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Like some of you said it is in the way you go about the deal of working cattle. Ours get looked at every 7-14 days on grass and of course fed and checked 2-3 times
daily during calving. We can use horse or 4 wheeler or pickup and they really don't care. The 1st calf heifers get walked thru some and are use to spot lite and barely move. We have gotten cows that were a bit on the rangey side and calmed them down by feeding cake from the 4 wheeler or pickup a couple times a week. Of course there will always be a few that are going to be on guard. But the calmer you stay - the calmer the cattle will stay.
 
John SD said:
Faster horses said:
Soapweed, that is so cool!!! Those cattle aren't threatened at all, and that is as it should be.

Our hat is off to you and your outfit for the way you work cows!!!!!! I'm glad you posted the pictures because I am sure there will be some that cannot believe it is possible for cows to lay around when being worked.

Awesome!!
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FH, I hope no one discovers that I'm like Soapweeds cows. It's definitely possible I might be laying around when I should be working! :oops: :twisted: :D :lol:
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With the right kind of cows you can do that..

I used to rent pasture 52 miles from home sometimes it would be 3 week's between visit's.When my cows are on pasture they get checked once a week that's plenty I see them everyday in the winter but useally from a tractor seat and their plenty calm as I always say (I am not running a Day Care)Animal's have been taking care of them selves for many years they don't need us as much as we think.My cow's are wild when strangers are presnt but I look at it this way it would take a good Cowboy to steal them.I rented a pasture from a gal and her brother run's some cows he was visiting her and walked out to look at my cows he told me those were the wildest cows he's ever seen tail's in the air headed for the brush.

I hand feed my heifers all winter after weaning they become very calm and it seems to hold over for years.

Boughten cows on the otherhand tend to be the problem cows but not all some are home raised and rank.I don't mind wild cows keep's it western.If I wanted pet's I would milk cows.
 
On our outfit, we don't want any dust for scared or wild cattle.

We aren't in our cows on foot, except maybe during calving, but it is unlikely even then. We have a night calver that rides horseback through the heifers and Jack rides through them daily. He keeps a horse up saddled in the barn. We sort pairs horseback. If you walked in our cows, they might be uneasy, but they wouldn't throw their tails over their back and run. When we work them and are in the pens and alleys on foot, it is never a problem. But then, we never yell at them, whip them, chase them in any fashion. They work calmly and efficiently and for the most part, silently.

Our heifers are usually weaned and fed at home. We winter them on just hay and mineral. Sometimes, depending on the quality of the hay, we give them Vigortone's Forage Pro in troughs. So that would be the extent of walking through them all winter. We put them in a feedlot one year and there wasn't enough bunk space. There were some red cattle (not red angus) in with them. When you walked down to look at them, the red cattle took off. Our calves just stood and looked at you. Interesting that the red cattle didn't do nearly as well as our calves. The only thing different was the reds were very spooky and left everytime someone came along. I think, being spooky, they didn't get to eat like our calves did, and being sort of bunk space didn't help.

So, it is my opinion that it is not how much you handle your cattle, but HOW they are handled that has a big bearing on disposition.

Right now, in all our heifer calves, we have one wild heifer and she is in the sale pen. She won't get any better and she is liable to get worse.
 
Just wanted to clarify that I like cows that are gentle with good dispositions, but I don't like pets. A hired hand that worked here several years ago made slobbering drooling pets out of a few of the cows. They were a genuine nuisance. I want cows to recognize "my space" and stay out of it. I will respect them with the same courtesy. As far as feeding a cow cake or an ear of corn direct from a person's hand and scratching them, that is what ruins them.

On the other side of the coin, we bought some high quality young Angus cows a year ago. They are farmer-raised, four-wheeler specials, and wild as hoot owls. They are a complete aggravation, and at all times need to be handled with kid gloves. Right now, I am debating about sorting them in with the rest of the heavies that we corral at night and watch close. I'm afraid one of these rank ol' gals could not only tear up a box stall, but disrupt the whole barn.

Disposition is worth a lot. The less hassle the cattle cause, the more pounds you can sell.
 
Most of ours are good to handle. We have a few that get ugly after they calve. Last year ole #27 threw me about 15 ft with her head when I discovered she had calved. Sure got the andrenaline pumping!!! :shock: The ones we have to watch a bit are the roughstock cows, they get pretty reved up!!! We check on ours about 10-15 times a day right now in calving time.
 
Soapweed: I noticed in your pictures that you must have pretty tame heifers they way they were all penned up in the barn with panels. I agree with you that you don't want pets. Those that jump the panels and tear the calving barn apart are not worth owning. Just my opinion but I think that is the Angus breeds biggest detriment currently.
 
I have gone over board with my current cattle. When I got them last year it took the man I got them from three months to get them to me in groups of 2 or 3 as they could not be handled. If a person on foot entered the pasture they would charge and bellow and paw the ground at the gate daring you to enter.

I got them cheap as a result and started with sweet feed - - it took me three weeks to get the first group of three to come looking for feed and not a fight, as more came things started getting better and I was able to handle them a little at calving, but with great caution.

I am pampering them more than any cattle I have ever owned in an effort to over come years of in approprate care. I still do not trust them but I can take care of them. I feel the changing of pastures every two or three days last summer helped more than anything. I did it on foot and they got used to following me to new grass. Will they ever be pets? No but they no longer look at me in a kill or be killed way.
 
During the night, I was requested to go help the night-calver with delivery of a heifer. We have about 225 cows and heifers in the night lot, and as I walked up through them, it was again easy to appreciate their great dispositions. They were mostly all laying down, and it has always been my object under such circumstances, to walk through them with as few as possible getting up because of me. Life is just a whole lot easier with gentle cattle.
 
We're having a tremdendous problem with 30 or 40 of the "black headed Mexican" buzzards attacking new born calves and mamas in labor. I have to ride out two or three times a day with a shotgun to run them off. Those things are impossible kill! Nothing like the old "Red Head" Turkey Vulture.
 
I got about 48 calves I need to send to some guys that do "Ranch Sorting". I never been around it, but they say lots less stress than Team Penning. Much Smaller pen for starters.....


I was reading this and wondering if these calves i am sending might be too gentle. They are bunk roke and been used by a cutting horse guy. You can walk through them pretty easy.

I get free pasture in return for the use of the calves. I have found it seems like a little excersie and break in the monotony seems to make these calves gain better than those that lay around most of the day,


PPRM
 
We are out amongst our cattle fairly often, but usually horseback. Here are some pictures from last fall when we were sorting steer calves for size, and pairing them out with their mothers. It is good gentling therapy for the cattle. They got bored with the cowboys, and many of them just layed down. As chief sorter, I had to keep getting them up to see how big they were.
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Soapweed, I can see that you have very gentle cattle that are comfortable with you in their space. However, being the cynic that I am :wink: , how do you make pairs in this situation, without eartags?

In a roundup, or rodear, situation this would be very aggrivating if you were trying to make pairs. This is about when we ride home and call it a day. lol

I'm back huh? :lol:

A neighbor of Liberty Belle's sexes most of his pairs in one big herd in the fall. He holds them along a fence line loosely and from what I have heard there is always from 6-8 pairs leaving the herd at any given moment. They sort around 700 this way in a few hours, and not a calf has a tag in it's ear.
 
Tap said:
We are out amongst our cattle fairly often, but usually horseback. Here are some pictures from last fall when we were sorting steer calves for size, and pairing them out with their mothers. It is good gentling therapy for the cattle. They got bored with the cowboys, and many of them just layed down. As chief sorter, I had to keep getting them up to see how big they were.
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Soapweed, I can see that you have very gentle cattle that are comfortable with you in their space. However, being the cynic that I am :wink: , how do you make pairs in this situation, without eartags?

In a roundup, or rodear, situation this would be very aggrivating if you were trying to make pairs. This is about when we ride home and call it a day. lol

I'm back huh? :lol:

A neighbor of Liberty Belle's sexes most of his pairs in one big herd in the fall. He holds them along a fence line loosely and from what I have heard there is always from 6-8 pairs leaving the herd at any given moment. They sort around 700 this way in a few hours, and not a calf has a tag in it's ear.
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Some days work better than others. Sometimes nothing matches up, and then an hour later everything matches up. Persistence is usually the key. :wink:
 
:) During calving the cows are walked through every two hours at night when put in the night lot. During the day they are driven or riden through as the day calving pasture is much larger.

During the summer the cows are out at summer pasture and only see us when we deliver salt, mineral, and check windmills usually once a week.

I tend to disagree on cows can be to gentle as our older cows know weening season and have gotten so they really bulk coming into the corrals however my mother is out in them a lot with a bucket of cake all year long. When some of the best cowboys in the Sandhills couldn't get them to quit just running away my mother with a cake bucket lead them right through the gate. Made my father put his thinking away that having them be pets was a bad thing. :wink:
 
PPRM we've hosted some ranch sortings and have used our replacement heifers. They are bunk broke and used to being walked through and horses. Some even eat cake out of our hand and haven't had the problem of them being to gentle. For my father to use them in such an entertainment way that right there says it can't be hard on the heifers.
 

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