# Cow Catching and off to market



## olschoolsteel (Mar 6, 2016)

So it is Tues and nice and dry. Perfect to get my truck and trailer through the pasture without rutting it up, and load the old cow up for a trip to the butcher. Me and the wife start about 1330 and remain calm as we try to lure her to the trailer with her daily serving of grain. Granted, this cow has always been sketchy, but that doesnt mean she cant be lured with grain right?

So, after shaking the scoop, banging the bucket, letting the cows through the fence take interest, and by default gaining her interest, I couldnt get her any closer than 15 feet from the open end of the trailer. With rain due in the next 24 hrs, and a date with the butcher scheduled, I had to get her loaded. I am a patient man, but time really is of the essence. So now its 1800 and I still have an hours worth of chores to do let alone eat dinner, I resort to the interweb to an ad I had read, really my only last resort. Cow Catching

I live in Southern Illinois now. But I have lived the last 22 yrs in the mountain west surounded by cattlemen and cowboys. In SI, its usually just factory farms and little guys with a few head of livestock. This isnt Cheyenne Wy., North Platte Ne., or Mesquite Nv., where horesmanship is a common theme. So I call this number. The guy tells me him and his buddy catch cows that bust fences, or turn feral, or in any way refuse to be handled, they handle them. I say, I have a job for them. He says he will need to get his truck and trailer into my pasture but other than that, he will get the old girl into my trailer.

Now we didnt think to get a camera out till the show is almost over, and actual shots of the trailer to trailer transfer didnt happen because that is exactly when the downpour started. But you can see in the pics, it is less than 5 min out. She was pretty sketchy still, but they worked well and did their job without crashing my fence, which was my biggest fear other than losing her to the wild or letting her grow old and die in my pasture.

One roped her neck, while the other caught an ankle. She fought at first until she saw it was pointless, then they led her to the trailer. The ankle man dismounted and lossed is rope, then ran to the truck for a prod. When he returned the mounted man with the neck rope worked his rope over the top of the trailer. When the timing was right, he started pulling her. But being hard headed, she wasnt going anywhere. Then Mr. Cattle prod steps up to give her a little nudge. I watched him do this 3-4 times and she never flinched. Then he did exactly what I or anyone of us would do. He laid it on her inner thigh and didnt move it. About 5 seconds later she found the energy to take the last 2 steps into the trailer. Thats the last pic where you see him behind her.

Now on Tues my wife was a little pissed at me for calling the guys out here. But after watching them, and how the cow fought, we agreed this was the best 250 bucks we ever spent. I know alot about alot of things, just not enough to do the entire job myself. There is no way in gods green earth I could have done what they did and wonder just what in the hell would I have done if these guys wouldnt have taken the time to learn a trade like this out here in Southern Illinois. I got spoiled up there in Utah where I could just call for a kill truck to come to my farm and shoot and skin my cow/hogs and deliver them to the butcher for me. Southern Illinois doesnt have them at all, and most butchers are even enamored by the idea of even their existence. By the way, I followed the guys out of the pasture in the rain and it rained 2.5 inches Tues night. I dropped her off yesterday at the butchers place. When I got home, it started raining again, and rained another 2.5 inches. It would be another 2 weeks before I could get wheeled vehicles out there without sinking up to the axles. They came withing 24hrs of my call.

Thank God for the Horsemen and the American way of life.


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## Lostin55 (Sep 21, 2013)

Thanks for the chuckle.
I live directly in the middle of that mountain west area you mentioned. I was almost surprised to see that someone had a half top trailer out there, and more so that they knew how to use it. They even have a horse that pulls.The only thing that they were missing to my eye was a really good dog.


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## olschoolsteel (Mar 6, 2016)

They had a pair of redbone looking hounds in the front quarter. The dogs never made a peep until the cow set hoof in the trailer, then they went ape shit. It was awesome. I figured they brought them along just in case they needed them, but managed without them.


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## Colby (Mar 5, 2012)

Cool deal. Some times roping on and jerking her up in the trailer is the easiest thing to do. We do it often. Like Lostin said a good set of dogs sure can help you out just as much as a good horse. We use cur dogs down here. I'm sure that's what they had was some big cur cross dogs as a pure hound wouldn't be much help catching cows.


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## azmike (Jan 4, 2015)

I am loading a few this am for a "market test "  . Selling some horned range cattle that we weaned calfs from, don't expect much $. I parked the stock trailer at the pens last night, just cram them in this am! I had a purty good cow dog that got snake bit and died, now just keep bird dogs that ignore cattle and vice-versa.


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## IHCman (Aug 27, 2011)

I didn't get to witness it but heard the story of a few neighbors went to help another neighbor round up a stray bull. This was in 2011 during the epic flood of the mighty mouse river and this neighbor lives just across the river on the high ground but close enough to the meadow near the river that floods every year for irrigation. First they used horses and tried to ease the bull up to a set of corrals. The bull was the mean fighting sort. They were unsuccessfull on the roundup as the bull charged a few horses and ended up in the flooded meadow. When the bull came out they decided to dart him with tranquilizers, throw some ropes on him, back up a trailer, and load him up. That plan didn't work the first time. Bull got doped up, layed down, then got up and took off for the flood waters again when the first guy tried to rope him. Ended up in the flooded meadow with is about 3 to 4 feet deep where they were at. They were worried the bull was going to drown as the tranquilizers were making the bull go down in the water. So someone has the idea to take the horses into the water and rope the bull and drag him out. Bull ends up about 400 yards out in the water in the meadow after that attempt, swimming away. Luckily none of the riders drowned but it sounded quite sketchy. After this the owner was so fed up with that bull and pissed off that he took a few pot shots with a 30-06 at his bull swimming around out in the meadow. Unfortunately he missed. Eventually the bull came ashore again and they were able to get a couple of ropes on him and drag him into a trailer. I believe there was a dent put in the pickup and some dings and dents in the trailer before this was accomplished, but the bull was loaded. Never heard if he hauled him to the sale or turned him out into the cows or maybe just shot him for spite.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

azmike said:


> I am loading a few this am for a "market test "  . Selling some horned range cattle that we weaned calfs from, don't expect much $. I parked the stock trailer at the pens last night, just cram them in this am! I had a purty good cow dog that got snake bit and died, now just keep bird dogs that ignore cattle and vice-versa.


How did the "test" go Mike?

Regards, Mike


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## olschoolsteel (Mar 6, 2016)

Its for reasons like this I will never buy an older cow like this again. Just young heifers that are will get used to me in their pasture, moving in and around them, touching and handling them. Heard from the butcher today that she may be older than 6 yo so good thing I was giving her ample grain and grass buffet. But I just knew she was a broken mouth cow. She was as picky for her feed as a horse. Only wanting the good soft stuff. Oh well. The pasture has grown almost a foot since I pulled her off of it. The young ones are going to love it when I turn them out in a week or so.


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## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

olschoolsteel said:


> . Heard from the butcher today that she may be older than 6 yo so good thing I was giving her ample grain and grass buffet. But I just knew she was a broken mouth cow.


Normally a cow has to be older than 6 to normally loose teeth. Type of grazing has a large bearing on tooth length I have a 14 yr old cow that's still solid mouth but her teeth are very short. She's going to town when I wean her calf.


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## azmike (Jan 4, 2015)

Vol said:


> How did the "test" go Mike?
> 
> Regards, Mike


The sale barn is 60 miles away but my daughter works at the fertilizer plant nearby. The auction was yesterday. She will pick-up our check and payout sheet, preg checks and feed deducted etc. Patrick and I will have a cold one and read the news this evening!

When I loaded the cattle as I opened the trailer gates the cows just started jumping in, my wife could hear the hooves drumming the trailer floor from the house!


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## azmike (Jan 4, 2015)

The horned/small frame cattle didn't break a buck, as expected. We had one beef steer from our new program that sold at market high. He gained 2.4 daily all winter, we are encouraged by the feed and breed!


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