Tethering a Steer

Happyhomemama · #1 09/19/07, 09:15 AM

I would like some advice on tethering a steer. The reason we haven't got a steer in the past is because we don't have a large enough pasture set up. I hate to feed hay in the summer when there is grazing all over the property! I could put the steer in the pasture at night and tether during the day. I figure if I start him young he should be used to it and not have much trouble? I read another post about using a long chain on the halter end to prevent tangling. Any other advice about tethering a steer? I hope to get a steer this spring if tethering during the day is a suitable option. Thanks!

Deanna

**gone-a-milkin** · #2 09/19/07, 09:30 AM

Sure you could tether him, esp. if you are home all day to keep an eye out. I have done this w/ lots of different animals thru the years, it is what inspired me to do PORTABLE electric fencing! Bad neighbor dogs... (which somehow disapeared now...hmm.)

You get really good at guessing what that animal on a rope will get tangled in, and in more or less how much time. Had a wethered goat one time that broke all the spokes out of a bicycle wheel in under 10 minutes. Also, DH tied the pony where her rope caught the water spigot....free shower for shetland and also washed the kitchen windows. Hee, hee.

That said, I still tether animals around the place. Just not too close to anything valuable, delicious, or AT ALL breakable. They will knock over your woodpile, bump a trailerhitch loose, step on your salvaged windows, maybe lick the battery inside of an open carhood. Oh yes, a favorite of DH's was when a little bully calf ate the wiring off the rototiller. Otherwise, cows make great lawnmowers!

Happyhomemama · #3 09/19/07, 10:38 AM

Yeah, I have had animals long enough to see all that happening, lol. But I have lots of wide open pasture with no obstructions great pasture just missing a fence, lol. I thought about portable fencing but I am shooting for something a lot cheaper for the time being.

Another question. What could I use as an anchor, I would like something easier to move than a t-post.(by me not the steer :baby04: ) I was thinking maybe a tractor tire, we could move that with the tractor but I was hoping for something I could move under my own power.

5webbkids · #4 09/19/07, 11:32 AM

A used car axle, it's easy to install and remove and hard to pull over by the animal. A crow bar will pry it out of the ground with ease and a few whacks with a sledge will drive it in. You could use a cinderblock or 3, easy to move, but the steer might get ideas and move them himself.....you'd be amazed what a critter can drag when they want to eat the pansies! LOL

**gone-a-milkin** · #5 09/19/07, 07:25 PM

My yard was full of a series of t-posts for a while.. Then I got a t-post jack. One of my favorite tools.

Happyhomemama · #6 09/19/07, 09:36 PM

t-post jack sounds like what I need. Didn't know there was such a thing.

Thanks!

mtnmenagerie · #7 09/19/07, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gone-a-milkin

My yard was full of a series of t-posts for a while..

lol... and i thought i was the only one

our yard looks like the plinko board off of "Price Is Right".
we've had our dairy-girl tethered all summer long with no problem. a little nerve-racking when she was first learning, though!!

Up North · #8 09/19/07, 11:44 PM

[QUOTE=Happyhomemama What could I use as an anchor, I would like something easier to move than a t-post.(by me not the steer :baby04: ) I was thinking maybe a tractor tire, we could move that with the tractor but I was hoping for something I could move under my own power[/QUOTE]

You could move tractor ( or an old truck ) under your own power. Tether steer to drawbar. Start and drive forward to new grass once a day.

sammyd · #9 09/20/07, 06:14 AM

We have used screw in anchors like the kind sold for dogs which are a pain to screw in and out but easier than a t-post if you don't have t-post jack.
We use a series of strategically placed arbor vitea and apple trees and the rim and tire off an Allis WD which so far is keeping our yearling steer in place. I hook the cable to something else while I tip it up and roll it to a new spot.
The biggest thing is to look where you are tethering and remove anything they might get tangled in. Of course they will still wrap themselves around trees but a lot of times will figure out how to untangle by walking back around the tree.
Currently I have a 930 pound heifer and a yearling steer on tether and all I use is the largest dog cable from Fleet Farm which has a swivel on the end that helps keep the cable from twisting up.

francismilker · #10 09/20/07, 01:07 PM

I used to tether animals using an old car wheel and tire full of concrete. I tied a piece of cable through the center of the wheel and attached the tether line to the cable which enabled the steer to circle the wheel and graze 360 degrees around his anchor point. While it was full of concrete and he couldn't drag it as a calf, I could still tip it up and roll it to a new location. Once he got big enough to drag it around he was so used to living attached to it, he never tried to move on his own.

JulieLou42 · #11 09/20/07, 07:47 PM

I have a 50' - 1/4" steel cable attached to crowbars driven into the ground that I rotate about every four days to new grass. She's on a 25' heavy chain with a bull spring clip attached at the end to the cable. [She weighs about 1400lbs.]

I used to have her on a 70' tether on a t-post, but she kept getting that stuck at the base of the post, or the new rope that was part of her tether curled up so much last spring that it got to where she couldn't reach her water tub, so I switched to the steel cable and crowbars. I used to have four t-posts out there in the grass, each two tether lengths apart so there was no overlapping on eaten grass and no tangling up either. [BTW, those 16 gal. water tubs need to be boxed up in a 2x4 frame so that the animal doesn't push the tub over! And, you'll need to move those, too, along with the tether set-up.]

She was funny to watch with it at first because she thought she could still graze in circles, rather than long ovals. She figured it out in a few days, tho'.

farmmaid · #12 09/20/07, 09:14 PM

We just got a Jersey calf. Next spring hubby is making a "steer tractor" for him. We have an old 4WD pickup that he is going to hook a corral, made of wire and lumber, to. He will put it on wheels, cover a section from the tailgate to the back of the corral. Hook the water pail to the truck and away all go everyday to a fresh spot. The truck is just sitting by the barn and this way we can hop right in it, move the steer to fresh eating...Joan