One Heifer, No Head Gate

[MichaelB]

I have a backyard Tarentaise bred heifer on my my 5 acre spread in Virginny. I used to own thoroughbreds, but realized late in the game that you don't put young horses under saddle anymore after you develop arthritis in your hips. I'm not naturally a cow person, but she seems to be a lot less maintenace than my fillies.

I bought the heifer in early August and trailered her in my horse trailer to my farm; we used round pen panels to take her off of the trailer and guide her to the paddock. She was raised in a pasture environment and though she is rather small, she is very wary and I can't catch her. We have been feeding her some alfalfa cubes and a cup of sweetfeed in one of the horse stalls daily, and while she will eat out of my hand, I can't touch her. I have every intention of halter-breaking her calf before it is weaned.

I don't have a head gate, although I have been scouring Craig's List for a used one for several months. I can't remember any of my old farming relatives using anything but a wooden stanchion for their cows (granted,they were hand-milked dairy). Would a wooden stanchion-like setup in the stall work, or would I likely get the stall torn apart by an enraged little heifer? I would think something with 4x6 uprights and maybe an iron bar on a hinge that I could pull shut when she reaches in the manger to eat might work, but I don't know. She has been in a head gate a couple of times in her life at the other farm, but I don't know if a cow has an automatic reflex to calm down when they are caught like that (this probably would not have worked for the thoroughbreds).

Short of spending several $100 on a head gate at the co-op, do I have any options? I need to restrain her at some point for shots/worming and AI. Any suggestions?

 

[dyates]

Make a crowding area out of gates/corral panels that gets more and more narrow the further she goes. The corral should end in a dead end if a head gate is unavailable. The last section of the corral should be hinged at the point where your head gate would normally be. Use this hinged gate to squeeze her once she is in. You will have to use a strong rope or a chain to secure the loose end of the gate after squeezing. The rope should hit the cow in her lower rump area to keep her from backing out. You can add ropes once she is in to crowd her closer to the dead end and restrict her movement. You can do routine work with most animals without a headgate. If she is one of those who likes to fight, fly, or pray, you will have to bite the bullet and get a headgate.

 

[novatech]

With help you can either throw the calf or put a gate (plywood covered is the best) in the stall and crowd her into a wall. It will not be easy so your help had better be stout. When you try and put the halter on she will try and put her head eveywhere but where you want it. If you manage to get the halter on make sure you have a long lead rope already attached. I sure wish I could be there with a camera.
If you are old enough to have arthritis then you are old enough to know this job is for young bucks that heal faster.

 

[I luv herfrds]

We have an alley way that is built with railroad ties and 2"x6" planks. It is over 6' tall. the alley way curves to the left, cows like to turn. It is about 3' wide.
You can put a swing or sliding gate at the end to keep her contained.
Now we have a squeeze chute with a head catch at the end, but it can be a pain to use. So to make it easier we will start a cow up the alleyway and someone outside will slide a steel pole between the planks and in front of the ties. The cow can back up until she hits that pole and can go no father.

 

[milkmaid]

I'd just get her in a small pen (lure her in if you have to), and then throw a rope on her and do a few wraps around a post. Halter and tie her... where you've only got one cow and the way it sounds it'd probably be easier for you to simply halter break her and then you don't need a headgate or squeeze chute. Won't take more than a week to get her broke well enough you can handle her whenever you need to, and if done right it doesn't need to be a "job for the young bucks who heal quick." ;-) I may be young but I have no more desire to get hurt than the older folks do.

I don't have a squeeze chute here; I use a couple gates to form a temporary chute and do my vacc/worming that way... as to AI, well, you don't need a head gate for AI. When I take my cows to the vet clinic for AI they're led out of the trailer, tied to the fence, AI'd, and then led back up in the trailer. No stress. My vet laughs at me, but he enjoys working on my cows.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Short of spending several $100 on a head gate at the co-op, do I have any options? I need to restrain her at some point for shots/worming and AI. Any suggestions?

Medina gates would be the path I would take.

 

[ArrowHBrand]

It depends on how big your heifer is. I agree with several of these responses and have used several of them myself depending on the size of the heifer. If she isn't too big, have someone help you to run her in the barn and lock her in a pen. Then the two of you crowd her into a corner and get a calf halter on her and tie her up and then feed her. She'll start to associate being tied with being fed and it should get easier and easier, we've done this to halter break show calves and after a while you can go to the gate and they'll come up and wait to be haltered. However you have to do this every time you feed her.
We don't have a working headgate either so when we built fences in our lot, we took that into account. The middle pen up by the barn is built like a stockade! It's probably 10'x16' with a 14' gate. We will run several head into an ajoining pen then run one at a time into the middle pen. One of us will chase them to the hinge corner of the gate and the other will shut the gate squeezing the animal. A piece of rope around a post prevents them from backing out and from pushing the gate open. We've tagged cows, given shots, etc. using this method. I guess it's what you are physically able to do. If your arthritis is too bad then you may have to bite the bullet and get a headgate. We asked around and found a headgate in a barn that hadn't been used in ages, the farmer got out of livestock and planted more grain. A little clean up and I think it will work out fine, if I ever get time to get it installed!

 

[angus9259]

Or, honestly, if you can find a headgate for $100 I can't imagine you wouldn't save that in time and energy and, if she's flighty, in damage to yourself or your equipment. I just sold a 10 year old HD headgate for $350. I'll bet you'd get your $100 back if you ever wanted to get rid of it.

 

[TXBobcat]

Medina Hinge type setup should work.

http://www.grangercattleco.com/medinahinge.html

 

[dieselbeef]

Or, honestly, if you can find a headgate for $100 I can't imagine you wouldn't save that in time and energy and, if she's flighty, in damage to yourself or your equipment. I just sold a 10 year old HD headgate for $350. I'll bet you'd get your $100 back if you ever wanted to get rid of it.

im wit dat...priefert headcatch aint under a grand anymore are they..if you can get one at a co-op for a couple hundred ill buy all ya got...im on my way

 

[alabama]

I have a question.
How wil you know when the heifer is in heat for AI if she is all alone and no other cattle to react with?

 

[dun]

I have a question.
How wil you know when the heifer is in heat for AI if she is all alone and no other cattle to react with?

Not as hard as you might think. Usually folks with just one animal are more attuned to it's beahviour. Changes from it's normal behaviour, walking the fence, bellering, etc are the obvious keys to lok for. Then you look for mucus on the tail and sides near the tail. When I first started my custo AI business, other then the dairys and a few others, most of the cows I bred were singles and I was still well over 80% first service conceptions.

 

[MichaelB]

Thanks for the responses! It looks like we will have her close to the barn all winter and may have her gentle enough to handle by spring, or the Craigs List fairy will bless me with a used head gate. Which by the way, run hundredS of dollars at the co-op, I think I said "$100s" in my original post. I saw one one Craigs List for $125 over the summer that would have been just what I needed, but I was too stupid/unaware/cheap to understand what a bargain it was at the time. I did find a decent round bale feeder for $100.00 that I will pick up tomorrow.

The heifer's previous owner (and the AI tech I spoke with after I bought her) recommended using a shot of hormones to bring her into season. I thought that a bottle of decent wine and soft background music would do the trick, but what would I know. I can give an IM injection easy enough, but then we get back to the original question of holding her still ...

Milkmaid, I didn't think you were too far off base -- with only one or two cows, maybe it's because I'm really a horseman, but it seems to me that they should be able to be caught and led around.

Michael

 

[MichaelB]

Thanks, TX Bob Cat, for the link to your website and photos -- several posters were talking about a Medina gate but I didn't know what that was; I was Googling thinking that Medina was a discount manufacturer of cattle handling equipment (I guess it sort of was). In fact, I have an alley with a gate that could easily be converted. Thanks everyone, I learned something today!

 

[MichaelB]

Now that I have decided that a Medina gate would be my best solution, can anyone tell me the approximate width between gates for a small to medium framed cow? Is it about 28 inches between the gates, similar to a chute?

 

[backhoeboogie]

Now that I have decided that a Medina gate would be my best solution, can anyone tell me the approximate width between gates for a small to medium framed cow? Is it about 28 inches between the gates, similar to a chute?

Mine is 32 inches on the hinged end. You can close it completely closed on the free ends. Hence, it seems to me that if 28 inches was ever to narrow in the future, you could leave it more open on the free end, so it really wouldn't matter that much. At 32 inches, I can work small calves because of the gate length.

Running Arrow Bill or TXBobcat work Long Horns. (and some others) They likely have expert advice if you want to pm them.

 

[TXBobcat]

The hinged end on our set-up is about 18" apart. The other end will close completely together. I have used it to handle everything from a full grow bull to smaller calves. My advice is to not make it too wide on the hinged end, or they will try to turn around, jump around, etc.

http://grangercattleco.com/medinahinge.html

 

[MichaelB]

Thanks, Bob -- I now have a plan!

Michael