This afternoon I taught the new bulls how to trailer load. Of course they will load if they're in an alley, but I wanted to show them how to load without much help from the corrals. When I go to pull bulls out of the cows, sometimes the corrals are a long way away and so I've learned how to load bulls like this. This method doesn't work on all of them, but it sure can save time for the ones it does work on :wink: .
The Pupils
The Set-Up... I do this in my calving night-lot (please excuse the mess, I haven't cleaned corrals yet

). It is a large enough area to where the bulls can get away, but not large enough to where you get tired chasing them around.
The first "student" acknowledging the trailer.
I patrol the front of the pickup to turn them back towards the trailer. If they are really insistent on leaving, I apply pressure and take them away from the trailer with extra pressure. They soon figure out the trailer is a nice place to be :wink: . I'm still trying to figure out when to release pressure... I think that's the whole key behind this method, especially with mature bulls who may want to fight you or brush up.
Getting closer...
Ears forward and ready to load
One down, one to go...
The second bull was eager to load
Both loaded
Dan taking a short break before loading the bulls again. It was a fun project, and will hopefully make things easier when I take them out of the cows

. I don't always have access to fencelines or corners and so that's why I do this without using panels.
