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Cattle rustling remains problem

HAY MAKER

Well-known member
Cattle rustling remains problem despite Missouri task force
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP)--Cattle rustling seems to have declined slightly but is still a problem in Missouri two years after Gov. Matt Blunt created a task force to deal with the issue, Blunt told a meeting of ranchers April 8.

Cattle experts say a trailer-full of stolen calves can fetch $12,000. A single 500-pound calf can sell for $600.

Blunt did not provide numbers for total thefts, but he said indications were that rustling has decreased. He said the hardest hit areas have been in southwest and south-central Missouri.

Missouri is the nation's second-leading beef cattle state, behind Texas.

Blunt said the task force of state and local law enforcement has led to 26 arrests and the recovery of 126 cattle since it was created in February 2006.

The task force coordinates efforts between the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the Missouri State Water Patrol and sheriff's departments in Cooper, Miller, Polk, Greene, Christian and Pulaski counties. It also includes a state crime database, the Missouri Information Analysis Center.

Task force investigator Steve Crain said the total number of thefts is down a little, but the problem continues. He also told ranchers that law enforcement needs their help to combat rustling.

Ranchers should vary their routine for feeding and checking on cattle so that would-be thieves can't easily estimate when a pasture will be unattended, Crain said.

He urged farmers to report suspicious activity to local law enforcement.

"We cannot do it, folks, without you. You have to be the eyes and the ears," he said.

Crain also warned ranchers against taking the law into their own hands if they catch rustlers at work.

"You don't want to let things get out of hand. From the day you were all little, you've all been taught not to take another life. You better think long and hard before you shove that thing (shotgun) in somebody's face."

In an audience of about two dozen ranchers, eight men raised their hands when the governor asked who had had cattle stolen.

Richard Jones, of Everton, said thieves took 17 of his cattle last year and 19 in January.

"I've worked with the task force, and they're good people and all. Sometimes I feel like they have so much workload that maybe they don't have as much to work on this as they maybe need," Jones told Blunt.

Jeff Windett, executive vice president of the Missouri Cattlemen's Association, said no one has firm numbers on cattle thefts in the state but that the problem is big.

"It's something of critical concern for us. It's a huge economic impact for those producers that have cattle stolen," Windett said.

The task force has been valuable because it speeds up investigations by sharing information among law enforcement agencies, Windett said.

4/21/08
 

4Diamond

Well-known member
Howdy ya'll new guy here and I happen to be from Missouri. We are not a brand state and we have had a major problem with rustling. With the accesability to most pastures and corrals it has become increasingly easy to steal livestock.
 

Triangle Bar

Well-known member
4Diamond, Welcome to Ranchers.

Just curious, since I'm from a brand state, how do you prove ownership of the cattle you are selling? or for that matter the ones out in your pasture?
 

4Diamond

Well-known member
There is no set way to prove anything. Most i.d. with a tagging system or tatoos but then again just as many don't. Kind of a trust a man at his word system. We need to become a brand state but there are so many "hobby" farmers here I just don't think it would pass.
 

rowel

Well-known member
i live in missouri also, anyways we do have branding laws, that do prove owner ship, but only if you have your brand registerd with the state, as i type i can see my brand certificate, on my wall,one thing i do need to do is get hold of the state dept of agriculture and find out what all has to be done when i buy cattle that are allready branded ,i.e. does a bill of sale count as rightfull transfer of ownership, do i need to get it noterized, do i need to rebrand and let the state know, also ive done web searches fro brand inspectors in missouri and as far as i can see, we dont have any, something that came to my mind after reading this is that we as missouri cattle men need to get our cattle assoc reps looking into the western branding states that have clear laws and try and get a program simalar to those laws, and then have it go through the state legislative process, and hopefully become law
 

HAY MAKER

Well-known member
In TX we register our brands in the counties we keep cattle,very rarely will we see a brand inspector at sales,pretty much like 4Diamond describes...............good luck
 

CattleArmy

Well-known member
Here cattle are brand inspected before they get on a truck for transport and also at the sale barns. Just transporting your own cattle on a trailer doesn't involve an inspector. However, cattle have been caught that weren't the sellers at the sale barns.
 

Carter

Well-known member
There are brand inspectors at the sales in Tx you just don't see them, kinda incognito. I hit around3-4 sales a week and I almost always see the brand inspector (but of course I know them) they have a sheet and make a rough sketch of the brand and licence plate of who sold them. Worked at a sale barn in college and watched the rangers cuff a guy who sold a stolen bull.
 

HAY MAKER

Well-known member
Carter said:
There are brand inspectors at the sales in Tx you just don't see them, kinda incognito. I hit around3-4 sales a week and I almost always see the brand inspector (but of course I know them) they have a sheet and make a rough sketch of the brand and licence plate of who sold them. Worked at a sale barn in college and watched the rangers cuff a guy who sold a stolen bull.

I know the folks at a few sales barns myself,and like I stated brand inspectors are rarely on site,and when they are they are usually in the cafe or the auction booth visitin,I dont know if you know this but,the brand inspectors are commissioned by southwestern cattle raisers assc. the ones I have had dealings with,left alot to be desired,matter of fact in the last ten years,they have never looked at a steer of mine.
good luck
 

I Luv Herfrds

Well-known member
Rustling is still a hanging offense in Montana.

As for brands they are registered with the state, not the counties; as big as Texas is I can see why they do it by county. Each brand is different.
As for buying an animal with a brand different from their own, we get a brand inspection and a bill of sale. If you don't have that, you don't own the animal in the eyes of the law.
We brand everything we buy or raise.

A friend of ours lost 10 of his best first year heifers due to a stcky fingered neighbor. He did get the money for them because the other guy couldn't prove he owned. Friend didn't press charges.
Another guy lost his brand new black Angus bull. Looked and called everybody he could think of, nobody saw the bull. The bull also turned up at a sale a few years later and they also got the money from him and found out who had hauled him too.
 

OldDog/NewTricks

Well-known member
Every Ranch (Large & Small) has a Registered Brand _ You can move livestock from pasture to Pasture in your area or to the Sale yard by filling out a “Trip Ticket” _ there are Brand Inspectors to check every Head at every Sale Yard

Private Sales _ Call a Brand Inspector to come by _ You can Move your livestock out side your Area (like a zip code) with Brand Inspection or Trip Ticket with From, Where To, Why

We also have New ID and Ranch ID laws

Does not apply to Horses

Every year the State puts out a Brand Book with all the brands
 
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