Cattle on highway

[cracker hand]

On the news this morning was a story that the Turnpike in south Florida was closed in both directions due to a cattle trailer overturning. This happened just north of Okeechobee near Yeehaw Junction. Several years ago I was buying some calves from the Hayman 7-11 Ranch in Keenansville right near there and the guys told me they get calls all the time to come round up cattle if they get on the turnpike. I suspect they got a call early this morning for some overtime. It was cold for Florida here this morning, probably in the upper 30's near the accident.

Do any of you get calls to round up cattle? Any interesting stories?

 

[4Diamond]

About a month ago got a call after dark that we had cattle on the road and some had been hit. Got lucky and they weren't ours but we wound up with 20 ppl "helping". It was a huge mess and a deputy came through at 60mph almost running a couple of us over. Long story short we got the cattle caught and the owner showed up after the fact.

 

[bverellen]

When I lived in S.W. Florida, we got calls all the time, mostly because our phone number was on our gates.

Most of the time, the cattle weren't ours .

Almost always, the cattle had wandered out because the fences were cut by people on ATV's and 4wd trucks wanting to either go fishing or play in the mud somewhere.

Some times the fences were cut by tree hugging PETA people who would then call the Sherriff's dept. or animal control and report the abusive ranching people. Usually the Sherriff Deputies knew EXACTLY who had placed the calls, but couldn't prove who cut the fence.

Florida agriculture folks have ALOT of problems from the ever increasing population moving in from big northeast cities who have absolutely no concept of what farming or ranching is about.

†

 

[Faster horses]

Friend of ours took a steer to the processing plant in Butte, Mt. The steer got away, ran
into streets in town. It was pretty wild, but they finally got him. Of course, LE was called in. Made the news on tv.

 

[Mike]

Kind of funny around here when someone hits a cow in the highway and the cow owner shows up at the wreck scene with a bill for the driver to pay for the animal.

The driver always gets irate and claims the cow owner should pay for his/her car. But that ain't the way it works here.

The driver is liable for the cow AND the car......................

 

[Jake]

Kind of funny around here when someone hits a cow in the highway and the cow owner shows up at the wreck scene with a bill for the driver to pay for the animal.

The driver always gets irate and claims the cow owner should pay for his/her car. But that ain't the way it works here.

The driver is liable for the cow AND the car......................

That's suppose to be how it works around here too. We were on the way home Saturday night and there was a #600 calf in the road. We luckily were going slow enough we went around it, we then saw lights in our rearview mirror so thought we should turn around and make sure they didn't hit it. Too late, high school kids who must have been flying smoked the thing.

 

[farmboy]

Had a calf get out and get hit on the road a few years ago, since South Dakota is an "open range" state, and we fence to keep out not to keep in, I was only liable for the calf and the vehicle owner was responsible for the car. The only difference is when you can prove negligence by the animals owner like if they are always out in the road and it is documented, then the vehicle owner would have a legal leg to stand on. We have two neighbors who constantly have animals out on the road, we just make a quick call to the county sheriff after we have chased them in, just to get it documented.

 

[Larrry]

There was a guy who had cattle out and the highway patrol called him. They told him to put them in. He said he couldn't as he'd been drinking and he was told to come on and put them in. He went and put them and was prompt;y issued a drunk driving ticket

 

[PureCountry]

When I was a brand inspector we would get calls for strays on roads and highways. If the cops called, it was usually just a matter of identifying a brand on a bloated carcass. If locals called, it was usually a rancher who was fed up with his neighbors cattle being out.

And in Alberta, if you're cattle are out and cause an accident, you can be charged.

 

[MO_cows]

About 10 miles up the highway there is a Longhorn herd, the guy has a bunch of them.

Driving home in the dark a couple weeks ago, something catches my eye and it's a big Longhorn standing on the shoulder of the road. Slow down, can't swerve because there is an oncoming car. Then I see the bull is standing right next to a black bovine that is laying down on the shoulder, and I see more eyes reflecting behind them. Some sorry SOB hit the cow and didn't call anybody. I'm guessing they were drinking or else had some kind of legal problem where they didn't want to talk to the HP. They just called a buddy to come pull their truck home and bailed out on the situation. I pulled over past the cattle and called it in. The next morning there was just the one dead cow there, so they got them back in before there was another accident. But what a piece of work to just leave that mess. Somebody in a small car could have been really hurt or killed, not to mention more cattle.