Cattle Rack Rancher
Well-known member
So, I finally got my calves shipped today. Traditionally, they usually get shipped in the 2nd or 3rd week of November. This year we had a snowstorm in the 2nd week of November. Lots of snow. Filled up my small pen that leads to the chute. Then it melted and froze. It was three feet deep in places. I spent my day Saturday taking the snow out in 1.5' x 1.5' x 2' blocks. the builder in me wanted to build an igloo but I was too busy shovelling. 5 hours later, I had cleared what I thought was a fairly respectable path through the snow. I didn't clear the whole pen, but left a 3 1/2' wall along one side that should act as an alleyway. Well, up here we have mandatory ID. That means that every calf that leaves your yard needs to be tagged. So about the beginning of October, I tagged all my calves. I went and did a count today. Four tags missing already. So time to re-tag. The first two calves go in. Easy as pie. 5 minutes max. Then comes steer number 3. Doesn't like my snow alleyway. Jumps up and over and around and back out and once he's learned this trick, he will absolutely not go up the chute and so we try steer #4. He thinks the 4 1/2' walls of the alleyway are a challenge to see how high he can jump and of course because he is up, he turns himself the opposite way of the headgate several times. Finally, we rope him and tag him. Okay, back to steer #3. What good exercise this is. Over the snow alleyway, back into the pen, repeat and repeat and repeat again. Pretty tiring, but finally we get ourselves positioned just right and amazingly he goes right into the headgate. So, two calves in five minutes and two in just over an hour. So the vet shows up to preg check. First one is open. I had a bad feeling right at that point. Not a good omen. But out of twenty three, we get two heiferettes and one replacement that comes in open. Only 4 out of twenty three and every one I could have found an excuse to cull anyway. So next its time for the winter beef. Pick two. I had intended to send in one steer and one cow that had aborted her calf last winter, but she came in bred and I've got my pick of two heiferettes to fill my freezer so said cow gets a pass this year. The cattle buyer shows up and we load up our calves and open cows. Next we get to load up the steer and the open heifer onto the cattle rack. But look, the steer has discovered that if he jumps real high and comes down on the top rail of the fence, it breaks. So now he's in the bull pen and I'm chasing him through snow that is between 1 -3' deep. I waste about twenty minutes doing this and manage to twist my knee while I'm at it but finally he goes through the gate and jumps over the 5' separation between the two pens. Good thing the inside pen is all steel lined. So after some hesitation, we finally get the pair of them loaded onto the cattle rack and delivered to the abattoir. I'm really looking forward to eating that steer. I'm really stiff and sore tonight. So, now I'm having a couple of pretty stiff drinks. Some days are better than other days. I'm hoping the cheque tomorrow will make it all worthwhile.
