVES

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Ridgefarmer63

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Would welcome some ideas to my dilemma.

We have two cow calf pairs in a pasture off the farm.

Approximately one month ago, when leaving our farm, the cows loaded fine, but the calves were a real goat ropin'. One of them tried to go under the panels we set up at the rear of the trailer. It was a high energy experience, but we got them in the trailer.Cows and two bull calves are unregistered black angus. Calves were born May 1st.

Tried to get them loaded yesterday from the remote pasture. Cows went right in, the calves won't even come close to the panel corral at the rear of the trailer. Tried pushing them with four people and when pushed hard, one went right through the electric. The pasture in right next to a very busy state highway.

My ideas are to either run them to exhaustion with the four wheeler so we can grab/lasso them or just park the truck and trailer in the pasture for a while and feed them in the trailer and to get them used to it. This last idea is gonna be a pita as I have only one truck/trailer and pasture is remote to our farm.

Any ideas welcome. Thanks
 
they are still sucking I presume , Pen the cows away from the calves for a day or two. then first thing in the morning or late next evening open the gate for them to come in . They will want some T i t t y pretty bad after a day or two.
 
Good example for making trips to the pasture a couple times a week and teaching them to come into a catch pen of some sort, using a little grain as a treat and getting the calves accustomed to you being there. Agree with M-5 about keeping the cows away from the calves for a day or two and then letting the calves want to come to their mommas.

Just curious, but why move them off the pasture after only being there a couple months? If you go there twice a week and teach the cows to come for a little grain as a treat, the calves will learn that it is not 'THE END OF THE WORLD' to come with their dams.
 
It has always been my line of thinking that when I'm around cows that are either spooky or high headed, that they'll pen easier if I'm doing all the penning by myself. My cows are bucket broke to feed. They are used to seeing me, not 4 others whooping and hollering. If I need others to help work the cows, they simply stay out of sight until I call them. Also, if I'm planning to trailer some of them, I put the trailer around my squeeze chute in my pasture a couple of days in advance. I then pen the cows and only then will I move the trailer.

Lastly, I don't know what type of panels you have, but if you're penning calves, you might benefit by turning your panels upside down.

good luck!
 
farmerjan":1gbpcsed said:
Good example for making trips to the pasture a couple times a week and teaching them to come into a catch pen of some sort, using a little grain as a treat and getting the calves accustomed to you being there. Agree with M-5 about keeping the cows away from the calves for a day or two and then letting the calves want to come to their mommas.

Just curious, but why move them off the pasture after only being there a couple months? If you go there twice a week and teach the cows to come for a little grain as a treat, the calves will learn that it is not 'THE END OF THE WORLD' to come with their dams.

Pasture is eaten down. They need to be back at our farm to meet the bull early July. Going by tonight to start the graining regiment.

Logistically the pasture being 45 mins from the farm presents some challenges. In the past, when we take animals to the beef barn, we set the trailer up and let them kind of explore it. They hope right in when the time comes.

Calves seem to be more of a problem. I may have traumatized them on the way out. It was an aggressive loading.

How long do you think I'd have to keep them separated before they would walk in to the corral to be with momma?
 
Thanks Gator. Like the upside down idea.
We have 25 head back at our farm that I and one primary helper move all the time. These two calves were moved out so soon, they really don't know me.
We are going to give it another shot Sunday. I like the idea of parking the trailer in the pasture with the corral set up at the aft end and feed them there. The only problem with that is I can't leave my truck there and when the cows step in the trailer (16 foot EXISS bumper pull), the whole trailer tilts up.

Be nice, be nice, be nice....
 
I don't have any working equipment in my heifer pasture but I do have them trained to the white feed bucket. I have three in that pasture and two of them will follow me into the trailer. The third one is getting the idea.
 
Thanks M5 and others. I should of thought of the wooden block trick. Little stressed out now.

These are two beautiful little bulls and I don't want to lose them. Being so close to the highway is not great.

65 mph and they won't stop for nothing. welcome to the east.
 
you might also hang out around the trailer while feeding the two cows for a little while. Don't press the calves at all. Just hang out with them and their moms. Most will become curious about you if their moms sense no danger from you. Then leave without harassing them. You will cause them more stress than that trailer ever will. I'd show them I'm nothing to worry about. OR, grab and rope and play cowboy! Might be the last time they're seen in your county. :cboy:
 
We rope "wild" calves, cows, and bulls all the time...….without running them to exhaustion or killing them. Easy job for a capable cowboy.


True story.....We went to catch the last 6 head for a dirt farmer a few years ago. Ended up catching 19 total, 13 of which were pretty brushy critters that he'd never laid eyes on.
 
Without roping, you need to think like a calf, see things from their perspective and what they want.
Corral the mamas and eventually the calves will come to them.
2 working together calmly can accomplish more than 4 inexperienced pushing.
 
How we've done it is to get them interested in grain. Start out with them getting it in the pen, and then I moved it to the loading alley. The day I need to take said animal anywhere I can get them in the alley alone, then I have a pan with grain in the trailer tied to a string. Put another pan under the end of the trailer. When they eat that one, pour a little grain into the bucket in trailer. When they start in on that one slowly pull it into the trailer and they'll follow. The trick is to not go so fast that they get spooked. Learned that one the hard way.
 
I have a dog that would ear them down in a heart beat but your a little far away.
 
We all know the frustration , but be calm, always . I think there is mention somewhere in the archives about us men , and how our tempers seem to ruin things . If all else fails , dart em.
 
Ridgefarmer63":1xo56trx said:
Would welcome some ideas to my dilemma.

We have two cow calf pairs in a pasture off the farm.

Approximately one month ago, when leaving our farm, the cows loaded fine, but the calves were a real goat ropin'. One of them tried to go under the panels we set up at the rear of the trailer. It was a high energy experience, but we got them in the trailer.Cows and two bull calves are unregistered black angus. Calves were born May 1st.

Tried to get them loaded yesterday from the remote pasture. Cows went right in, the calves won't even come close to the panel corral at the rear of the trailer. Tried pushing them with four people and when pushed hard, one went right through the electric. The pasture in right next to a very busy state highway.

My ideas are to either run them to exhaustion with the four wheeler so we can grab/lasso them or just park the truck and trailer in the pasture for a while and feed them in the trailer and to get them used to it. This last idea is gonna be a pita as I have only one truck/trailer and pasture is remote to our farm.

Any ideas welcome. Thanks
never move cows to small pasture that are not cows you can handle.
you should have been feeding them in the corral every week, small amount once or twice a week.
need a loading spot in the corral , if you don't have one then you need to get one, a place where you have a crowding gate and sides that will hold a cow or a calf . load cows then a touch with the hot shot and they will load.
I don't see a problem with the cows and calves as much as I see a problem with the owner !!!!
Leave your four wheeler at home ''RUN THEM TO EXHAUSTION' that is one of the stupidest ideas I have heard on this site, maybe cattle raising is not for you.
 
I have a 12' by 12' pen with 2 swing gates across from each other (all Priefert). I put up a few boards to keep the cows out and creep feed the calves in this pen. One gate opens up to the dry lot, the other opens up to the trailer loading lot. They get use to coming to grain which makes it easy to catch them here. I then can back up a trailer to one of the gates and load them. I chased my first calf ever sold around my dry lot for over an hour with 5 people trying to help - he went through 3 hot strands of electric on three occasions that morning, and I somehow ended up covered in crap. Finally when I was about to give up, he loaded right up. I went out and built the creep feed/load out pen the next week.

Another option is to carry some cattle panels while trying to "steer" them into the trailer. A couple guys with panels can have pretty good success.
 
As a side question, how old a calf can you lasso without him hurting himself, or you not being able to hold onto the rope? And I'm talking about around the neck. I've got one that I need to catch and he hasn't started creep feeding yet.
 
snoopdog":2sv4tl7v said:
We all know the frustration , but be calm, always . I think there is mention somewhere in the archives about us men , and how our tempers seem to ruin things . If all else fails , dart em.
It is harder than hades to get the medication for darting them these days.
 

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