Loading pigs with a hotshot

Anonymous-0 · Jan 12, 2013

Back in the 70's my uncle Jim bought a hotshot at a farm sale for $5 . He went to load a 500lb sow that Sun she got half way up the chute and wouldn't go he told us kids to get the hotshot. He let her have it that sow jumped staight up and went upside down on him. When he finally got out from under the sow he could barely walk let alone finish concrete Mon morning but he did. And we never used the hotshot ever again for hogs or cattle.It's probably still in the pasture where he threw it after that.

J.Wondergem · Jan 12, 2013

Ha Ha, that's funny.

M Nut · Jan 12, 2013

Those things are NOT allowed on our farm. When we used to hire our livestock hauling done, dad wouldn't allow the drivers to help load our cattle either. Strange people yelling at them will make them crazy every time.

notjustair · Jan 12, 2013

I've had a lot better luck loading them with a 5 gallon bucket over their head than a hotshot. They are more fun to scare your friends with than useful on hogs.

fixerupper · Jan 12, 2013

The chute must have been fairly steep. I've had that happen with fat hogs but it was when the one in back was trying to get over the top of the one in front of it. And it wasn't 500 pounds! When it lands on it's back you had just as well let it come down and into the barn again. Then the fun REALLY starts trying to get it back into the chute. How did you get the 500 pounder back up the chute without the prod? A sow that old and big has a stubborn streak a mile long.LOL Jim

Dan T in MO · Jan 12, 2013

Some kids I know have invented a game they call "cattle prod tag." They've invited me to play, but I'm not sure I understand the rules.

Anonymous-0 · Jan 12, 2013

In the mid 70's hotshots were high tech you put 4 -"d" bateries in it and your on the cutting edge of farming like the story say's it didn't work well for us. But as a 9 year old it was a sight to see and was pretty hard not to laugh . Now uncle Jim is gone but us kids now in our 40's laugh till we cry at just the mention of a hotshot on pigs.

RalphWD45 · Jan 12, 2013

Thatreminds me, NOTHING scares me more than a bitting sow, when making her pigs squeel. fences and gates just don't seem husky enough to be behind!

lenray · Jan 12, 2013

In 1963 I was working at the local stockyards--A big sow was heading up the ramp with a boar behind her. He was having his way with her when he got the hotshot---That sow was in the truck in in nano seconds---never forgot that scene.

thurlow · Jan 12, 2013

To each his own, but............I can't imagine working cattle without the (judicious) use of hotshots. Our corrals were set up correctly.....according to the 'experts' and our own experience: chutes were solid wall/curved/narrow/interior gates to keep cattle from backing up/faced toward the 'light', etc. Unless one is just dealing with Bossy, Pet, Slowpoke, Big Mama, etc, sometimes one IS gonna balk; nothing like a hot shot to change her mind.

Never saw one that used "D" batteries, but obviously there could be some. All we ever had used "C" batteries; first were just a metal tube and when they were pressed against the animal, the switch was closed. Next were the plastic ones with a pushbutton and mechanical 'points'; later they were solid state. Been out the business for 6 years, but there's still 5 or 6 hotshots hanging on a nail in the shop office. Never raised hogs, but a good friend raised a LOT of feeder pigs; he never used a hotshot, but when he put his Austraulian Shepherd in the chute behind them (or in the escape gate at the front of the trailer to unload 'em); they couldn't wait to move.

Greg1959 · Jan 12, 2013

1998. Was loading hogs to slaughter. Had just bought a 'Hot Shot' and thought I would use it to get the hogs loaded (they didn't want to go up the chute). I'd just juice them a bit and up they'd go.

Had a few that stayed back We were in ankle deep muck trying to herd them into the chute. Had one close to the opening of the chute and just gave it a small jolt to urge it to continue up the chute.

Instead,, it just leaned against my son (15 year old) and he was pinned against a metal gate. So, I thought my batteries must be going dead.. I squeezed the trigger and held it firm against the hog. Nothing...no sound, no movement. Batteries must be totally discharged. I quit and toss the 'hot shot' to the side.

My kid finally regains his senses and begins screaming. He later told me that he couldn't move or say anything because he was stuck to that gate.

Never used it again.

S.Crum · Jan 12, 2013

Dad told me of a hauler down at the stockyards back in the early 70s that thought it was pretty funny to give each heifer being loaded on the truck a "little" shot with a cattle prod. That is until one of them put the trucker's 13 year old son in the hospital for a week and a half, including 2 days in intensive care. Pretty funny huh?
We never had prods on the farm.

Paul from MI · Jan 12, 2013

While I am far from an expert on livestock, but my Dad and uncle both were. The first thing they taught me was PATIENCE! I was pretty young but I did listen, and I've moved a few hogs and cattle but very slowly and it a lot easier on both of us.

Goose · Jan 12, 2013

Same here. Put a 5 gallon bucket over their heads and they'll try to back out of the bucket.

You can back them right up the chute.

Robert Major · Jan 12, 2013

Hi we farm pigs here in Canada have not had an electric prod for about 9 or 10 years. I got a belt off it one day when i was helping dad loading. told him if that happened again next belt he would get was with the battery end on the back of the head, that prod dropped me to the floor! Now our buyers have banned the use of them so that sorts the men from the boys loading with a rattle paddle. Our trucker says one companies drivers struggle with out prods, when he sees unloading at the plant, there was a reason they stopped shipping our hogs for us 7 years ago their drivers should be hauling boxes to Texas, as far as I"m concerned!.
Regards Robert

fixerupper · Jan 12, 2013

Patience with hogs? Huh? I found, after much practice, that a prod is only useful after the hog's shoulders are in the chute and then you just give it a little boost.

A lot of the big hog companies don't allow prods anymore. They use rattle paddles instead. When you rattle the paddle it sounds like a rattle snake and most of the time the hog pays attention. My son used to haul hogs owned by a company that doesn't allow prods. At the packing plant there was a 'humane' officer watching at all time while the hogs were being unloaded. The trucker was supposed to keep the hogs from wedging in the door and stuff like that, to avoid bruising. But if a trucker was having trouble getting the hogs out, someone from the plant would go into the truck with a prod and the hogs WOULD come out. The humane officer was suddenly nowhere in sight. Jim

Dalet · Jan 12, 2013

I raised pigs for many years, I have learned too things:
1. No pig will go where you want them to go
2. Every pig will go there at the same time.

I once had a pig drown in a 5 gallon pail of hot water that I was going to use to thaw a waterer.
50lb pig, drowns in a pail, as I use the other pail I brought to thaw waterers. In a minute, and he didn't tip the pail!!

Pigs are smart, and dumb, like humans. If they want something soooo bad, they will kill themselves to get it. Damn the torpedo's!! I do love pork though, and I have a couple pigs on the place to keep the freezer full.

farmer boy · Jan 12, 2013

They have their place. I just bought myself one for Christmas. Really only plan on using it for chute work when the cattle refuse to leave the chute in the right direction. They have to be used smart and sparingly. It does sh!t all to shock the crap out of them, just gets them madder than heck.

oldtanker · Jan 13, 2013

My SIL was raise on the farm. That family isn't known for being very nice to the critters. Last spring he helped my load a couple of cows. He was really afraid that it was going to be a problem. I told him relax, just do what I tell you. I baited them into a holding pen with a little grain in a pan. Then once they were devided out how I wanted em and the 2 were ready to load I carried the feed pan into the trailer and they just followed me in. I went out the side door. He still is having trouble believing that my critters are that tame. It's al in how you handle em.

Rick

Robert Major · Jan 13, 2013

Hi Dalet
I guess in Reply to rule one the art of getting a pig to go where you want it, is to fool it into thinking that"s what it wants to do. we have to go on a hog handling course for our meat plant and this is what they teach in the first 20 mins.
we have hogs feeding on concrete with 2 gate ways up. if a hog always goes left don"t try putting him right to scale we have to run them up the wrong side, they go then with no fight and just turn them round and back through. yeah some can be stubborn but it"s just a waiting game for a few mins sometimes. No prods just a rattle paddle the odd time.
Regards Robert

Loading pigs with a hotshot

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