I have a good friend that is a semi retired diary farmer. He now raises bottle calves and has about 30 black Angus brood cows. He finishes about 150 calves each year.
So about once each month I go over and haul 10-15 fats to town for him. Most of these are Holstein bottle calves he has finished. So they are pretty tame even when finished.
His black calves are a different story. His cows came from out West and are pretty high strung. Their calves are that way too.
He is not really setup to handily load cattle. Usually a bunch of rusted out "cheap" gates wired to this and that with small wire.
HE called me last week to come and haul to day for him. He told me he had about 15 of his Angus calves finished. Well they were OVER FINISHED!!! I weight the first load and they averaged over 1800 lbs. So their BIG and nuttier than fruit cakes.
So I helped him sort the biggest ones out. They really ALL are ready to sell but he does not want to sell them all in one day. He does not want to hit a "low" market.
So we get them sorted and blocked in the barn with a couple of the better gates he had. As I back the trailer up to the barn about half the calves knocked a gate down and ran out into his pasture. JUST GREAT!!!!
So we wasted about an hour getting them back into a yard so we can get them back into the barn. I got run over twice by a couple of the knot heads. I went and got an old aluminum ball bat I carry behind the pickup seat. I did not get run over any more but the bat has a few new dents in it. LOL
So this time I had him put his loader tractor on the outside of the gates. So we had them penned in. I could only haul half of them at a time. So they all tried to run into the trailer on the first load and then ran out. You all should know how easy it is to get a steer back into a trailer after he has came back out of it. NOT!!! Well I only got my shoulder smashed with the dividing gate in the trailer twice.
It took a total of just under four hours to load and haul 20 steers 2 miles into town.
I just got supper ate and took a hand full of pain pills. Got an ice bag on my shoulder. Quite a few bruises here and there. I have a REAL sore one on my butt cheek. The wife thinks it looks funny.
I told the friend that WE are going to build a loading chute as soon as it warms up a little. I have a buddy that has a rock bit for his post hole auger that will drill frozen dirt. I also told him we are going to need some new "GOOD" gates.
Here is the funny one. I told him to expect to be docked on these steers as they are too heavy. He did not want to sell them last year as he did not want to pay more income tax. So he wasted feed to get the same net money as he could have gotten 30-45 days ago. The extra feed will easily be more than the taxes would have been. He could have deferred payment on the cattle to this year too.
So about once each month I go over and haul 10-15 fats to town for him. Most of these are Holstein bottle calves he has finished. So they are pretty tame even when finished.
His black calves are a different story. His cows came from out West and are pretty high strung. Their calves are that way too.
He is not really setup to handily load cattle. Usually a bunch of rusted out "cheap" gates wired to this and that with small wire.
HE called me last week to come and haul to day for him. He told me he had about 15 of his Angus calves finished. Well they were OVER FINISHED!!! I weight the first load and they averaged over 1800 lbs. So their BIG and nuttier than fruit cakes.
So I helped him sort the biggest ones out. They really ALL are ready to sell but he does not want to sell them all in one day. He does not want to hit a "low" market.
So we get them sorted and blocked in the barn with a couple of the better gates he had. As I back the trailer up to the barn about half the calves knocked a gate down and ran out into his pasture. JUST GREAT!!!!
So we wasted about an hour getting them back into a yard so we can get them back into the barn. I got run over twice by a couple of the knot heads. I went and got an old aluminum ball bat I carry behind the pickup seat. I did not get run over any more but the bat has a few new dents in it. LOL
So this time I had him put his loader tractor on the outside of the gates. So we had them penned in. I could only haul half of them at a time. So they all tried to run into the trailer on the first load and then ran out. You all should know how easy it is to get a steer back into a trailer after he has came back out of it. NOT!!! Well I only got my shoulder smashed with the dividing gate in the trailer twice.
It took a total of just under four hours to load and haul 20 steers 2 miles into town.
I just got supper ate and took a hand full of pain pills. Got an ice bag on my shoulder. Quite a few bruises here and there. I have a REAL sore one on my butt cheek. The wife thinks it looks funny.
I told the friend that WE are going to build a loading chute as soon as it warms up a little. I have a buddy that has a rock bit for his post hole auger that will drill frozen dirt. I also told him we are going to need some new "GOOD" gates.
Here is the funny one. I told him to expect to be docked on these steers as they are too heavy. He did not want to sell them last year as he did not want to pay more income tax. So he wasted feed to get the same net money as he could have gotten 30-45 days ago. The extra feed will easily be more than the taxes would have been. He could have deferred payment on the cattle to this year too.
