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Operator Error?

Tap

Well-known member
Yesterday, I tagged a couple calves that belonged to our home raised two year old heifers. The 2's had numbers 481 and 487 on their tags, so I put a corresponding 81 and 87 on the calf tags. These heifers had calved the evening before, so I was going to kick them into a bigger pasture. They were penned right next to each other, so I tagged them and put them out together. After I put them out, I left them just outside the gate, and went on to other things. One pair headed over the hill, and one stayed back at the gate. I happened by the pair that stayed back, and saw that #487 was with calf 81. So I pushed them up to the other mis-mated pair, and I could see that #487 only wanted calf 81, and #481 seemed to be happy with calf 81 so I brought #487 and calf 87 back and locked her up together all night. She seemed content today, but calf 81 hadn't sucked and was wandering around out in the bigger pasture.

This is when I realized the folly of my ways, and figured that I had put the wrong tag in the calves. :oops: At least today both heifers seem to want their biological calf, and not the one I thought they ought to have.

Can't fool a cow, but I can fool myself. :shock: :lol:

And here I was cussing the heck out of "those stupid two year old heifers". :D
 

Tap

Well-known member
I forgot to add that while trying to get #487 away from her own calf, that she was adamantly trying to stay with, I turned my mount on some slick ground, and we both kissed our mother earth. Lucky neither of us were hurt, as that would have added insult to injury. :cry: :wink:
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Good thing your not a government bureaucrat Tap- they'd still be trying to figure it out- because the paperwork never lies.... :wink: :lol:

I do that quite often and just write my mistake down in the book- just drives my kid nuts when we're working cows and I tell him him 19 calf belongs to 92 cow or something like that... I guess I shouldn't complain about him wanting to do things right- and when he gets older he'll realize the old steel trap gets a little rusty....

One year I stuck all the calf tags in backwards ( the long hangy down part behind the ear- had the numbers written on both sides anyways) because I thought it was easier- really gave him something to moan and groan about.....
 

Soapweed

Well-known member
Tap, it's nice to know that others mess up also. It's a pretty lonely feeling when you think you're the only one that does things like that. A few years ago, I was in kind of a hurry and pulled into the local gas station. I filled both tanks on my diesel pickup, and went in to pay. I told the lady my gallons and what I owed. She said, "that can't be right." She then figured out I had put gasoline in my diesel pickup. The next couple hours were spent draining my tanks with a little slow-moving battery-operated siphon hose, and my "hurry" fell apart with a flurry.

Telling a neighbor about my boondoggle, he laughed and " 'fessed up" to a recent blunder. He had a bunch of hay piled together in a corner of his hay meadow. He spent most of the day building a four-wire fence to enclose it so he could turn cattle into the meadow, but decided to not build a gate that day and build it at a later time. He was all done with his fencing right at sundown, and was proud of his accomplishment. After loading all his tools to leave, it was then that he realized he'd fenced his pickup inside the gateless bale yard. :shock: :???: :? :wink: :)
 

Hanta Yo

Well-known member
YUP! Been there, done that. Filling up the tank of our ford diesel with GAS, talking to sw, he says, "why are you putting gas in MY PICKUP? Luckily, I hadn't put much in there, sw drained it out, everything is ok. I was just in the habit of filling my little silver truck which is gas, I don't drive the blue truck much anymore. I am REALLY CAREFUL when I go to the fuel tanks now, make sure I pick the right fuel! :!:

We've also blundered on tagging with the right number, more than once :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink: , also we tag the heifers in the left ear and steers/bulls in the right ear, guess how many "heifers" we have that are really bulls? A few. We'll take care of that when we run them through for their 2nd preconditioning shots.
 

Been There

Well-known member
I was running a branding iron at a neighbor's branding one time and we put the brand on the wrong hip of quite a few calves. The wrestling crew had them down on the wrong side and it took awhile for the folks that owned the calves to notice.
 

Jinglebob

Well-known member
And here I thot' I was the only screw up on these boards! :lol:

Did the branding the wrong trick thing once.

Cut one nut out of a bull that wasn't supposed to be made into a steer. The dad said to cut him, the son was mad! :mad: I told the son he still had one and being as he was a longhorn, he'd still be fine, but no, he made me go ahead and finish cutting him! :lol:

I ain't done the gas in the diesel........................... yet! :lol:

One spring we had all the cows in a small lot. Went out and here a heifer who was bred longhorn, had 1 red calf and 1 black calf. I thot' that was pretty cool. Took the extra calf and grafted it onto another cow. Had one cow with a huge bag and kept watching here for about a week, wondering if she ever was going to get around to calving. Finally when her bag started to go down and I couldn't find a missing calf, I realized that I had made a mistake and the heifer HADN'T had a pair of twins! :shock: :eek: :lol:

I did have a black cow several years later, have twins and one was red and one was black. I sure rode and looked along time to make sure they were both hers! :lol:
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
We have a C hanging C brand that goes on the right hip. Jack was branding by standing at the calves back. He put several brands on with the lower C behind (instead of in front and down) the top C.

When he discovered it, we asked the brand inspector what we should do and he said to put the brand on correctly. So those heifers have a C on top and 2 C's underneath. Talk about a mistake you have to live with!!!!

(Course I mention it every once in awhile just so he doesn't forget). :wink: Luckily they are about all gone now.
 

Soapweed

Well-known member
My son's brand is a rafter over a Y. Quite a few years ago, someone put the Y on upside down under the rafter on one heifer. That fall, we put the brand on correctly on the rib (the first brand was on the left hip). She just calved yesterday.
 

Tap

Well-known member
I've done the diesel in the gas thing (once was enough), and branded some calves wrong too. And one year at a neighbors as the owner was gathering up his branding irons, his brother, another neighbor, and I were waiting at the ranch corrals to brand a last little bunch of calves. The brother wanted to throw the calves and cut them so that much would be done before the owner got there. I by nature was cautious about it, and besides I didn't want to wrestle these calves twice, but I was finally talked into it. Against my better judgement, as I knew the owner to be fussy about things. When the owner got there he sees the freshly cut calves and says, "what the hell went on here?" The brother tells him we just cut the bulls. The owner then says a few things I can't repeat here and in one throw, pitches the branding irons over the fence in anger. :lol: Then he says that this is his next years bull crop. :shock: I still remind the brother and other neighbor about that day. :shock: When I'm right, I'm really right. :wink: :!:
 

Tap

Well-known member
One more story about things that go better than you expect.

Two springs ago we had 134 angus 2yr. old heifers that were bred to solid color longhorn bulls. I figure that must mean the bulls had a touch of angus in them, but maybe not. Anyway, we bought these heifers as the price was right, and they were real nice cattle. They were bred to calve the first of April, and I had them turned out in this 300 acre pasture that joins one side of our ranch buildings. But we had other heifers calving at another part of our ranch, and cows to look at too, so they were only getting checked when it was handy, and not at all at night. They just stayed in this pasture as one herd.

One day as I drove home for dinner, I could see a heifer calving. She was laying up a swale on the side of a hill. I had lunch, and when I went to leave again, I could see she was still there. So I did some other things, and in a while I saddled up to see what was the deal. Both feet were coming right, but I thought I better bring her in and check it out. I found that the calf's head was back, and I had a terrible time trying to get a hold of it. Even with my 37 in. sleeve length arms. I callled for some assistance, and it was probably 3 1/2 to 4 hours from when I first noticed the heifer calving by then. I got a calf chain on the calf's lower jaw, while we pulled simultaneously on the feet with a calf puller. Finally the calf came out, with pretty good markings on the lower jaw from the chain. Next thing you know he starts to coughing, which was a surprise, as I was sure it was dead. We then went in for a cup of coffee, and when we went back out, the little bugger had got up and went to sucking. That made me realize the hardiness of longhorns, and I sure admired the breed that day.

We just had very little trouble with these heifers, and weaned over a 95% calf crop. And I don't think there were 3 calves that weren't solid colored either. Even young cattle left to calve out this way just make the best mothers. It was a good experience, and profitable too. :!:
 

Tumbleweed

Well-known member
Jinglebob said:
And here I thot' I was the only screw up on these boards! :lol:

Did the branding the wrong trick thing once.

Cut one nut out of a bull that wasn't supposed to be made into a steer. The dad said to cut him, the son was mad! :mad: I told the son he still had one and being as he was a longhorn, he'd still be fine, but no, he made me go ahead and finish cutting him! :lol:

I ain't done the gas in the diesel........................... yet! :lol:

One spring we had all the cows in a small lot. Went out and here a heifer who was bred longhorn, had 1 red calf and 1 black calf. I thot' that was pretty cool. Took the extra calf and grafted it onto another cow. Had one cow with a huge bag and kept watching here for about a week, wondering if she ever was going to get around to calving. Finally when her bag started to go down and I couldn't find a missing calf, I realized that I had made a mistake and the heifer HADN'T had a pair of twins! :shock: :eek: :lol:

I did have a black cow several years later, have twins and one was red and one was black. I sure rode and looked along time to make sure they were both hers! :lol:

I was there the day Jinglebob cut that fellers future herd bull and I'm not to sure I didn't have something to do with causeing it. I heard him say something about that calf but I was getting pretty hard of hearing about then and think I may have miss understood what he said.

He cussed and swore for quite a while when he discovered his bull had been cut. While he was doing that he was pulling his branding irons out of the fire and throwing them in every directions as far as he could.

Heard one of the other fellows that was there that day telling about it at another branding. He said it took half an hour to find all the branding irons and get them hot again. :cowboy:
 

Soapweed

Well-known member
My cousin and another neighbor went to a branding one time. The large crew of cowboys rounded up about four hundred pairs and corraled them. They separted the cows from the calves, but before they started branding, first on the agenda was to spray the cows. Horses were tied up all along the fence, and when the noisy sprayer was started, one pulled back starting a domino effect. Next thing you knew, broken bridles and bridle reins were everywhere, and the corral fence had been torn down. The cows and calves got back together as they all escaped. It was not a pretty scene, and hot tempers were in abundance. Glad I wasn't there. :wink:
 

Jinglebob

Well-known member
Soapweed said:
My cousin and another neighbor went to a branding one time. The large crew of cowboys rounded up about four hundred pairs and corraled them. They separted the cows from the calves, but before they started branding, first on the agenda was to spray the cows. Horses were tied up all along the fence, and when the noisy sprayer was started, one pulled back starting a domino effect. Next thing you knew, broken bridles and bridle reins were everywhere, and the corral fence had been torn down. The cows and calves got back together as they all escaped. It was not a pretty scene, and hot tempers were in abundance. Glad I wasn't there. :wink:

And that , ladies and gentlemen, is just one of the reasons you should use hobbles, instead of tying by the bridle reins! :lol: :lol:
 

Shelly

Well-known member
Speaking of mis-tagging calves reminds me of quite a few years ago when we run mainly straight Simmental cows. Had two pairs penned together, and the husband and his brother were tagging calves. I wasn't there this particular day (should've been). They figured this calf looked like this cow, and that calf looked like that cow, so that must've been how they paired up. They tagged them, seperated the pairs and left. I come home, calves bawling and cows bawling. Found the guys and told them of their mistake, they cut out the tags, paired them up right, and said they'd retag them next time they tagged. Later, those two pairs got put out with others. Tagging day come around again, they catch those two calves (I was gone again), and they tagged them the same way they did the first time! From that day on, I made sure tagging day fell on a day I was home.
 

sw

Well-known member
I'm sure glad you all fessed up, I never screw up. Why last fall, I only miss tagged about 5 or 6. Then when we branded, I had a neighbor who is usually pretty picky help me brand. I branded the fence so he couls see how the s and the k go. I went to branding calves, watched him do a couple and he was doing fine. Awhile later, another neighbor came up to me and said, "you better have him put that K on right, he's putting it on upside down". Sure enough, and I had just taken a close up picture of him putting the brand on wrong!!!! I didn't even notice. I counted about 17 calves with screwed up brands the next day, luckily, the K almost always ends up looking like an X so it does not look upside down. Just one more reason to use Soapweeds contraption to brand with
 

Silver

Well-known member
One time, we were hunting in the mountains. One of the pack horses ahead of me needed repacking, so I tied my horse to a tree and left the rest of the pack string on the trail behind me. They were pretty well trail broke so I wasn't leading them. Anyway, I walked ahead and gave the guys a hand to get that old pack horse re-rigged, and they headed out ahead of me. I walked back to my horse, untied and mounted. I bellered at the pack string behind me and fully expected them to follow me. About ten minutes down the trail, them pack horses still hadn't caught up. So I turned around, cussing a blue streak all the way, I could just feel the day slipping away. I got back to where I'd remounted my horse and left my pack string, and lo and behold there they were. Short tied to trees along the trail just like I'd left 'em. :oops:
I think I even apologised to them.
 

Silver

Well-known member
Faster horses said:
We have a C hanging C brand that goes on the right hip. Jack was branding by standing at the calves back. He put several brands on with the lower C behind (instead of in front and down) the top C.

When he discovered it, we asked the brand inspector what we should do and he said to put the brand on correctly. So those heifers have a C on top and 2 C's underneath. Talk about a mistake you have to live with!!!!

(Course I mention it every once in awhile just so he doesn't forget). :wink: Luckily they are about all gone now.

Hey FH, just as a point of coincidence I just applied for another brand a couple of days ago. C hanging C was my first choice. I allways thought that was the nicest brand around. I had a neighbour years ago that used the brand on his horses, as a jaw brand. Sure looked nice.
Unfortunately, even after much arguing they wouldn't accept this brand because they won't register a backwards C.
 

Hanta Yo

Well-known member
A rancher in Marion had a brand on his cattle on either the left rib or right rib, can't quite remember. It was COW. I thought that was quite original.
 
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