Need working facility

[HatCreekCattleco]

As for flighty cattle... I like them docile enough to be called to a bucket, but flighty enough that they avoid getting within ten feet.

Exactly

 

[Brute 23]

I haven't ever liked a flag but I have tied a couple grocery bags to the popper on my stock whip. ( splitting hairs I know ) It worked good for moving calves for lot or lot.
I usually prefer just a plain white 1/2" fiberglass stick with a golf club grip. Not to heavy but enough to get their attention.
When we're sorting bulls or crazy stuff I use a 5/8" by 60" fiberglass stick. But that gets pretty heavy after swinging it all day.

I worked some yearlings yesterday for a guy and didn't carry anything. They were so wound up that anything they saw move caused them to stop and square up.
It's been a long time since I've worked cattle that were so cranked that you couldn't even get in the pen with them.

You are right on that. When I go work cattle for my dad some of the cattle will try to fight the flag. You will see me twirling the flag to wrap it up. I had a heifer a while back squaring up and I popped that flag in her face to try and call her bluff. She came with it with out hesitation. I had to just get a good ways away in on foot and make her run in circles with a couple other big calves in the pen until they went in the chute. Kind of a last resort deal.

I can keep some distance behind them though and get that flag the pop. It's like machine gun bursts. It keeps them moving. With my dad you never get in a close space with the cattle. They don't respect you and see it more as aggression. So like the pen leading to the chute, you close the gate and defend it. Most of the time if you back off and give them time to think they will head up the chute. If not, you have to get a person or two on the outside to start a sweep from the back.

 

[TCRanch]

Big fan of the flag. Not so much the hot shot. But there's always the tried-and-true sorting stick and even pool noodles. Got a couple rattle-panel-sorting-stick-thingies at a Livestock Association meeting and I hate them, as do the cattle.

That said, your demeanor is generally the best way to move cattle. And work with them by reading their behavior, watch their flight zones.

 

[SBMF 2015]

Got a couple rattle-panel-sorting-stick-thingies

I've got a couple for when the college students come out. But I drilled a small hole in them and poured the rattle out. They don't work to bad now.

 

[SBMF 2015]

I've found I like these type better myself than the type you have to prod and whack to get to move. Once you have you facilities right, all you have to do is show those type a hole, they'll move to it. You just have to have good enough gates and pens to stop them when you shut that hole because they're usually coming hard. I'll add I'm not talking about winding them up, I mean just naturally flighty cattle.

I like cattle that will move. But 90% of the sorting I do is with a cut gate in an alley. I hate cattle that run by sideways heads down, tail up, blowing snot as they pass.

Typically naturally flighty cattle tend to be harder doin when they hit the feed lot. Cattle that run to the back of the pen when you walk or drive past tend to not gain as well as the ones that won't leave the feed bunk until everything is cleaned up.

 

[Travlr]

Typically naturally flighty cattle tend to be harder doin when they hit the feed lot. Cattle that run to the back of the pen when you walk or drive past tend to not gain as well as the ones that won't leave the feed bunk until everything is cleaned up.

I've found that to be the case too...

 

[Twisted]

I can take a cube bag and get mine to go anywhere. I left a gate open while unhooking a stock trailer and every one got out. I rattled a cube bag and they all ran back in.

 

[Caustic Burno]

I seen lots of bent gates and corral panels before i built my lots. I bought 7 bar super heavy duty galvanized gates. Took 3 people and a loader to hang them but even the cows and bulls never try to jump.
If you have something higher than your head they rarely will try to jump.

I pen everything with a bag of cubes.
Cows aren't the problem it's 5 and 6 wt calves that loose their minds and see monsters.Yep built three pens in my life.
The last one over twenty years ago out of drill stem and with 13 gates. I'm always working a cow behind a gate.

 

[kenny thomas]

I pen everything with a bag of cubes.
Cows aren't the problem it's 5 and 6 wt calves that loose their minds and see monsters.Yep built three pens in my life.
The last one over twenty years ago out of drill stem and with 13 gates. I'm always working a cow behind a gate.

Makes it easier on you and them doesn't it.

 

[HatCreekCattleco]

Typically naturally flighty cattle tend to be harder doin when they hit the feed lot. Cattle that run to the back of the pen when you walk or drive past tend to not gain as well as the ones that won't leave the feed bunk until everything is cleaned upup.

Good point, I never thought about that.

 

[HatCreekCattleco]

I pen everything with a bag of cubes.
Cows aren't the problem it's 5 and 6 wt calves that loose their minds and see monsters.Yep built three pens in my life.
The last one over twenty years ago out of drill stem and with 13 gates. I'm always working a cow behind a gate

The best advice I could've given the op on this thread, I would've said sell the trailer, spend the money in freestanding drill stem panels and hire someone to haul the calves.

 

[kenny thomas]

The best advice I could've given the op on this thread, I would've said sell the trailer, spend the money in freestanding drill stem panels and hire someone to haul the calves.

I totally agree on this post. Very few people can actually make a trailer figure out. If most people had to pay $200 each time it would still probably be cheaper than owning one.

 

[Brute 23]

We joke about that all the time saying people are all trailer and no cattle.

 

[Ouachita]

"Mount up bitch" is what I tell Roy. Then I say "you coming too honey?"
Roy always beats her to the truck.

If I tried that, I'd be making my own sandwiches for a week or three.

 

[Travlr]

We joke about that all the time saying people are all trailer and no cattle.

That's probably more true today than what my folks said, "All hat and no cattle." Not nearly as many people wearing Stetsons and a lot more baseball caps.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Where does one hire someone to haul there small loads of calve? Ha

 

[Travlr]

Where does one hire someone to haul there small loads of calve? Ha

Talk to the local sale barn. They usually know several people that regularly attend sales from every direction, so can put you in touch with someone close to you.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Local sale barn? What's that?

Is 5-7 hours local? Hahaha

 

[Travlr]

Local sale barn? What's that?

Is 5-7 hours local? Hahaha

Neighbors? Church? Feed store? Hell, even make a deal with the trailer dealer to rent a used trailer.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

I have a trailer so it was a rhetorical question. But I feel like many of you guys often forget that in many places there isn't just guys to hire for things on every corner.

Trailer dealer? We are lucky to have a grocery store. Lol