Loading Cattle Without a Corral?

DaziAcres · #1 11/21/13, 08:11 AM

Argghhhh...tried to load our 2 cows into the trailer this morning. We use management intensive grazing and hoped just making their paddock really small would get them in the trailer. Stoooopid idea. They wouldn't load and they just went under the wire after months of avoiding it like the plague.

We don't have a corral...do we need to build one or does anyone have a bright idea without this extra work for which we don't have time right now?

Thanks so much!

What. A. Fail.

Hexe · #2 11/21/13, 08:36 AM

I'm equipment challenged also, but when we have to load cattle we usually park the open trailer in the pasture a few days before "the big day" and start feeding livestock heroin, aka. sweetfeed once or twice a day IN the trailer.

This worked on all of our stock, except the bull.

Good luck.

unregistered41671 · #3 11/21/13, 08:47 AM

IMO anyone that plans on owning cattle needs a place to be able to capture and handle cattle for all the obvious reasons. It is very difficult to give cattle shots, etc without some type of restraining device. If nothing else, panels work in a pinch.

topside1 · #4 11/21/13, 08:51 AM

I've used Hexe's technique many times, sometimes you succeed and sometimes you fail. I recently built a loading chute to avoid failure. Topside

DaziAcres · #5 11/21/13, 09:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by topside1

I've used Hexe's technique many times, sometimes you succeed and sometimes you fail. I recently built a loading chute to avoid failure. Topside

Just googled Hexe's technique and came up with all sorts of spells and counter-spells. :-)

What is it?

DaziAcres · #6 11/21/13, 09:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hexe

I'm equipment challenged also, but when we have to load cattle we usually park the open trailer in the pasture a few days before "the big day" and start feeding livestock heroin, aka. sweetfeed once or twice a day IN the trailer.

This worked on all of our stock, except the bull.

Good luck.

That's what we did with our pigs and it worked like a charm. Guess we figured that the cattle, having been the easiest animals to deal with, would be good. Doh!

FarmerDavid · #7 11/21/13, 09:20 AM

Our local coop rents panels out for $1 per day. Love to have something more perminant but its a pretty cheep solution.

jwal10 · #8 11/21/13, 09:21 AM

Do you have any woven wire fence? What kind of trailer. I have backed a trailer up into the corner of a good woven wire fence and used the back door on the trailer as the crowd gate. You have to have something solid, a building, good fence, crowd panels, something. Another good reason to teach cattle to halter and them lead them around so they are used to being handled....James

FarmerDavid · #9 11/21/13, 09:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Possum Belly

IMO anyone that plans on owning cattle needs a place to be able to capture and handle cattle for all the obvious reasons. It is very difficult to give cattle shots, etc with some type of restraining device. If nothing else, panels work in a pinch.

While I agree my bank account unfortunately does not. My bank account is winning this argument at the moment.

G. Seddon · #10 11/21/13, 09:47 AM

Hexe's technique is in post #2, immediately following your opening post.

Training the cows to go into the trailer for grain or hay is one way to do this, although it might be a bit more difficult with two animals.

The other way is to get some corral panels and make a small pen, back up the trailer to this pen and feed them in there everyday. Corral panels can be purchased at Tractor Supply for as little as $80 each (10' long x 5' high). This is the low end. Unless your cows are crazy, they shouldn't demolish them. But you can't lock them in this small pen the first few times or they will panic and find a way to lift the panels and escape. You leave access open for a few times, then close it but stay by to open it as soon as they're done eating; once they reliably go into the trailer, you can shut the trailer doors. It may take a while to accomplish this, but patience and moving slowly and calmly are required.

Corral panels are useful for many things on a farm (to isolate a sick animal or cow/calf pair if necessary). They will probably never get cheaper.

DaziAcres · #11 11/21/13, 10:41 AM

LOVE these ideas, especially the co-op rental...I'll give them a call!

We're also going to try the Hexe method with some molasses on the hay...these guys love the molasses.

They're actually very calm, good cows...it's totally our failure which is TOTALLY frustrating. I hate failure.

agmantoo · #12 11/21/13, 12:22 PM

There is no need to do anything sophisticated if you have only a few cattle. Build a simple medina hinge. All that is required is a minimal amount of work using a couple of corral panels and a few wood posts. Here is a pic of what needs to be replicated.
http://www.grangercattleco.com/pics/medinahinge2.jpg Disregard all the fencing in the background. This apparatus will function for loading, as a medical chute and for treating for regular farm issues, (worming, hoof treatment, dehorning, castrating, etc.) .
I am confident a modified medina hinge design loading device would be a lot cheaper than medical bills for injury incurred from attempting to load. YouTube should have a video on how the hinge works

topside1 · #13 11/21/13, 05:48 PM

Cattle loading part 2 (pics)

I've since made a few more minor changes, you can do it if I can...Topside

COWS · #14 11/21/13, 07:11 PM

Ok, OP, you are in TN, the land of trees so building materials should be availiable. Cut some red cedar into posts 8 feet long. Scrounge some pallets. Surely locating pallets has been discussed on here, but briefly lots of businesses have pallets they will give you. Try to get oak pallets. Install posts at the desired place 6 feet apart in line, leaving a chute 24 or 30 inches wide. For the chute attach the pallets to a couple of strands of barbed wire. The pallet is not high enough so trim some cedar poles and fasten above the pallets, making a chute 6 1/2 feet high. Get some scrap lumber and make a short ramp for the cows to walk on to get up into the trailer, height depends on height of your trailer floor. Nail cross pieces of 1 x 4s on ramp so cows can get traction, spaced about a foot apart.

Ideally, chute should be long enough so that there is a slight turn in it so the cows don't see the end until they are suddenly at the trailer, or at least long enough so that they are in the chute and in a position to be blocked from turning around. If you have a stall for the cows, it is good to load them from the stall. Have an opening so that they can leave the stall and go into the chute. I get the impression you don't have them close to a stall, so you have to get them in a catch pen some way. Cows go into a pen because there is food, salt or water there.

Arrangements for closing the gate on the trailer depend on the type of gate. If it is one gate the full width of the trailer, things can be tricky and since I've never dealt with this I don't have any advice. I always built truck cattle bodies or cattle trailers with 2 gates so I could leave only one open. On one trailer I would swing the one gate inside the trailer, planning to drive the cows far enough on to reach in and shut the gate. I also had a divider gate that I could slam shut in the trailer, with a spring loaded gate. A sliding gate solves all these problems. Be sure the sliding gate is well oiled so it will slide easily, and that it has a good latch, or two.

Final note. Cows load easier from inside a building. They go toward the light, thinking they are getting out.

COWS

genebo · #15 11/21/13, 07:39 PM

Some of the funniest and most interesting stories come from trying to load cattle into a trailer without a full-fledged handling facility. Those of us who are not blessed with the finest equipment must learn to keep our sense of humor.

sammyd · #16 11/21/13, 07:53 PM

We have a gate right on the corner of a pasture it is hinged on the corner post. We back the trailer up next to the post that the gate latch is on and swing the gate open just enough to the chain it to the trailer.
We also chain an extra gate on the latch post.
The cattle are herded into the corner and as they come around have no choice but to go between the gates and into the trailer. Well, they do have other choices and the occasional animal will try something different but overall they make it into the trailer.

Hexe · #17 11/22/13, 07:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Possum Belly

IMO anyone that plans on owning cattle needs a place to be able to capture and handle cattle for all the obvious reasons. It is very difficult to give cattle shots, etc without some type of restraining device. If nothing else, panels work in a pinch.

Oh, I so totally agree, it makes life so much more pleasant.

Unfortunately I wasn't smart enough to start out that way - with one, very halterbroke cow. The learning curve was and is steep and I'm still learning.

In the meantime we are upgrading our facility and handling skills. I estimate that by the time we're fully equipped I will also be ready to get rid of all livestock to start retirement...