Sale barn/ring injury stories.

[Travlr]

Okay, two stories.

I was at a purebred bull sale in Faith, South Dakota, held in a sale barn. The animals were very nice and the facility was well run and the sale was progressing. There was some kind of deal that had been announced when the auction began, that one of the bulls was going to be purchased and donated to a family that had just lost their patriarch, someone well known and loved in the community... and the family selling the animals was in on the deal as a contributor.
Nice animals, as already stated, and some very calm and a few that were a little rambunctious for whatever reason. At least half of the bulls were sold when the gate opened to let in the next lot, the bull landed in the ring as though it had jumped from some distance and it took one small jump, bounced that once, and sailed across the ring probably fifteen feet to exit the gate that was still not shut from the prior bull being sold... at least four feet in the air.
Surely the fastest time in the ring I've ever seen and the auctioneer and the ring men were just as surprised as me.
Right away they announced that the flying bull would be their purchase to be donated to the family that had just lost their Grandfather.
Personally... I'm not sure that was doing them any kind of favor, but it is what it is.

Just a couple of years ago we were driving through Wyoming on our way to South Dakota and I saw something I've never seen before. You've seen blood on the road before. Road killed deer or elk, or even a calf that was dragged for some distance. Well we were driving along and suddenly there was a trail of blood. Straight as an arrow, fresh, and in the right side of the lane, continuous... for more than fifteen miles. After a while I came to believe someone had lost their trailer floor and an animal was being drug to their death. I was really hoping it wasn't a horse, but I don't know. Eventually the trail ended at a driveway into a ranch in the distance, the blood turning onto the gravel road.

 

[Dave]

I was working penning cattle that came out of the ring. I was on the ring end of the alley and a pen was called out clear to the back. I start walking toward the back and around the corner flies a brokle face cow. I climb a gate as she flies by blowing snot. I work my way down the alley a gate of two at a time as she zooms back and forth. Dan who is pushing cows to me is doing the same thing. Then the guy who opening the gate to let them out came around the corneer to see what was going on. He stood in the middle of the alley waving his arms and yelling hey cow. He was still yelling hey cow when she center punched him. Dan ran back and pulled her off him. The next week this guy showed up with a hot shot. One about a foot long. He walked up behind a 2,000 pound Holstein bull and hit the hot shot. The bull kicked him clear over the top of a gate. I went and told the boss that maybe they should get rid of this guy before he got himself killed.

 

[CowboyRam]

When In college 25 years ago, I worked the local sale on Mondays. Did different jobs there, in the ring and in the alley. One that I remember most was working in the alley. Had several of us back there opening different gates as the calves came thru. It had been awhile since we had sent one all the way back and I guess the man back there had dozed off, standing. As one went thru to him, we yelled at him to be ready- young calf maybe 400 lbs. He realized what we said as the calf was about 20 feet in front of him. He jumped out in front of the calf as if to shoo it away- HUGE mistake! Calf ran thru him like crap thru a goose!! He hit the ground and we just knew he was dead- mind you he was in his 60s then. He finally rolled up under the fence, crawled to his car, and left. We never saw him again. Often wonder how bad he was hurt

Years ago when dad worked for Warren Livestock, he had to go pickup a steer that got through the fence and was on the Warren Airforce Base. After signing his life away to get on the base he unloaded his horse to rope the two year old steer, and airman thought he would help by stepping out in front of that steer; that steer never slowed down, motored over that airman and sent him a$$ over teakettles.

 

[Brute 23]

We use to take cattle in with their heads tied to the trailer for my family. We cut the ropes and said good luck.

We would all pile in the truck just to watch all the sale barn guys go flying. They were all real bad dudes until they weren't. We would try to tell them... watch them cows. They always gave us that... we do this all the time attitude.

We dropped one out that went down an alley and over a gate and down the street. She never stopped. They were running for horses and took off after her.

 

[Redgully]

Convinced my sister, who is very sensitive to animal welfare, to come to saleyards with me. We were walking around looking at the cattle when there was a commotion. Cow had broken it's leg. Guy came and shot it in the pen, they then got a 100 yard chain and dragged it all the way out of yards and lane way to edge where there was a 20ft drop to a concrete landing. Needless to say that wasn't a pretty landing. My sister never came back with me.....

 

[Peace]

So...I have a question for the posters that posted in the last couple days...think back to when that was...now imagine today trying to hire somebody for those jobs...fast food joints paying $18 or $20 per hour...imagine the applicants the sales barns get...today...good luck

 

[Peace]

My post above isn't an indictment of our youth or young people...it is just an indictment of our current situation...basically the dollar about halving in the last 3 years...

 

[Ebenezer]

So...I have a question for the posters that posted in the last couple days...think back to when that was...now imagine today trying to hire somebody for those jobs...fast food joints paying $18 or $20 per hour...imagine the applicants the sales barns get...today...good luck

The last frontier.

 

[Caustic Burno]

You have never come close to witnessing a real salebarn until you went to Winnie Texas.
It's closed now the ring fence was 10' high and could have stood a couple more.
Lots of brammer girls came through there had never seen a human until they got caught.
Those cows out of that salt grass marsh of the Trinity River delta were the toughest most athletic I have ever seen.

 

[Redgully]

You have never come close to witnessing a real salebarn until you went to Winnie Texas.
It's closed now the ring fence was 10' high and could have stood a couple more.
Lots of brammer girls came through there had never seen a human until they got caught.
Those cows out of that salt grass marsh of the Trinity River delta were the toughest most athletic I have ever seen.

Sound like the north west cattle here, never seen a fence in their lives. Dad made the mistake of buying one, got it off the trailer, cleared the yards in one go, went straight through three fences and never saw it again.

 

[Stonewall Joe]

You have never come close to witnessing a real salebarn until you went to Winnie Texas.
It's closed now the ring fence was 10' high and could have stood a couple more.
Lots of brammer girls came through there had never seen a human until they got caught.
Those cows out of that salt grass marsh of the Trinity River delta were the toughest most athletic I have ever seen.

you are right about salt grass and river bottom cattle, it was like penning deer

 

[Caustic Burno]

you are right about salt grass and river bottom cattle, it was like penning deer

Very well put.

 

[elkwc]

I have seen many events through through the years. A few years ago at a PB sale when this breeder still ran his cattle through the ring a bull came into the ring and made a round or two then hit hit the plywood barrier the ring man stood behind and shoved him into the auctioneer booth. At least he had a good docility EPD. The ring man had to
Sit down for awhile. That is one reason I like too see cattle ran through the ring. I want to see how they react when separated.

 

[SBMF 2015]

I have seen a few broken legs. Both on cows and people. More on cows than people. I had a tooth broken off by a cow that kicked a gate which then hit me in the mouth. Various and assorted run overs and knock downs. Once I saw a cow jump out of the sale barn. She went out of the front gate before they could close it. The sale yard is right beside I-5. She jumped the fence out to the freeway and was headed down the shoulder. Good thing there was a deer rifle available before she actually got out into traffic.

They unloaded a Simmental bull at the barn one day. Just as he opened the trailer the owner yelled "Watch him!" Yeah, they watched him go through it clear every gate in his path. They finally got him in a corner pen in the barn (2 solid concrete walls). He went through a wooden V rack hay feeder, trampled a baby calf, then through a dbl thick wood gate made out of 2x8's. The last anyone saw him he was crossing I-74. He ended up on the playground of a local grade school. My Ex brother in law was in 2nd grade at the time. He said they made the kids get under their desks.
An old cowboy that worked for the sale barn went to the school and shot the bull. All he carried in his truck was a .22 rifle. When someone asks how that worked out. He replied dryly with a grin "Well, there real good bullets"

 

[SBMF 2015]

So...I have a question for the posters that posted in the last couple days...think back to when that was...now imagine today trying to hire somebody for those jobs...fast food joints paying $18 or $20 per hour...imagine the applicants the sales barns get...today...good luck

I sorted at a hi volume barn from 2000-2010. Some of the penning help was classic. Some of the best were; The guy that used to try and ride wild feeder cattle off the scale into the ring. And my favorite idiot. Who on an extremely hot day drank part of a gallon of o.b. Lube because he was thirsty and in to big a hurry to read the gal jug. I laughed for the rest of the sale.

 

[SBMF 2015]

Didn't see it, but probably the worst wreck I've herd of was at kalona, IA.
Late in the day they switched auctioneers. The guy that had been crying all day went to the ring so the ringman could go take a leak. A bad bull came in. Got ahold of the auctioneer. Got him down, knocked him out. Wouldn't leave him. Finally someone shot the bull in the ring so they could get the EMT's in.

 

[wbvs58]

Didn't see it, but probably the worst wreck I've herd of was at kalona, IA.
Late in the day they switched auctioneers. The guy that had been crying all day went to the ring so the ringman could go take a leak. A bad bull came in. Got ahold of the auctioneer. Got him down, knocked him out. Wouldn't leave him. Finally someone shot the bull in the ring so they could get the EMT's in.

Wow.

Ken

 

[FullCircleWVa]

We've been looking for another freezer beef and was at the sale about a month ago when a 8-weight red angus steer came through. I saw dads eyes light up.. Well that steer was pretty hot and snotty, surprisingly.. bidding was low.. like .80 low when we usually see 1.15-1.20 for those.. as he opened his mouth to me and said "Well he!! how crazy can he be?".. that steer cleared the top rail and if not for the cable above the rail, he would have been in the stands... "Pretty crazy, dad" I replied.