Hauling Cattle and a Problem

We haul beef cattle to the sales barn, and find a problem.
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[@billwhitman1529]

I think we all have used some kind of machinery to push cows. It's the real world. The cow weighs 1,000 or more and we weigh 200. Wonder who wins?

[@chelseat6108]

People are always going to give unsolicited advice but honestly those who have never loaded cattle really shouldn't offer up their opinion. Until you've been run down, rushed over a fence by a pissed off mama or had the crap kicked out of you, you opinion means nothing. I've had more cattle inflicted injuries than I can count and am always an advocate for the easier or safer loading route. Especially with pasture beef cows that often times aren't handled as much. Keep up the good work btw, just found your channel and love that y'all are showing the real and honest side of farming.

[@dimduk]

Using the skid steer is a good idea, safer for you and the cattle respect it.

[@davidepool5884]

Using farm equipment will help keep the cattle from hurting themselves and somebody. Some cows can be very dangerous. You have some fine looking healthy cattle.

[@chorton38305]

One thing you can count on on KZbin is no matter what the subject, you get a lot of unsolicited, and most often ignorant, advice and criticism. I love how often their "expert" opinion is based on another KZbinr's video. Of course, they actually have no expertise either.

[@markierice1599]

craig horton njjjjmmjjn

[@Trevor-ee5st]

I'm wandering how that auger system worked at the end when you were feeding for putting feed into the feed bunks. Do you have a video on feeding with that in it?

[@rogerholloway8498]

Good show guys! Thanks for the "afternoon" highlight of the day!

[@RodHays]

I hear cattle prices are down like corn and beans. Looks to me you need at lest 1000 acres or more just to get by anymore in farming.

[@dansneyd4646]

We use a big square bale on the front of our telehandler. works a treat!

[@larrystockwell8994]

They weren't bad at all. A load of pigs can be so much more fun. The important thing is not to hurry them on ice, and that is the way farms work. good job.

[@evronc.8235]

I love all your vids I love seeing what goes on other peoples farms

[@dankalisz3235]

You may wish to read the Works of Dr. Temple Gaudin from the Wyoming State University on Cattle Handling... Now I am a firm believer of doing what ever works but if you are concerned check out her works..she even has some stuff on KZbin...you are pretty much doing what she describes as the best method however if anyone were to bitch she is the acknowledged expert for the Country .....Personally I think you'll did great in that weather...

[@chargermopar]

Being in Florida we just do not get cold weather anymore. Being swarmed with mosquitoes in January is something you do not have there.

[@DeathNova77550]

Hello, I've been watching your videos for a little while now and I am wondering can you make a decent living on being just a cattle farmer? Like the slaughtering of cows and pigs only. I know very little about farming and I have always been fascinated with it. Its a big dream of mine to eventually own a cattle farm, so any advice you could give to me would be great. Thanks I really appreciate it.

[@HowFarmsWork]

If you raise enough, you could do it. Many people do these days.

[@DeathNova77550]

Is it better to raise them, or would it be more profitable to just buy them and raise them for like a few months and then slaughter them? Also how many acres do you think I would need for something like this?

[@lukestrawwalker]

There's basically facets to the cattle business... there's the cow/calf operators, who basically maintain a breeding herd of cows and a few bulls for the purpose of having calves, raising them to about 500 lbs or so, and sending them to the sale barn, to be sold to "backgrounders", the second link in the supply chain. The backgrounder buys these calves at about 500-700 lbs and then puts them on wheat or other small grains pasture to grow them up over 1000 lbs, and then they re-sell them to the finisher or feedlot, which fattens them up in a feedlot for final slaughter and processing for meat. That's the classical description of how the cattle "system" works, and it's become a lot more differentiated and "specialized" or niche in the last few decades... there's some guys doing "pasture to plate" type grass fed or organic operations, "retained ownership" of calves through the backgrounding and feedlot steps and being paid out in the end, less expenses and profit for the backgrounder and feedlot of course, and so on... There's also a lot of pressure to "chickenize" the beef industry, especially the backgrounding segment of the industry. The feedlot side of it has basically been taken over by the mega-feeders and big corporate agribiz for all intents and purposes for a LONG time now... you don't need as much land when you can stick 100,000 cattle together in a feedlot and grind semi-loads of corn and hay a day to feed them out to slaughter weight. Backgrounding cattle on wheat or small grains is still a valuable part of the equation, however, and then you get a grain crop to harvest as well, since you pull the cattle off to let the grain grow out and mature. Not a LOT of money in it, but some. If they could figure out a way to produce calves profitably in a confined space, they would have already "chickenized" the beef cattle industry... it STILL takes a lot of land to raise those mama cows and a few herd bulls to impregnate them, and to raise those calves to sale size... It's not like chickens where you CAN put thousands of layers in a building and have eggs rolling out one end on a conveyor belt, or hogs where you can have hundreds to thousands in a single building... and of course hogs have litters of pigs, where cattle typically just have a single calf (or rarely twins) in a 9 month pregnancy. This has been the main impediment to the "industrialization" of the beef cattle industry. Dairying is something else altogether, and a lot more 'vertically integrated' as more of an "industrial process' since getting maximum milk production from a herd is highly dependent upon feeding large quantities of extremely high quality feed (alfalfa silage, ground corn, and other supplements, whereas beef cattle can make do on dry hay and a little supplement, at least on the cow-calf end of the spectrum), which is typically handled as "commodities" in and of themselves, rather than allowing the dairy cattle to graze "free range" as it were-- IOW most of their food is brought to them and the manure hauled away, more similar to the chicken and pork industries than the cow/calf pastured operations. How MUCH land you need for a cow/calf operation greatly depends on your area and climate, as well... in eastern Texas and large areas of the South, with improved pastures you can run a cow to the acre, or close to it-- more with intensively managed grazing methods like mob grazing or rotational grazing, etc. Even with a more "relaxed", low-intensity management strategy, in our area we can run 2 acres per cow without having to worry too much about drought... the higher the stocking density, the more closely you have to manage your land and your herd for maximum productivity, and the more sensitive to weather events your operation becomes... Of course in some areas of West Texas, the land is SO poor and barren that it's almost a "section per cow" (640 acres) for the cow to find enough to eat to keep herself alive... LOL:) Well, maybe not quite THAT bad, but not just terribly far from it, either... That's the main reason we switched from growing row crops to all cow/calf in the early 2000's... we had been running beef cows on our 160 acres at Shiner for decades-- the climate there is just dry enough that with the sandy hilly soil, row cropping is a high-risk situation... one year you might make good crops, the next year a bust, and about a 50-50 proposition as to which it will be, at best. Grandpa bought that place in 1958 and nearly lost it trying to grow cotton for a few years, so they switched to hay production and he and Dad paid for the farm, then started building a beef cow herd. Last row crops we planted there was some sorghum in the mid-70's... Our other farm at Needville, 87 acres, had been mostly cotton, rotated occasionally with corn, grain sorghum, and soybeans from time to time, with 14 acres of pasture/hay for a few beef cows. With the run up in fertilizer, seed, fuel, and other input prices in the 90's, while crop prices have, for the most part, remained flat (Grandpa got 70 cents a pound for cotton in the 50's, Dad got 70 cents a pound for cotton in the 70's, and I was still getting 70 cents a pound for cotton in the 90's... and it's still about 70 cents a pound today!) It didn't take a rocket scientist to see that continuing to row crop was a losing proposition... especially if you don't want to expand and start borrowing money for bigger equipment and trying to rent a ton more ground to amortize expenses (get bigger or get out mentality). It also didn't take a lot to figure out we were making about as much money, sometimes more, on the cattle operation at Shiner, which took maybe 10% as much operating capital and maybe 25% of the labor, compared to row cropping, which took MOST of the capital and probably 3/4 of the labor we put in for the year... so the cattle were paying a LOT better for the time and effort and money invested. SO, we parked all the machinery and switched the entire operation over to cattle-- took a few years to build the herd, but it's been running smoothly since. Our input costs are now probably 25% or less of what they were with row cropping, and our labor is probably about the same... SO much easier than constantly fixing machinery and trying to get in the field to do soil prep, plant, spray, cultivate, harvest, etc... Biggest fuel and machinery and time cost now is cutting and baling and hauling hay, but we can do that for a fraction of the cost of buying hay or hiring it done. Later! OL J R :)

[@decnijfkris3706]

you're right man using the bobcat to drive them in. a cow can't be steered if she is not in hand. dangerous business. Beautiful cows just like T-BONE STEAK. we used those salty lickstones too. like to see you working man !

[@MrZgredy]

Beautiful flock. A lot of you have cattle ? Greetings from Poland MrZgredy :)

[@NEWWCHANNELBOB]

hey mate its a herd of cattle not a flock that's sheep u must not be a farmer u shud no it anyway

[@DannyRice01]

+NEWW CHANNEL BOB triggered

[@dansneyd4646]

taledarkside I've met plenty of American trolls. I think they're everywhere

[@dansneyd4646]

Ha you've just proved my point

[@dansneyd4646]

taledarkside the fact trolls come from everywhere. Also, do you really think British and Australian people are jealous of Americans? it sounds to me like you're the one with an inferiority complex

[@midnighttrainbullieskennel]

We are going in to cow what breed would you think is better to start out with

[@jaredmackelmann6559]

He used the bob cat probably cause there spokey and will hurt someone so it is safer in the bobcat then on the ground

[@DesertDigger1]

Thanks guys for all you do so I can enjoy my rib-eye steaks!

[@joetiller1031]

I don't see nothing wrong with you way of loading cattle I know all about them tree huggers they think steak grows in supermarket I load cattle the other way and had some close calls one time loading bull he came back out of trailer I was in the narrow shoot he got past me somehow no injury to me except my drawers.

[@outdoorswithlarryrobin]

nice way to load into the trailer, safe for you and the cow, we use a prefert sweep and alley way thru a Mr Squeeze chute, this way I can load them by myself

[@ericsievers233]

I enjoy working cattle, not because there smart, pretty or cause its easy or safe. I do it because they taste so good.

[@DarRyan123]

nice looking heilfers what u feeding them. that cold weather is great for keeping down dieses and they eat more to ta keep warm. its a herd of cattle not a flock to the person who said that. sheep are called a flock.

[@Molb0rg]

wow that truck is impressive - 9 cow load, wow.

[@aceace517]

see a new puppy when you are fixing the watering trot whats the new dogs name and where did it come from?

[@BIRDCHRIS1]

Sale barn quiet up there. How many head go through per week?

[@owensimmons1303]

That's not that bad my family uses a hotshot for cows that won't load up

[@justincase2830]

My frozen crystal ball says get a new cattle watering system I don't know how long the cattle were out of water before they were sold .If sold on grade and yield not as important as live priced where a little water weight is a nice enhancement.

[@lindentr3374]

+keith sorensen I know what you mean, in west Australia the saleyards wont let you feed or water your cattle for about 24 hours so the pens stay clean.

[@davidbrenneman9447]

The best thing for me, not on the farm anymore, is the COLD

[@nikkiwhitaker4891]

running bobcat helps break ice so done slip as easy

[@SwedishGunMate]

What kind of breed is your cattle? :D

[@tractors1975]

looks like Bloomington sale barn

[@OldesouthFarm]

Love ya's being able to fix anything. Have to fix everything that goes wrong. Those cows were looking for water.

[@waterskiingfool]

At least the water issue didn't break any lines

[@collintracy7694]

How many cattle does your family own?

[@australianfarming647]

What breed of cattle do you run? I'm from Australia and breed cattle so I was just wondering. Also what prices would you get for a beast that size over in the US

[@onyar5107]

the blacks a Angus the rest look like charlois cattle mixed bred ones anyways

[@phillippeterman1051]

Well, don't look at them cross-eyed.

[@iowafarmer5370]

was that at the Bloomington salesbarn

[@herdingcats3850]

Good for youall to tell it like it is.

[@jeremyfreeman6108]

what are cattle bringing on wis

[@BlajDodo]

what breed where the black ones?

[@jeffwilliams5010]

Where do you sell the cattle?

[@masonfrieling6581]

why did you sell the 4440 ?

[@Cherryfarmboy60]

That feeder is awesome, shows how you guys can make anything work... A farmer is the jack of all trades lol. Cattle prices around here have really dipped, then come back a little but the guys who over paid on feeders last year are starting to feel the effect. I hope you guys didn't take to big of a hit.

[@DannyRice01]

Across the pond here we use three foot lengths of alkathene piping, it's flexible but firm enough if you need it...

[@jhodnett2]

Curious what criteria you used for choosing for sale barn?

[@HowFarmsWork]

+jhodnett2 It's the closest sales barn to us. Some others from our area have to drive 4 hours round trip but ours is half that.

[@bethaddis3696]

boy those bovine looked delicious. would have love one of them in my freezer. great job. btw I loved the grain feeding system you have. I may have to copy it.

[@Futurebeefcake]

Thanks for the explanation on how you move the cattle, most channels are pretty good about handeling cattle, I help my uncle move cattle and you have to be forceful but not to forceful. Some people are just to crazy. I love your content.

[@melnyg82]

I think you re amazing . hope your all well . please keep in touch. you would make a women very happy. good luck with life on the farm and god bless too you all x

[@kaylabillups3634]

My 73 year old gramps hauls cattle everyday still from about 4 or 5 farms each day and doesn't use machines even after being pinned and hunch backed from being pinned by a bull 🙈 I didn't even know people used machines that makes it a bit safer I suppose

[@HowFarmsWork]

+Kayla Billups If you handle them more, it gets easier as they get used to it. Most of these had little experience with being moved.

[@kaylabillups3634]

That makes sense. He just hauls cattle to auctions Love the videos!

[@debackerfamilylivestock4680]

Where them the calves you guys bought last winter?

[@HowFarmsWork]

+DeBacker Family Livestock These are that group.

[@minnesotafishermen663]

How Farms Work yo I am so farmer

[@kwoodward1209]

like it

[@mandykal]

New to your channel... Who's Travis? Worker, brother?

[@yippiegal]

Wow, you have some nice, well rounded cows! I see you guys put a lot of effort in your cattle, great work

[@alexlavia2834]

where those beef cows

[@ashleyw7588]

Thank you showing, I love to learn on how farmers work speicaly with cattle I want to be a stable hand and,maybe work up to moving cattle one these days

[@shanelamell2229]

Lol you tack too much and did not show us the cows being loaded . Thanks for sharing and have a good night.

[@Futurebeefcake]

It's kind of funny watching cattle on ice. I'm curious,does the sale barn give you more money for fatter cows? Is it the weight or the number of cows depend on how much money you get?

[@slipperyskittle5889]

Chase It's actually a combination of the two. If you have lots of big fat cows you make more, but you will have more expenses in you feed bill.

[@lukestrawwalker]

Cattle are sold "by the pound"... IOW, you get whatever the auctioneer gets the bids up to "by the pound"... (for the most part-- sometimes there are exceptions to the rule, where cattle are sold for "so much per head", but usually that's "canners" or low-quality cattle). SO, if they can get the buyers to bid up to say, $1.25 a pound, a 1000 lb cow would bring $1,250... Later! OL J R :)

[@arthurdesantis7097]

I have a farm to .

[@adamd6404]

I told my friends about u, I got picked on for being interested in ur vids. They don't get the hard work u guys put in to this

[@larrybg9293]

Good stuff

[@TheFutureFarmer]

Looks like your steel cattle trailer is handling the snow and salt well. How old is it?

[@TwoHappyChildrenFarm]

well done. Loved the pace you sort and load.

[@patricktaylor6299]

hi from Canada id like to say I like your videos and nice to see young men farming thanks

[@rodneyerdmann1545]

One concern with water heaters with cattle is that you have to worry about electrocution. From what I understand is that cattle can't stand much of a shock!

[@ih1206]

You are correct. Cattle are very sensitive to electricity. We had some grounding issues in one of our barns. When we would turn on the feed auger, they would jump if they were near the electric panel.

[@virginiajackson4457]

+ih1206 then.they tutn crazy

[@waqarjhatial5416]

nice video

[@suziesomerville2636]

What the hell why do you need a skid steer why not do it on foot

[@stickywicket3019]

If you use a skid steer you can get kicked at all

[@dodgegaming5041]

Most farmers use cattle stick or hand so this isn't how farms work

[@connorveal8285]

Hey do you know of a good breed that has both good milk and good meat?

[@Tbear37144]

Comment

[@jimlisterman2138]

MODERN TECHNOLOGY @ WORK (Using Bobcat) ! Cattle realize they are Hamburger Helper ???

[@lukestrawwalker]

Nope, just like roaming around a feedlot and eating hay and corn and loafing around than being sorted and loaded... All cattle are that way. These cattle handled easier than they do on most cow/calf operations, where they're out on pasture most of the time and handled much less, and around people a lot less... Like people, they don't like unfamiliar situations and tend to react with fear and do stupid things. Unlike people, they're not 'intelligent' (sentient) and don't have a clue they're "hamburger helper" LOL:) Later! OL J R :)

[@jackmasini2173]

I learn so much from your videos, keep up the good work!

[@evangregory9299]

We have all of our brood cow's and feeder steers holter broke

[@equalityrights5884]

Thanks for taking the time to show is how this ranch directs, loads and hauls cattle. It was very informative and admittedly surprisingly interesting. A few comments and questions: I noticed that some of the cattle lost their footing on the ice in the pen. I noticed that another pen used hay to cover the ice which visibly made the task easier for the cattle. This seems like a safety concern not only for the cattle but for the workers. A large moving object heading towards a human without proper steering or breaking seems like a risk. Just wondering if the hay in the other pen was for that purpose? Also, nice work on the finding the problem with the electrical heating element for the water. Popsicles seems slightly out of season for those bovines. Any thoughts on bison ranching?

[@lukestrawwalker]

Bison ranching-- better have pens capable of containing a charging army tank... those things will break out of darn near ANYTHING when they get a mind to... working bison is very difficult and dangerous from what I've heard... they simply aren't "domesticated" and don't respond to people like cattle do... IOW they're "wild animals" and behave like it, and they don't change much with handling or whatever... Later! OL J R :)

[@pjweir9220]

what new dogs name

[@HowFarmsWork]

+PJ Weir It's actually Markus lol

[@HergenriderCattle]

Those all look like pretty damn nice cattle!

[@keithbrettell2058]

How often do you buy/sell your cattle?

[@irisheyes9102]

Good video. Can you send me a Puppy?

[@calebshirkey9589]

Why do you own cattle if you are going to be scared of them.

[@HowFarmsWork]

+Caleb Shirkey kzbin.info/www/bejne/iWKpZ6BtfLaNndE

[@bryanhauschild4376]

So you can have a hamburger.

[@shawntate2149]

does the feedlot buy by the pound?

[@bryang9095]

O yes winter time in Wisconsin!!!

[@colegalyon352]

What are y'all feeding

[@wjh4536]

poor cattle they seem scared sure hope you guys know what you're doing

[@lukestrawwalker]

Cattle are animals, and their first instinct in unfamiliar or different situations is fear... They're also herd animals, and they don't like to be separated off by themselves or singled out... and what ONE does, they ALL want to emulate... (IOW, if ONE gets "spooked", they ALL tend to think THEY should get spooked too! Why we cull flighty or spooky cattle that are easily startled and tend to overreact... if they see others in the herd relaxing and being easy to handle, they tend to relax as well). These guys know what they're doing. That's about the easiest sorting and loading exercise I've seen in a good while. No harm done to the cattle, no harm done to the cattlemen... all in a good day's work! Later! OL J R :)

[@КаринаМарусич-с6ф]

ег

[@Kevin-is-here]

Makes me hungry

[@reggiefleming7712]

wow what a good life.

[@dankruger2890]

Good looking stock

[@1redneck265]

we use our tractor

[@blops16]

Good job.

[@johnkeenan929]

favorite breed of cow

[@johnkeenan929]

favorite breed of cow