Cow Jail.
Today was hard. As much work was accomplished on the farm as has been on any other day since I’ve been home.
Part One.
Wherein the steers outsmart me.
Wednesdays are auction days. Seeing as I have a shortage of hay to feed my cattle, I must artificially create a remarkably similar shortage in my cattle come fall. My trailer holds about five full grown beasties. Eight trips in one day is not possible, so on any given Wednesday I’ll try to take three or four to market. Yesterday Brad and I took a good bit of time to do what I had never before done. We took the biggest four steers from the entire herd. Usually it’s get as get can. If you stand too close to the holding area, your life may be forfeit. It was effort, but worthwhile knowing that the biggest would be going.
Calves can be taken to auction the night prior to the sale, but neither water nor feed are provided. 24 hours without water is too many. So I try to take them in on that morning, have them separated out the night before. When I got to the barn at 6:30 in the AM, I saw that the separate and not at all equal calves had decided to walk through a barn wall. Allowing the rest of the herd to be in the barn, allowing the four fatties to wander free.
Bah. I was not happy.
Part Two.
All you Global Warming naysayers can kiss my sweaty knee butter.
Thursdayish, I noticed that I had a momma cow with a bleary eye. About twenty minutes later I had discovered that a couple of calves were quite blind of eye infections too. I heaved a sigh. Pinkeye has an ugly head. It was rearing. I pretended that it would go away and didn’t do anything till Monday.
Called the Vet and said, “Hey, we’ve got pinkeye in the herd. One momma and maybe six or eight calves.” And he said, “Yeah? So does everybody, whatcha want me to do about it?” I said, “Fix it.”
So we set a date. Wednesday afternoon he would come and help me shoot my pinkeye’s beauts. This sounds simple. But, my herd is about 95ish head large now, Mommies and Toddlers. They live in the outsides. They are wild animals. You can’t walk up and stick a needle in their neck. They won’t allow it.
So, cow jail.
My dad built this beefy mother of a corral into the ground floor of the bank barn at my Aunts. Ten hinged gates made of actual 2x4s (actual in this sense meaning that the one dimension measures 2 inches and the other measures 4 inches) bolted together for separating and a chute that leads to two holding pens and a headgate that is approached only through a series of four vertically opening gates. Cow jail. It’s badass. But it’s also a hellish day to send 100 unwilling participants through it. Twice.
The little calves weigh now as much as me. The mothers are all over one thousand pounds. None of them is much smarter than your average smart oak tree.
Oh, and also, it turned out I didn’t have six or eight and one mother that was infected. It was more like FOURTY-ONE cows and calves (and one bull) that had become infected.
Everyone came out bruised. But it’s done. They’re shot. And now I owe a vet somewhere nears to a cool grand.
You’re all like, yeah, but what did global warming have to do with anything? Heat, humidity, flies, pinkeye. That is all.
Part One.
Wherein the steers outsmart me.
Wednesdays are auction days. Seeing as I have a shortage of hay to feed my cattle, I must artificially create a remarkably similar shortage in my cattle come fall. My trailer holds about five full grown beasties. Eight trips in one day is not possible, so on any given Wednesday I’ll try to take three or four to market. Yesterday Brad and I took a good bit of time to do what I had never before done. We took the biggest four steers from the entire herd. Usually it’s get as get can. If you stand too close to the holding area, your life may be forfeit. It was effort, but worthwhile knowing that the biggest would be going.
Calves can be taken to auction the night prior to the sale, but neither water nor feed are provided. 24 hours without water is too many. So I try to take them in on that morning, have them separated out the night before. When I got to the barn at 6:30 in the AM, I saw that the separate and not at all equal calves had decided to walk through a barn wall. Allowing the rest of the herd to be in the barn, allowing the four fatties to wander free.
Bah. I was not happy.
Part Two.
All you Global Warming naysayers can kiss my sweaty knee butter.
Thursdayish, I noticed that I had a momma cow with a bleary eye. About twenty minutes later I had discovered that a couple of calves were quite blind of eye infections too. I heaved a sigh. Pinkeye has an ugly head. It was rearing. I pretended that it would go away and didn’t do anything till Monday.
Called the Vet and said, “Hey, we’ve got pinkeye in the herd. One momma and maybe six or eight calves.” And he said, “Yeah? So does everybody, whatcha want me to do about it?” I said, “Fix it.”
So we set a date. Wednesday afternoon he would come and help me shoot my pinkeye’s beauts. This sounds simple. But, my herd is about 95ish head large now, Mommies and Toddlers. They live in the outsides. They are wild animals. You can’t walk up and stick a needle in their neck. They won’t allow it.
So, cow jail.
My dad built this beefy mother of a corral into the ground floor of the bank barn at my Aunts. Ten hinged gates made of actual 2x4s (actual in this sense meaning that the one dimension measures 2 inches and the other measures 4 inches) bolted together for separating and a chute that leads to two holding pens and a headgate that is approached only through a series of four vertically opening gates. Cow jail. It’s badass. But it’s also a hellish day to send 100 unwilling participants through it. Twice.
The little calves weigh now as much as me. The mothers are all over one thousand pounds. None of them is much smarter than your average smart oak tree.
Oh, and also, it turned out I didn’t have six or eight and one mother that was infected. It was more like FOURTY-ONE cows and calves (and one bull) that had become infected.
Everyone came out bruised. But it’s done. They’re shot. And now I owe a vet somewhere nears to a cool grand.
You’re all like, yeah, but what did global warming have to do with anything? Heat, humidity, flies, pinkeye. That is all.
posted by Lord of the Barnyard at 8:17 PM
9 Comments:
The steers outsmarted you, yet you say they're no smarter than a tree.
cows prolly got that pinkeye in a roundabout sorta way from my ghetto kids.
Y'know, I sincerely hope you have a much better weekend. This week seems to be kicking you right in the ol' balls.
Don't think that the steers outsmarted you. Think that they showed you a place to improve and strengthen the barn.
And cow jail? Funny thing. Cows learn. Work them every month, and they get used to the handling, shadows, noises, and smells. I find that they respond to visual cues from about as well as horses. I have a 54" white fiberglass 'stick' for horse training. Wave it out to one side turns the cow the other direction, thumping the ground drives them on, stand it straight up and stand still behind it to 'release' the cow to stand still. Oh, and I have never seen a cow turn because someone smacked it's face -- cows don't work that way. I have seen cows turn for something waved in front of it (the stick, not me), they do bluff.
One reason to work cows in summer is fly spray. There are several that last 2-5 weeks, so that might be one excuse to work them. Another might be to check and replace ear tags (NAIS is coming!). Your vet can recommend fall and spring shots you can give, to reduce risk of various maladies.
Teach them to gather in for feeding, or a couple bales of hay.
Plus, working the cows so they are more comfortable with you around, makes the whole setup less dangerous for you.
shannon r., cows are like many animals -- they don't think for beans when excited. When calm they are observant, persistent, and can be friendly. Let them get bored and they can defeat more safety measures than you can shake a stick at. 'No smarter than a tree' refers to cows that haven't been trained. 'Smarter than me' means I couldn't figure out, at the time, how to get them to do what I want -- I am still in training. And building gates.
Blessed be.
Lotb:
I was born in Seattle and still live here. When I was a kid, every other year or so the snow drifts would be so tall we'd miss a few days of work/school. That hasn't happened in twenty years or so. When I told my husband, who grew up in Virginia, he didn't believe me. I had to grab the historical records to prove it. My point? If THAT isn't global warming I don't know what is.
Sorry for the pink eye. I've only come close to it when my daughter got it once, and I didn't have to put her in cow jail. God speed.
simon - it kicked everyone who approached its' ass.
shannon - yes, and?
sailfish - and i am imagining little gangsters with protruding white eyes, flailing about.
coot - on again off again.
brad - cows don't really learn, it's more that they stop being flustered by things that happen to them repeatedly.
most of what all you said, i would agree with, but -
i will not, will not, will not run them through cow jail often enough to acclimate them too it. period.
main reason being that, barring unforseen problems such as this, they only need worked once a year. to shoot for tetnus, to clamp the boys, and to separate the youngsters from the mothers.
we don't spray for flies. being organic as much as possible. (as you can see, a pinkeye infestation fall outside the realm of not being treated by meds). had i known earlier of the problems i'd face i'd have procured some fly killers.
oh yeah, and fuck NAIS. libertarianism here i come.
Viscountess - it's true. it's here. ohio hasn't been utterly screwed by it so far, like say everything east of the mountins and west of the mississippi.
In case you still didn't get it, I was making fun of how smart you are in comparison to a tree.
shannon - 1, drew - dumb as a tree
Hey, super blog. I read the whole thing.
I started feeding kelp meal and loose salt mixed half and half. It's supposed to keep them from getting pinkeye. I don't know for certain if it is the reason I haven't had to treat any in the two years I've been doing it but I'm willing to believe it is. When we started we had about 15 dairy heifers we were grazing for guy and about 20 herefords that we owned. We treated the holsteins but the herefords were a little too slippery to catch (we don't have a fancy cow jail), but I started feeding the kelp then and both groups got over the pinkeye at the same time. It's a little expensive but I like it better than a day of rodeo stuff.
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