Transporting livestock

[bqz]

Out of curiosity what is the longest haul you have ever made with livestock,
also how far can you safely travel from your farm to pick up animals and why?
what I'm driving at here is why can't you transport long distances?
What problems are there with long hauls?

[Highland]

The longest haul I ever made was moveing my dairy 800 miles--- they spent 22 hours on the semi's with no problems.Sure were hungry and thirsty when they got off!

[Dexter_Cattle]

We live near Cedar Rapids Iowa. The longest haul we ever did was, we bought our herd bull Hotty from Louisburg North Carolina. The breeder met us in Kentucky, The bull was on the trailer for 18 plus hours driving time. He did just fine.

We also have purchased dexters as far away as Antelope Oregon which were on the trailer (transporter) for almost a week, they did fine also, but were certainly shy of trailers for a little bit after that.

We have sold dexters as far away as New York, and again they made it to New York just fine.

Hope that helps!
Thanks
Dan

[Ronney]

Do you lot not have a welfare code governing how long any stock can remain on a truck without a break?

It isn't governed by distance but by time. When we brought all our stock to our new place they were on the truck for 7 hours although the distance was 600kms but much of it was on lousy roads. Another two hours and the truck driver wouldn't have been allowed to drive any further without a break (forgotten for how long but 8 hours I think) and the stock too would have had to be unloaded and allowed access to food and water.

I read all sorts of intersting stuff and then unfortunately promptly forget it, but somewhere recently I read how much weight an adult animals loses between being loaded and reaching it's destination over a certain time frame. It was a lot. Some of it was through emptying out but much of it was actual body weight so when doing long hauls spare a thought for the animal on the back.

Cheers,
Ronnie

[lewbest]

I've often wondered bout this; while I've never tried hauling livestock more than 3-4 hours you never know when something might come up where it would become desirable to do so. Wonder if arrangements could be made (in advance of course) with a sale barn or something along the way where you could give them a drink, feed, & "a stretch"? I'm not into "animal rights" but most of mine become pets (have 3 mini donkeys now; 3 more bought) so I am possibly more interested in their "reasonable comfort" than if they were just "stock."

Lew in TX

[dosthouhavemilk]

I've hauled goats from Ohio to Kansas. Missouri to OH (smae trip). Drove up to MI and back for a buckling. Down to TN and back for two bucks and three does. I generally stopped every 6-8 hours and offered water and freshened hay.
I sold a cow here in SE Ohio and her owners came and picked her up and drove her back to NE KS. It was a little over a 16 hour drive after the break down just half an hour from here. She was dry at the time and handled it just fine.

There are haulers that haul livestock cross country for a living. They generally stop every 4 hours to check on animals.

With the goat kids I let them out to wander, but left the older animals in the truck for their own safety. The little month old buckling I had raised was friednly..the mature stock I was hauling weren't quite the same.

The problem with hauling animals is the added cost to their purchase price. At some point it becomes ridiculously expensive to buy and animal and then have it hauled. Especially if it is an animal easily found in your area.

This coming from someone who had no reason to go to MI and TN except to buy goats...... :baby04:

[Up North]

8 weeks ago just transported our entire dairy herd 900 miles. This was cows in milk all the way down to new babies. They were in the truck 16 hours. We loaded everybody in late afternoon and the drivers drove straight through the night. Driving at night keeps the stress down because they are traveling when it's cooler. Milk cows were milked right before getting on truck and right away when they arrived at new farm. Herd made the trip quite well. Everybody arrived healthy.

When making plans to move the herd we never came accross any rules or regulations that dealt with the welfare of the animals. It was a very big worry for us because this was our entire livelihood that was trucking down the road.

When moving animals you have to consider:
time of year--easier to move when cool outside.

If animal is lactating or not. We were pushing the envelope for transporting the milk cows with the 16 hour drive. To prepare for trip a few days before their ride we cut way back on grain and fed lots of hay. This way they weren't making as much milk.

Special attention needs to be given to newborn baby calves. They dehydrate easily.

Another big thing you have to look into before you move animals is what kind of health papers do they need. We needed health certificates on every animal. All dairy cattle more than 6 months old needed to be TB tested. This wasn't necessary by legal means but we also did a big round of vaccinations for everybody. We did some research and found out what diseases are common for the area we were moving to. We vaccinated for those and for shipping fever.

I'm sure there's more you could add to the list. With good planning and a good hauler I wouldn't hesitate to move animals long distances.

Heather

[DaleK]

We have a code of conduct here in Ontario but I can't remember offhand what it is, the farthest we ship anything is 3 hours. One of the experts on shipping cattle has to be Stanhope-Wedgwood Holsteins in British Columbia, I don't know how much shipping they do since BSE but pre-BSE I believe I read that their show string travelled over 20,000 miles every year across the US and Canada with millions of dollars worth of cattle.

[wr]

I do know there is a set time that cattle can be on a truck and then have to be off loaded for feed and water. It may not be exactly the same in Canada and the US but it's very similar. I had 2 heifers brought up from Colorado and in order to save transport costs they came up with 3 bulls destined for various parts of Alberta. If things had run smoothly, they should have made it to their destination with no problems but one of the bulls lost his bangs tag which created havoc at the border. The additional time taken to deal with the errant bangs tag was enough that they had to stop and off load inside Alberta so the cattle we should have received about 6:00 pm were actually picked up after midnight. Because the bulls were being transported further, all cattle had to be delivered to an accredited facility (the auction barns were considered suitable) and while we could move ours on, the brand inspector required the bulls to sit for a couple hours before they could be put on a trailer and moved to their final destination because the initial stop didn't take into account the extra distance they would travel.

[willow_girl]

I moved my girls 450 miles in June. One cow in milk, with a 3-month-old calf, and two aged dry open cows. The hauler drove overnight as it would be cooler and less stressful for them. They all made the trip in good shape and walked off the trailer, somewhat sore and wobbly, but they bounced back fast (thank goodness!).