Cattle Logic

Training and Work specific to the farm and ranch. Or brag about what you and your dog were able to accomplish today

Cattle Logic

Postby Lane Campbell on Thu Oct 25, 2012 3:54 pm

Liz talking about her sheep got me to thinking about livestock smarts/ or lack there of. My recieving lot is about a 200' X 300'
rectangle with a couple of trees, hay rack, water trough, feed troughs, and mineral feeder. Originally it was 5 strands of
barbwire. Calves constantly worked to get out and in the process hurt themselves. I replaced this with 16' wire panels hung
on cables with pipe posts. It would probably hold an elephant. Now, none of the calves even tries the fence. I have a 16' gate
in one corner of the lot. It leads to my working facilities. Common sense tells me that you ought to be able to move calves
down the side fence and right thru the gate. Will not work that way! You can wear out a good dog forcing the calves, as all
they want to do is go across the pen and pile up in the corner. After a few tries, I just put up some panels on an angle from
the gate and made a short lane open to their favorite corner. Now even a young, green dog can pen "undog-broke" calves.

On a similar subject, a couple of weeks ago a guy came by to ask me to help him pen a set of cows/calves that he could not
get out of a pasture they had been in for a couple of months. He had run them around several times with no luck. I suggested
he turn off the water, wait a couple of days and open the gate, Guess what? The cattle moved themselves. I still haven't
decided if cattle are real smart or real stupid- I vote for contrary!

Lane
Lane Campbell
 
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Joined: Thu Oct 04, 2012 11:46 am

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