Sometimes you have to think outside the box. Noticed a 3-week-old heifer with droopy ears this morning. Naturally, she & her mama were with half the herd at the lake and nowhere near a chute. Headed out this afternoon, armed with a rope & halter, figuring it might get rodeo and I'd have to rope her & snub her to the grill of my Polaris. No such luck. She was laying on one side of the 49 ft. dam and gravity would not be my friend. Plan B: I suspected they would eventually join the rest of the herd near the bale area, which is appx. .25 of a mile from the barnyard - with a chute/working facility. It would be a cluster, but I could call the herd down to the barnyard and sort her out. Assuming she followed. Or, back to my initial plan on relatively flat ground.
Or . . . . . . get ready and wait. Most of the group at the lake had joined the herd, so I drove back over and saw mama & the sick calf, lagging and bringing up the rear. There's a gate where they enter the lake and another one by the cattle guard that also has a gate we can use to shut off the entire section of the lake. What if I unchained that gate, left it partially open, and positioned my Polaris along another section of gate to make an alley? Worth a try. Dumped cubes by the Polaris for mama, hoping the calf would stay close. You know how when they're sick and lethargic until you try to catch them and they suddenly have the dexterity and speed of a gazelle? Yeah, that. But, as luck would have it, I was able to get behind her and apply enough pressure she went back to mama and close enough to my "alley", I could push her through. Already armed with a syringe of Resflor Gold in my teeth, I grabbed the gate and kept squeezing until she was in a V and I put a vice grip on her butt with my thighs while she conveniently shoved her head through the pipes. Done!
Or . . . . . . get ready and wait. Most of the group at the lake had joined the herd, so I drove back over and saw mama & the sick calf, lagging and bringing up the rear. There's a gate where they enter the lake and another one by the cattle guard that also has a gate we can use to shut off the entire section of the lake. What if I unchained that gate, left it partially open, and positioned my Polaris along another section of gate to make an alley? Worth a try. Dumped cubes by the Polaris for mama, hoping the calf would stay close. You know how when they're sick and lethargic until you try to catch them and they suddenly have the dexterity and speed of a gazelle? Yeah, that. But, as luck would have it, I was able to get behind her and apply enough pressure she went back to mama and close enough to my "alley", I could push her through. Already armed with a syringe of Resflor Gold in my teeth, I grabbed the gate and kept squeezing until she was in a V and I put a vice grip on her butt with my thighs while she conveniently shoved her head through the pipes. Done!
