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Cows, calves, bulls, yearlings.

These are three that went back with the herd today. One was a first year heifer that was sucked down with her first calf, and needed some feed to gain some weight back. The other two are heifers that had little, to no respect for fences. They got corralled at last.

Any cattle stories?

I have 3 steers hanging at the butcher and 2 1/2 sold. One half is going in my freezer.

They were right at or just under 800 when I purchased them. Hung just over 700 at the butcher. Not sure what that equates to live weight but they seemed to have gained well over 5 months.

Next year, maybe 5 steers.

If they dressed at %62, that would put them near 1150 live.

I think they turned one right after the new year.

Is that decent gain for 5 months?

Wabigon; I hope this day finds you and yours well and happy.

I have Incredibly limited experience with Bovines, helped a buddy a few times taking cows out to "the forestry" and rounding them up from the forestry. Helped load cattle onto trucks for their final road trip. Hunted a lot around cattle. Helped "doctor" a few.

Had more trouble with young black cows than any other bovid. One in particular had crossed the fence onto neighboring lease land. Twice we crossed the fence chased the little fornicator back onto the correct side and then while I was dealing with gate the twerp ran through the fence.

Third time was the charm and we were to keep on the correct side of the fence. Moving him to join the rest of the herd was a real pain.

Asked my buddy what it would have cost to buy him; I was close to ready to buy him and make him into beef right there.



Another day, same ranch, I had caught some fish for my buddies wife and was cleaning them using water form the cattle trough. The dogs were there to eat the fish guts. Herd a grunt behind, the dogs looked up and scooted in the fence and a few yards away leaving some fish bits uneaten. I look over my shoulder and there is a big ole bull. I figured the dogs had the right of it and therefore I hopped the fence. Keith later told me that particular bull was friendly and harmless and only wanted to inform me that he wanted to use the trough.

Not knowing one bull from other I figured getting across the fence and finishing the fish elsewhere was a good plan.

No great or wonderful tales but that what I've got.

All the best.

GRF

Wabbi, the most frequent heifer adjective that I ever heard in conversations with ranchers or cow hands was "goofy".

All I have to say about bovines is that the neighbor has a tenderized steer, and my truck is in the body shop, seeing if it'll be totaled or not.

I will take that half, if you deliver it, Blake.
Buck season opens in two Saturday's, it would be convient.
Bring some of that beer you make!

Goofy heifer stories? Okay.

Late winter 1980. I was living with my Uncle and Aunt and working on their Ranch, about 100 pair.

It was a cold wet afternoon right about 32 degrees when I saddled my favorite pony and took a ride out through the meadows to check for newborns needing help. I found a new baby trying to nurse her mother, a first calf heifer. But Momma would have nothing to do with the calf.

I tried to drive the cow about 1/2 mile to the corrals and barn but she would have nothing to do with it. The cow kept running into willow patches and "brushing up".

I dropped a lasso over her head and got her out of the willows for the final time. Only to have her either fight the rope, or charge my horse. I was making very little headway.

Uncle was sitting at the dining room table drinking his coffee and watching the circus through his binoculars. I guess he got tired of laughing, or maybe felt sorry for the exhausted little mare I was riding. He saddled up his big old Walker/Saddlebred cross gelding and came to the recue.

I handed the lariat off to him and he tried dragging the cow with me whipping her on the butt. But she just braced all four legs and he had to drag her along.

His old gelding was quickly tiring, so he sent me up to the house for a halter and tractor. I got the halter on the cow and tied her off to the drawbar of the tractor. But she still just braced all four legs and slid along until she eventually fell over on her side.

By now, we were out of the meadows and on a gravel road. Uncle pulled the cow along on her side for a few yards, but we were leaving a trail of cow hair behind and it was obvious we would soon be through the skin.

The cow was too exhausted to stand at this point. So we unhooked her from the tractor and rolled her over onto a hay slip for the last 100 yds to the holding pen and barn. The baby calf still following along faithfully, hoping for his first meal.

We left the cow on the slip and retired to the house waiting for her to rest and regain her feet.

A couple hours later when the cow stood up, we went back down to the pen to try to put her in a stall where we could make her suckle the calf. But she was on the fight bad, and kept charging the corral fence with us on the outside.

I asked my Uncle if he could close the barn door from outside the fence if I got the cow inside. "Yeah, Sure. But how are you going to do that?"

Well, I jumped over the fence into the corral, let that nasty bitch get a good look at me and then I ran as hard as I could run into the barn and over a fence into the second stall, with that cow hot on my heels.

We got her head into a stanchion, and hobbles on her legs, and finally got the baby his first meal. But for the next three days it was the stanchion and hobbles twice a day. She absolutely refused to mother the calf. We turned her out in the pasture and bottle fed the baby until we got him grafted onto another cow.

I would have sold that cow right then or turned her into hamburger. But Uncle kept her for two more years. Her calves made great steers, but she never did raise one of them.

A Tarentais bull can clean jump a barbwire fence that holds every Angus cow in the country.

One day working the cows tight in the corral, pushing them up the alley, all of a sudden out of the middle of the black whirlwind appears....what?....a midget black demon with horns coming straight for me!!! I jumped for the corral fence and scrambled up, sort of, just in time to dodge the hook'em horns as he raced past and headed out to pasture.

The neighbors raise some half-sized roping steers with wicked horns, and he had been missing for months. Just so happened that he spent the summer with the cows on the ranch. Never knew he was there in the herd until he came boiling out.

had a neighbor let a family milkcow, a jersey git outta der pasture. couldn't catch her. said anyone who could catch her could have her for $50.00. heard some good ol boy shot her for ground beef while deer hunting. could have i guess.

Idaho made me think of Milk Fever. It's been a long time since that has been trouble, not long enough.

Neighbor had some registered polled hereford heifers in a pasture next to our hay field. I had just fertilized the hay field the day before and one of the heifers got out of his pasture and into my field. I was afraid that the heifer would get poisoned, so I drove it out of the hay field into a 3-4 acre patch, by the road. Gonna call the neighbor when he got in from work and help him drive her back up the road and into his pasture.

I had a pos barb wire gap across between the hay field and patch, so I put it up and went on about my business. Looked over that way a little while later and there was the heifer in the hay field again. Drove her into the patch again and patched on the gap, hoping it would keep her out.

Went on with my rat killing and when I looked that way again, there she was in the hay field, again. So I drove her out again. I had some rolls of hay with a hot wire around them and it was about 100' from the gap, so I put up a few insulators and ran 1 strand of hot wire across the gap and put a hanky on it, so the heifer would be sure to see it. Then I hid in the barn to see the show.

Heifer walked up to the wire and smelled/touched it, but this fencer pulsed, so she didn't get shocked. The she stuck out her tongue and wrapped it around the wire.... The fence shocked her, she humped her back and blew snot out her nose 15' and [bleep] out the other end 15', at the same time. Ran back into the patch and didn't try to get back into the hay field any more.

When my neighbor got home, I called him and he didn't want to drive the heifer down the road, so we tried to drive her thru the gap and back around to another gate. She refused to go thru that gap.... we had to drive her down the road.

looks like BBQ

That heifer probably had a 550 pound steer calf...


Richard, the last several years we have been feeding our 2 year old cows separate from the main bunch. When they are home.


Most of them share the same summer pastures.

Had a first lactation heifer go ape schidt and come over the top and into the pit of a double 16 herringbone parlor......fuggin Jerseys

Got danged jerseys. A good friend milked a small herd of jerseys. Those bitches would drop milk production 20% if you put the milking parlor radio on the wrong station. But they sure have a purtee face and cute looking horns.

Nothing dumber than a heifer, nothing smarter than an old cow.

I grew up on a dairy farm with registered Brown Swiss cattle. One year we put up a hot wire around a patch of millet for some temporary pasture and turned out some bred heifers. Everything was fine for a few days but then this one long legged heifer learned she could jump the fence. Little brother would hop on his new mini bike and go get around her while I opened the gate and held the rest of them back. Worked ok several times but then she got stubborn and didn't want back in. That field was nearly half a mile long and they went back and forth a couple times before she figured she had better things to do and jumped back in. After that, anytime she got out, just fire up that mini bike and head down the road and she'd high tail it back across the fence. Guess she didn't like the exercise. As it turned out, that stinking heifer was pitiful as a milk cow after she calved. Some of the better breeding on the farm, but would hardly raise a calf. She ended up going to the sale barn like she should of when she was getting out.