hauling bulls

[keh]

Most of the time I had no problems. Issues arose when loading them. I had one bull calf that I didn't take to the sale and then let him stay around to breed the cows. He had horns and an attitude. When I came to the pasture he wanted to be fed and would come running over. Anyway, I decided to sell him, but didn't want to get in the pen with him. I tried to lure him on the trailer with feed, and finally got him to get front feet on the trailer, then pulled the container of feed toward the front of the trailer with a rope. At last after several days he got on the trailer and I went to shut the gates on the trailer. He was sticking back a little too far and I shoved the gate against him. He didn't like that and turned around to face me, but by then he had his weight off the gate so I shut it and took him to the sale.

Through the years I learned a lot about loading facilities. The one at the house has a narrow chute going into a barn with an outlet on the other side. I've never had a calf or cow turn around in those chutes, but realized that they were too narrow for a large bull. I built a wider short chute for possible use and one day needed it. I had the nicest, largest black bull I ever had and he sired great calves. He had a good disposition, but had two problems. One was he was not afraid of anyone and would not be driven. He showed no violent tendencies but just did his own thing. He also got out of the pasture. He did that three times and after the third on I was ready to sell him. I have a sorting gate in the chute just before the wide section I mentioned above. I backed the trailer in position and opened the sorting gate, first shutting the regular chute and opening the gate to the wider section. I put feed a little past the sorting gate, got the bull interested in the feed, moved it farther along the chute, then put a pipe behind him. He was calm and I got the feed on the trailer and encouraged him to get on the trailer, shut the gates, and hauled him off.

Last Sunday I hauled a neighbor's bull to the stockyards for him. He had gotten out three times in 2 days, breaking down fences, and neighbor had enough. Neighbor guessed 1500 pounds and later the man at the sale guessed the same. Today neighbor called, bull weighed 1525 and brought $1.00 per pound.

As a general rule it is best to have owners of livestock who feed them regularly get them in pens and load them. I stayed out of the way as much as possible while the neighbor handled the bull and went and fastened my trailer gate when the bull got on. He was not happy and tried to jump out of the trailer. Trailer has 6.5 feet sides plus I had him in a front section maybe 8 feet long, so he couldn't get a running start, plus the trailer has cross pieces across the top that I don't think a cow could get around. Any, I got him delivered to the satisfaction of both of us. Any body had a cow jump out of a trailer, or truck, and if so how high were the sides? I asked this on another forum and someone said they saw a goat jump over a 7 foot high fence. Guess that's why most goat trailers I see have tops on them.

KEH

 

[Dick2]

I used to keep ear corn handy to train cattle to follow me. I could lead them up a loading chute by holding an ear of corn just out of reach. Once they were in the truck I'd give them the ear of corn to hold their attention then slip around them and close the back gate. Worked better for me than trying to drive them up a chute.

 

[farmerwithmutt]

My uncles and dad were hauling a boar to town he jumped over the front and slid down the windshield for some reason the had a hard time getting him in the truck again. Hauling pigs with a neighbor you learned to hang on the pigs would start lifting the racks he would shimmy the steering and adjust the load. Had to do that once had a yearling heifer in back of pickup started to go over the back slammed on the brakes slid her back up front

 

[retired farmer]

Had a bull several years ago that almost cleared a seven foot gate. Only thing that stopped him from going on over was I hit him in the head at just the right time and he fell back in the pen.

 

[jacksun65]

Uncle bought a registerd Holstein bull, weighed in at 3000lbs. Very agressive We built a breeding pen for him made of 6x6 ten foot above ground four in spaced two feet apart 2x6 tongue and grove on inside 2x6 outside every two feet. Made the mistake of cementing the poles in ground. He stayed in it for two weeks before he broke a wall down. He just let him run with the girls after that. One day when feeding squares out of back of pickup I went to break a bale and a string popped out of my hand so I jumped down to get it and went flying back up into the side of the truck. the bull was there pawing the ground uncle jumped out of the truck with a 4x4 and broke it over the back of his head. LOL didn't even phase him. Decided to sell him before he killed someone. the guy that bought him showed up with a 5 ton with an open top cattle rack. uncle told him he should have something on top. loaded him up, they got ten miles down the road and the bull jumped over the top and landed in the middle of M46 broke both front legs. Guy actually came back and wanted his money back.

 

[vscummins]

You kept a calf around of that quality to breed cows

 

[JD Seller]

Several things.

1) I will NEVER haul cattle in an open top trailer or truck. No solid roof then no haul. I have seen too many cows and bulls jump/climb out over the top of trucks or trailers will open tops.

2) Every bull I have ever owned is halter broke. Moving or loading them is no issue. Just lead them on the trailer or truck. It also makes doctoring them easier too. My current bull is a 5 year old Angus bull he weight right at 2500 lbs. You can lead him right into the head gate.

Funny thing on this bull. I sold some semen from him a few years ago. I took him to Ames to be collected. I pulled up and asked them where they wanted me to unload him. They asked me what he weight. I told them. They started dragging out these GREAT big tall heavy gates and all. I asked them what all that was for??? They said to hold your bull. I told them not this bull. HECK he was standing halter tied in the front of the trailer. I just lead him right in to the collecting chute. Those guys just stood there with their mouths hanging open. LOL I understand their view point. Many LARGE bulls are hard to control. I also think that mine get used to being moved to "new" girl friends. LOL So they are pretty easy to load.

 

[DoubleR]

My Dad had a herd of registered Black Angus when I was growing up. We showed allot of our cattle in 4-H and at the Michigan State Fair and around Michigan. Most of the herd was pretty docile and easy going. We had some heifers get out and mixed in the main herd along with the bull. Afraid he might breed one I decided it would be easy solution to get the bull out of the herd until we got things shorted out. I walked up to him with a haulter threw on him and started leading him up to the barn. Got almost their and he realized what was happening. He went well over 1500lbs and no 15 year old kid was going to hold on to him and take him away from his girls. I got the Fordson Major Diesel that was close buy and tied him to the drawbar and lead him to the barn with that. I did succeed but never tried and never will try to do anything like that again. He never give us any trouble after that but I sure learned what one was capable of doing.

I hauled a highlander bull, with long horns, for a guy last fall. Didn't really want to do it but told him I would open a close the door and that was it. He got him in the trailer and we took him to his farm and he had me drop him off in the pasture with some cows. He also had another bull already with them. I got in my truck and left. He stops by a few days later and said the two bulls got in a fight and he tried to break it up. He got gored in the leg and spend the night in the hospital. He's lucky he didn't get killed.

I'm just going to stick to dealing with a few Holstein steers that don't seem to get too excited about anything as long as there's feed in front of them. I'm too old to be dealing with that kind of crap. Don't want to end up like the 71 year old guy we talked about earlier today.

 

[D beatty]

We hauled several dairy bulls in 1 ton pickup with narrow box and high sides. We put eyes in floor of bed and fastened to frame of truck. The bulls had halters and a ring in nose and tied their head down close to floor of truck and had no problems.

 

[NEKS]

Drove about 40 miles one time to look at some bulls to buy one. Picked one out and the guy said would have him semen checked and deliver. Call and said bull was no good, but would deliver another one. His wife brought it and when turned it into pipe corral pen it jump two pipe corral fences and went to pasture Told her when I get it caught would be bringing it back.

 

[JerryS]

I saw a brahma bull clear a 7-foot rodeo arena fence. The thing that impressed me most was the effortless way he did it. He had disposed of his rider and instead of going back into the pens in back of the chutes, he went at a steady lope to the opposite end of the arena and sailed over it as easy as if it was a garden hose.

 

[Dick2]

We had a dog named Spot that wouldn't chase any livestock on command; he'd give me the look that said: "I'm not mad at that animal; if you want it chased, you chase it." He was dumb as a board but good around the kids that came to the place.

Neighbor's bull came over, got into the pasture and got into a fight with our bull. I tried to break up the fight by ramming him with the 8N but was not having any luck. Knew I wasn't going to get off that tractor and get in the middle of the fight. Suddenly Spot jumped in and bit the neighbor's bull right on the nose and hung on. That bull carried that dog a quarter mile to the gate where he came and Spot hung on until the bull left our yard. Later I saw Spot break up fights between other animals, guess that he just didn't like to see them fight.

 

[keh]

Problem with a closed top trailer is that you MIGHT be on there with a cow and need to climb out. A better solution is to have a side gate in the front. Good for sorting cow, also for leading something on the trailer with feed and getting out by the door. I have led them on with feed and climbed over the side and went around to close the gate. NOT with bulls or grown cows.

In the pasture that I mentioned above getting the bull with horns on the trailer with feed I built a pen with a gate in the side of the chute about half way down at a curve in the chute. Gate swings to chute the chute off going to the loading ramp. When gate is open the cows get in the habit of going out of the pen that way. When loading something I close the outside gate and the cows start down the chute expecting to escape the pen, only to find they are going on the trailer.

KEH

 

[rick1]

wow thats one big bull jd
RICK

 

[T in NE]

I can't stand the drivers who pull out the hotshot and go to town on calves. I went up in a cattle pot one day, driver was shocking and yelling, beside the door, and the calves wouldn't move. I worked my way through patting noses and off they went. Told him in another couple months we gotta sort replacements out of these, we'd prefer they didn't flip out thinking they were gonna get tasered again. And they don't kick when they are crammed together like that, they don't know it's you and not one of their buddies pushing on them.

Told another guy once if that taser comes through the gate and gets another calf high-kicking while I'm trying to get them turned around and into the chute it's getting shoved up a deep dark hole sideways and the button tied down.

Hotshots are handy but some guys try to use them
as a substitute for not knowing how to handle cattle.

 

[LME]

Years ago I had a cow jump out of our pickup truck. It had wood stock racks, we were going down a city street by a school, felt the truck make a funny movement, looked in the side mirror and the cow was standing in the street. Long story, found a couple of cowboys to rope her and get her back in the truck, was 60 miles from home, long ride!!

 

[RBoots]

There is a local greaseball that raises cows. Single strand of fence around the area where they are. Spears a bale on his 4010 and backs it into the pen and leaves it for the feeder. These cows are knee deep in manure in the summer. In spring and fall they are up to their belly in manure. Cows get out, neighbors get mad, doesn't care. Happens time and time again. Guy at work was following him one day. He had his stock trailer with a cow in it, latch was undone, had a rope tied around the doors. Trailer looks like it shouldn't be on the road anyway. The cow falls out the back doing about 55 mph and rolls into the ditch. Co-worker gets next to the guy and gets him to pull over, tells him his cow fell out and is in the ditch. Guy gets furious, stupid cow, blah blah, turns around and gets to where the cow is. Co-worker is going to try to help load it to get it off the road. It still lays in the ditch bellowing, had 4 broken legs. The guy was mad because he was taking it to be butchered and said if it couldn't stand, he couldn't sell it. So he gets 2 hotshots and starts blasting in on the nose, and it is just going nuts. Co-worker tells him to stop, just shoot it, and he again said "this cow WILL get up, or I can't sell it!" He calls his buddy to bring 2 more hotshots down and they try with 4 of them together. It doesn't work, cow still has 4 badly broken legs. Co-worker said he couldn't watch anymore, so he called the cops who came and shot it, said he needed to be off the road with it. The guy was furious. This was the same guy (before I knew who he was) that was trying to pull a 250 bushel grain wagon up a steep hill on a gravel road with a 2wd F150 with bald tires. I asked him if he would like me to pull him to the top with my F250, and he said yes. I pulled him up, I got out, and as soon as I got the chain unhooked from his front tow hook, he drove off, no wave, no thanks, nothing. He's a real jerk. That's OK, I was going home to get the semi to haul corn anyways, and I passed him about half a mile from the elevator. His wagon had broken a spindle and nose dived into the berm lol.

Ross

 

[GVSII]

Guy told me he was asked to haul a bull. He got to the farm well after dark and no one is around so he has no help.The bull is in a stall in the barn and has a halter on him.He's quite docile and easy to move but as soon as he's at the back of the trailer he locks up all four,he ain't getting on the trailer.after many tries,walking, trotting and a few good runs, no luck.Finally the guy goes and gets a cow,walks it into the trailer,goes and gets the bull.The old boy walks right in sniffing.

 

[mite-help]

years back, farmer I knew was trying to haul cow to sale barn in open top trailer. He was seen cutting donuts in a store parking lot, as fast as possible. cow tried to jump out earlier, but braking/swerving kept it in. guess he made it dizzy enough to take 5 mi.trip back home.

 

[D beatty]

We had 7 ft. sides and if you keep bulls head down real close to floor he can't jump about all he could do is kick.