loading heifer for slaughter

onefarmer · Dec 6, 2011

8 hrs chasing. She didn't see a fence she wouldn't go through.
Attempting to load cow = 8 hrs,
Fix fences = 3+ hrs,
Reinforcing fences $300+,
Eating steak = PRICELESS

Stupid animal. Still not loaded. More fence building/reinforcing to go and reschedule the slaughter. Then try again.

2x4 · Dec 6, 2011

loading is no problem, just load a few shells in the ol' deer rifle & she'll load easy.

oldtanker · Dec 6, 2011

HMMM thats why I have a stout corral....lure em in and they load! But we do our butchering here on the farm so we just drop em where they stand.....much easier that way!

Rick

Fritz Maurer · Dec 6, 2011

Don't you have a barn? Lock her up the night before. If not practical, put feed in the trailer and walk away for a couple hours. Very difficult to get cow in trailer, loading from an open field. She'll have to be baited in.

onefarmer · Dec 6, 2011

I was ready to get the gun!

DeltaRed · Dec 6, 2011

30-30 will handle that critter

Anonymous-0 · Dec 6, 2011

From what I read if you have her worked up that much the steak will be like old boots. She must sense something.

onefarmer · Dec 6, 2011

I have a small out building. Just something for the water tank and them to get out of the rain and wind. The fence narrows toward the building and most animals will go in and wait while I back up the trailer and in they go. This critter acted like she knew what was going on and would have no part of it. I loaded a bull and another heifer the day before. Like most of the time, I get the trailer backed in open the door say git and in they are. NOT TODAY.

Most of her problem is she wasn't bottle fed like the others. She was a cow calf animal and so no personal human hands on contact. I won't do that again.

Traditional Farmer · Dec 7, 2011

People that don't know much about cattle chase cattle,successfully loading cattle starts days ahead of the actual event.

petetx · Dec 7, 2011

several years ago i loaded 6 hiefers out of a pasture with no no pen or load chute started by putting sweet feed close to trailer then worked up to trough in the back of trailer kept moving it forward finnaly just went around ande closed the tailgate these were all 50% brahmas

Drill · Dec 7, 2011

Like my old grandpappy used to say, never chase a cow, out think it. Most cattle aren't that smart.

James Williams · Dec 7, 2011

I grew up on a small farm in VA,We basically lived with our animals daily,Walked through the herd daily,feed in barns and barn yards,cattle was keep in barns and lot during winter months.Feeding silage and ground corn was done in a large converted dairy barn and hay was feed in a loafing barn.Are animals were use to being handled.I remembered one of our first projects my dad did was build a loading shute that was bullet proff,we never had any problem loading,and the very first project was building new exterior fence around the property,post every 8ft and american wire,I cant ever remember chasing cattle.I know we wernt out west on thousands of acres,but it seems to me you need to be equipted reguardless of the size of farm,and also dad was a work ahollic,and had a lot of free labor[us kids[

jimmy

Anonymous-0 · Dec 7, 2011

If you are having her butchered find one that will come out to your farm. Put feed along the fence line and while she is eating shoot her in the head. Draw an imaginary line from horn to opposite eye etc. and shoot her where the lines cross. She'll go down like a ton of bricks. The other cows if there are any will jump back a bit but they won't stampede. The butcher will dress her out there and take all the guts and such with him.

Keith Molden · Dec 7, 2011

I sure do feel for you. Had the same thing happen in August of this year and we haven't seen even a track of her as of this morning. I just added the price of the cow to the other costs you mentioned,(someone else is eating good steak just hope they're poor folks and it helps them out) chalked it up to the price of doing what I enjoy. I just ordered a beef from a guy that will take them to the slaughter house & I pay hanging weight plus butchering fees. We've bought from him in the past and the meat is always great. So goes life on the farm. Keith

thurlow · Dec 7, 2011

Personally, I think you'll be very disappointed with the quality of the beef from an animal that stressed.

onefarmer · Dec 7, 2011

She didn't look very stressed. I sure was. But I know what you mean.

onefarmer · Dec 7, 2011

My grandfather used to say...."Why do cows have horns?...Cause there isn't enough room in their head for all their dumb"

Tx Jim · Dec 7, 2011

You could try a tranquillizer gun.

ChrisinMO · Dec 7, 2011

Had a pen with three heifers in it. Over three days we sold two of them, leaving one. I should have seen it coming. She got really lonely and decided to liberate herself over to the cows a couple hours after dark. She actually proved to be fairly tame, she just couldn't see the gate in the dark. Open it wide enough and we'll be catching more than just a heifer as the cows were terribly curious about what was going on. We finally did get her in with the cows for the night, going to get her out in the morning. They weren't fighting and none of the cows were pregnant, so I figured little harm could be done. In the morning, they looked like one big, happy family, so I just left her there. She was the one I had been thinking about keeping anyway, just hadn't made up my mind.

Christopher

Traditional Farmer · Dec 7, 2011

Where does that put you since she out smarted you?

Cow 1
onefarmer 0

Anonymous-0 · Dec 7, 2011

Son in law loaded a young difficult bull once. He had broken away more than once. Somehow got a noose on his leg. Drug him into the trailer with a 4020 JD. I ask, wouldn't that hurt him? Reply, " I don't care"

oldtanker · Dec 7, 2011

(quoted from post at 23:05:01 12/06/11) People that don't know much about cattle chase cattle,successfully loading cattle starts days ahead of the actual event.

Thats good.....

Rick

onefarmer · Dec 7, 2011

Well she is still alive, but she is contained.

DoubleR · Dec 7, 2011

That reminds me of one of the reasons I don't feed heifers. Accidently got my hand stuck in the air and ended up with one at a auction a while back. Just sent her to market last month and did not give her any chance to run before loading her. She was a pain in the #$% the whole time I had her though. I like to stick to feeding steers only.

Bill(Wis) · Dec 7, 2011

This reminds me of an old neighbor who had some friends come over to help him with hog butchering. When they got there, he had the big hog kettle boiling, butchering tools laid out, buckets, etc. They axed him how he intended to kill the hogs as the hogs were all in the barnyard. "I'm gonna shoot 'em". At that point old Van produced a .22 rifle and began shooting. The neighbors laughed and that made old Van nervous and he only wounded a few pigs and missed most of the others. Bullets were ricocheting off the stone barn walls and farmers were ducking for cover. We laughed for years about that.

rrlund · Dec 7, 2011

Sounds like the way it went around here when I caught the calves to wean them this year.
That very same thing was the reason my cousin got out of the cattle business a couple of years ago. He wanted me to take a load to the sale barn,but he came driving in the night before and said he couldn't get the gate shut behind them. Said when he did get them in,they were ALL going and he was all done. Said he was getting too old to go through this crap.

Old Bob · Dec 7, 2011

You don't chase cattle, you lead them with feed. To catch a cow you have to think like a cow. When I get ready to catch our cattle, I start to feed them ahead of time. If they don't co-operate the day I want to catch them, I wait until they do. If you once spook them, then you have a situation like you just got through with.

Texasmark1 · Dec 7, 2011

We feed in the working pen area on a daily basis. Captive audience and loading is a no brainer. While their head is down eating, just close the gates; they never know they're closed till too late.

Had to think like a cow to rig it like this.

Mark

oldtanker · Dec 7, 2011

Bob we got a farm near us, 2nd or 3rd generation......they chase cows with trucks and 4 wheelers.....

I lure em in the corral with a little grain and then do the same with the trailer.

Rick

Jerry/MT · Dec 7, 2011

Sounds like you need to invest in a corral with an alleyway that can lead to the back of a trailer.
Many people start feeding them grain and you can often trap them after getting them into the corral with grain.

It"s also easier to move bunch of cows together and then sort off the one you need to doctor or ship. Cutting a single, young animal is probably the most difficult way to move it away from the herd. They are herd animals and they know it is safer in a group.

gene bender · Dec 7, 2011

If she is that crazy she wont be good eating sell her and buy a good one.

jackinok · Dec 7, 2011

Can you get close enough to shoot her with a tranquilizer gun? if not i would try to find me a butcher with on farm slaughter and put a 30-06 bullet in her head!sometimes it sure doesnt pay to chase them!

Anonymous-0 · Dec 7, 2011

after she has been chased it will be tuffer the shoe leather to eat. what 2 weeks and shoot her in the head and cut throat as soon as it hits the ground

donjr · Dec 7, 2011

Even if you didn't learn anything in school, pay attention now to that critter. She might learn you som'thing---

Anonymous-0 · Dec 7, 2011

I have a young heifer that was scared of her own shadow and she won't even get close to another cow. I moved my hay ring, creep feeder. and mineral feeder inside the coral. My coral has a front entrance and a back entrance. I shut the front gate and enter the back gate and fill all the feed containers then shut the back gate and open the one in front. After about two weeks all the cows, calves and even the wild heifer go in the pen. I can then shut the front gate and sort them out. Works for me.

torwood9 · Dec 7, 2011

I had a 4 year old holstein limousin mix cow that was open. Rough looking critter, mean to every other animal in the yard. Got her in the barn with grain, moved her to the loading pen a little later. She completely lost it. Jumped a 5 foot gate that I was on the other side of. She felt trapped, ended up having to let her run out a door so no one got hurt. Scared the beejeebers out of me. Waited a few weeks and she was properly butchered in the yard. The meat was some of the best we've had.

loading heifer for slaughter

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