Can't Win for Losing!

Help Support Steer Planet:

DiamondS

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 30, 2008
Messages
192
Location
Colorado
Feel free to share your stories, here's mine.

I took a new ranch job in Colorado and due to the elevation of 9,000 ft, I left my cows at home (1,000ft) until I was able to research their ability to survive.  Due to our extreme temperature variances right now, I thought it would be better to leave the cows in KS until next spring when things level out a little bit and we PAP test our replacement heifers.  I left them in the care of one co-worker until the guy going to take care of my cows could take them ( 4 or 5 days).  I left specific instructions to sell two steers and one Hereford bottle calf heifer.  In with the Hereford heifer was my "super heifer".  She's a beautiful black baldy that has power cow written all over her and she's made many friends.  She's a September calf and she along with the Hereford heifer were with 11 other Angus ET heifer calves that are half nuts.  I told him to take my baldy heifer and put her with all of my other cows , which are extremely gentle, after he pulled the bull out.  All of my other cows are spring calving....  Somehow, he interpreted that as sell her.  I found out the day after the sale at the salebarn she had been sold, so I tracked her down to a feedlot in Western Kansas.  Luckily, they were great to work with and I was able to get her home, 600 miles later.  However, due to her recent travels and other issues, she's become not so friendly.  I put her in her own pen and started to grain her trying to settle her down some.  I had to get another cow in that's super gentle, to doctor,  and I put them together.  Two days later, I redoctored the cow and ran my heifer through the chute to cut her implant out and replace the feedlot tag with her own ID.  When she came out of the chute, she promptly ran to the other end of the pen and attempted to jump the fence and crashed a corner post.  Luckily, we had horses caught and we followed tracks 1 mile down the road and found her grazing happily.  We trailed her another 1/4 mile down the pasture roads to my boss's cows which are very gentle and put her in there.  However, there's still a bull in with them and wouldn't you know it she was in heat a couple days ago.  Thank goodness for Lutalyse.  She's now very satisfied and will tolerate me walking through the cows, but if you walk toward her, she will go to the other end of the herd....

At the point of her crashing the fence, I began to wonder if she should have been left at the feedlot.  I don't tolerate cows like that and I'm hoping that her spending time with my boss's cows who are rotationally grazed, extremely gentle,  and see me every other day, on foot and horseback, she will decided that I'm not satan.....

I figured that this whole deal cost me an extra $300 and wouldn't you know it, my former co-worker will not return phone calls....... ???

That's my story, how bout yours!
 

kanshow

Well-known member
Joined
May 24, 2007
Messages
2,660
Location
Kansas
That's too bad.  She still might settle down, she's been been thru a lot over the course of the last week or two. 

We had a neighber who weaned some calves & the calves promptly got out of his corral & went about 1/4 mile to get into the stockfield where we had some heifers.  Our heifers were gentle and would come up to any pickup or 4wheeler because they expected feed, etc.  When we found the cattle together, we told neighbor we'd bring our heifers in and his calves would probably follow.  He didn't want to do it that way, he had a better method.  He went out there & spent hours one afternoon with his 4 wheeler trying to cut cattle off & run ours one way & his back to his house....    He succeeded... in making all the cattle (his calves & our once gentle heifers) so spooky it took weeks afterwards to be able to bring them in.   
 

cattlejunky

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 22, 2007
Messages
538
Location
indiana
As they say if you didn't have bad luck you would have no luck at all.  Glad you got your heifer back.
 

DiamondS

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 30, 2008
Messages
192
Location
Colorado
Gosh that's frustrating.  We had a neighbor do that once as well, but he never succeeded in getting his cattle out.  He did manage to run his cows are ours through two fences!  Ruined one bull.....  Needless to say, he paid what the bull was worth and the cow that tore her udder up on a fence.  I don't understand some people. 

I just wanted to mention, that our family is having a quarter horse sale Oct. 5th in Manhattan, KS.  Look up Shannon Creek Cattle Co.  They have top end ranch horses, etc.  Thanks!
 
Top