That is kind of you to say, but I always need help T Tuxedo. I sure could have used your help earlier, and I do appreciate you offering to do it. Too bad we are not neighbors. I learn something new all the time. All someone has to do is try it a different way, and it makes things so much easier. Sometimes I think that I am doing things the easy way, and someone will show me an easier way, that I had not tried.
Do you remember how difficult I said it would be for me to run the cattle through the chute at this time? I found a way that a person without a lot of strength can do it alone.
The difficult part would be getting them from the back of the chute, to the headgate. I have a "Big Valley" chute, and it is the longest chute, to fit any size bull. So there is a lot of room for a cow or a calf to go forward or backward.
I do not use a prod because I am trying to keep my animals quite, otherwise, I will not be able to handle them. I do not want them to dread coming into the barn either. I am the one working the tail gate and the head chute too.
Once they are in the chute, and the door closes, they put their rear ends against the tail gate. I go to the front of the headgate and visually measure their heads, to give them somewhere to go with their head, by opening the headgate just wide enough for it to pass through.
I take a round metal pole, and a T post, (No tail grabbing, that wears me out since I raise the Jolly Green Giant's cows, and I cannot hold my arms up that high for too long, and this is much less stressful on the cow and the person who is trying to keep their animals quite.
I take the T post and place it through the side bars, at an angle, and wedge it against their rear end. Then push, and the sharpness of the angle iron, will make them walk forward. That is where I place my metal pole. Then the next few times, I can get more of an angle, and push the cow forward. This is so easy. Each time the cow moves forward, I take my round metal pole, and place it as close as I can behind the cows rump.
The very last step, getting her head through the head gate. I have walked her up to the head gate and I have her so crowded around the headgate, it looks like she is standing on a stool. She has no where else to go but put her head through the headgate to get some relief. She may stand there for a few seconds, but she will give in, and stick her head through. There are no misses, and trying to get her to run back to the front. This is so simple if you have to do this by yourself with limited strength.
I only had to use the bar on the side, and not use the sharpness of the end. But on Nell, she would not move forward, and I backed the T Post out, so that the tip end of it was on her left side of her fat a$$ and gave it a push. She gladly walked forward like she was out for a stroll. Then I put the bar behind her. Ha-ha!!
I do have some very tame cows. Some that stood in the head gate and acted like nothing was going on. My biggest Giant cow, I did not even put her in the head gate, I just gave her shots while she was in the chute. She is such a sweetie.
I do have one cow Nell, that makes my blood pressure go up. She is a runner. She always thinks that I am going to catch her, so she takes off. When I look at her, I want to sell her, But she has such a huge barrel on her, and I want to see what kind of calf she throws. I hope that she has a long calf like Grit, with her barrel. Yeah right. Just like punching the buttons on a coffee machine!!!!! Her first calf, was stepped on by another cow. It's tail was broken in several places and it's sides were real muddy. But she likes food too well, and is one of the first to be caught. I can write a book on her....
I could not get the gate to shut on Grit's neck. I am sure that there is a way to set the gate that I did not work out. I did make the gate wider at the bottom so that he could get his neck in the chute. But when he wanted to, he could pull it back in. I finally had to get the bar and run it in behind his rump where he could not move back to pull his head out. Then it worked fine.
I am sure that this could be worked a lot faster than I worked it. If you had 100 head to work in one day, then, this is probably a joke. I am sure the prod moves them much faster.
But maybe this will help someone who is trying to work a few cattle, if they have had some health issues, and do not want to give their cattle up. Or something along these lines.
Chuckie
