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Wild Steer

Ben H

Well-known member
Last week on memorial day I was loading up a small group of yearlings to move to another pasture. On steer, who I previously had no problems with, perked his head up and ran from the herd. My wife and I tried to quietly move him back to the group. He ran through a single strand of polywire, then umped a 3 strand HT fence into a hay field. We followed him across the hay field and saw him standing in the back corner. This had a 5 strand HT perimeter fence on one side and another 3 strand on the other. We tried to drive him towards a corner through a gate, he decided to run down the fenceline and went past my wife over a hill. It turns out there was a loose ground wire sagging and grounding out the hot wire below it, bringing the fence voltage down to around 1.2 kv. I fixed that up and got it back to around 5.6 kv. We couldn't find any tracks through a gate, but it was also very dry. There as just too much area to cover, we decided to let him be hoping he'd come back to the group(we didn't load them, gave them some grass from the hay field with polywire).

I called the police, nobody called a loose animal in. A few days later I found some tracks through a gate I didn't think he would have gone through, but he did. The next day I looked in the back corner and he ran out of some thick brush. Meanwhile I had purchased a Dan-inject tranquilizer gun from my vet. By that time it was too close to sun down so I decided to come back the next day. Saturday morning I moved his herd mates to the corner where he was near and left for a little while. I came back and thought maybe he'd be down near the fenceline again. There was an exterior gate near there and I started running some polywire through the woods to try and circle around him. I was walking back to the ATV to get some posts and flushed him out of some brush. I got my traquilizer loaded up and headed into the woods. I saw him from a distance, he ran into the middle of the fence that was half up. I went back to get more posts so I could finish containing him, the plan was to let the herd in there with him, let him re-group and move them back into the pasture together. As I was finishing the last of the fence I thought I felt something on the polywire. When walking back towards the gate to let the others in I found tracks where he jumped the fence. I took the fence down and decided to come back the next day.

Now it's Sunday, I went down there and started looking through the area where I last saw him, no luck. Then walking back to the truck my mom and wife showed up, my wife had seen him on the other side of the fence near the group a few hundred yards around a corner form where I was looking. I got the dart gun read and was going to circle around behind him. The plan was for them to stay in some key areas to view where he went if he ran.

I snuck into position, the first shot was set to high and over-shot. The second shot was a hit. I was aiming for the neck but got the ear. He couldn't tell exactly what happened and didn't run. I walked away and came back to find him laying down. I had another dart ready. He got up and should have shot then and there. He started going in the woods and I had to circle around to get him back towards the fence, fortunately he was a little drugged. We started pushing him down the outside of the fenceline, hoping to get him to the gate. Meanwhile I put another 1/2 dose dart in him. We got him through the gate, I thought maybe we could get him back to the group and let him wake up with them. But...then he jumped a fence. I decided then and there his days of grazing were done. My mom followed him on the ATV and my wife and I went back to the house to get some corral panels. We got back and he had laid down in some junipers. We unloaded the panels, just as we starting to put them around him he got up and ran. I got him into a corner and put another dart in him. He ran through a fence, through some brush, across a field, through and other fence and into some brush. I tried pusing him out and he ran down the fenceline.

At this point he was running up a drive way towards the thick stuff I originally found him in. I kept him from going deep into the woods and managed to get him to move to a stand of briches. I then took the ATV back to the truck and got my Lariat. He got up while I putting the rope around his neck, but i got it wrapped around a tree. Eventually we got him on the trailer. I called the butcher shop this morning and they said I could bring him in. I'll be picking him up at the end of the week in the form of patties.
 

leanin' H

Well-known member
Looks like a great example of a need for a well built BARBWIRE fence! :wink: :p :D Hope ya didnt "toughen" him up while capturing him. Glad to see I am not alone in getting wild critters now and then. :wink:
 

burnt

Well-known member
leanin' H said:
Looks like a great example of a need for a well built BARBWIRE fence! :wink: :p :D Hope ya didnt "toughen" him up while capturing him. Glad to see I am not alone in getting wild critters now and then. :wink:

Well there are always those that will make any fence look like a wet paper bag. Just up the road from us is a farm with a new page wire fence on railway tie posts with stakes every 6 feet. It looks invincible and cost the guy a fortune to build as he hired it all done.

He had a yearling escape the processing area and it took off across the farm and hit that page wire about halfway up doin' a hundred and tore through it like he was Spiderman.

Two farms later, the owner had enough and got the .270 out and turned him into pet food.

When they go wild they can be hard to stop.
 

Ben H

Well-known member
He would charge me while he was on the rope. Some animals are going to go through a fence no matter what, the difference is that I didn't have to fix it after he went through it.

I ordered the warning strobe and siren to hook into my Gallagher Smart Charger. It will alert me if the voltage in the fence is too low or the voltage in the ground system is too high.

This guy was crazy, I still won't consider barbed wire.
 

Denny

Well-known member
Ben H said:
He would charge me while he was on the rope. Some animals are going to go through a fence no matter what, the difference is that I didn't have to fix it after he went through it.

I ordered the warning strobe and siren to hook into my Gallagher Smart Charger. It will alert me if the voltage in the fence is too low or the voltage in the ground system is too high.

This guy was crazy, I still won't consider barbed wire.


I have some new 6 barb fence and the cow's just go into the corral from there no alarm needed..
 

RobertMac

Well-known member
The difference between a barbed wire fence and an eclectic fence with an animal like that is that it takes a lot longer to rebuild the barbed wire fence.
Ben, you had more patience than me. Was he bought or raised?
 

Ben H

Well-known member
He was raised, I didn't buy any in this year.

I was impressed with myself, I actually didn't get angry (didn't loose my temper) at all. Stayed calm and treated it like I was stalking him.
 

Blkbuckaroo

Well-known member
Had a steer just like that last year,went through the fence 10 different places,ended up two ranches away,and caught two days later.Went through 5 strand four prong barb like it was'nt there :shock: :shock: :eek: :? .I was pissed off, to say the least.Won't relay the whole story cause it still makes me mad.Repaired alot of fence :mad: .
 

Grassfarmer

Well-known member
Ben H you didn't get mad?? you are a better man than me!! Reminds me of the problems we had with limo x yearlings at grass in Scotland.
We actually have a "situation" of our own with a cow just now. One of a group I bought last fall is seriously wild (a tan EXT?) and has no herd instinct. When ever we move cows she takes off away from the herd to hide out in the thickest bush she can find. She has about a 1/4 mile flight zone and goes over barb fences like a steeplechaser. Most of the time she has been here she has been on her own - now she is on her own with a big calf. Took this picture last night when I read your post, she is currently across the river from my closest cow group and would rather stay single where there is trees to hide in than join the group. Funny thing is she came from the east country and likely hadn't seen many trees before she came here. Hopefully we can apprehend her some time before winter, sell the calf and haul her to town as I don't have time to waste on lunatics like this. I don't fancy stalking her with tranquilizer either she looks like she could do some stalking of her own. :shock:

1/4 a mile, a river and 2 fences between us and she is getting ready to disappear into the trees. :shock:
wild.jpg
 

Ben H

Well-known member
I had a purchased angus/devon cross escape at the butcher shop Dec 23rd at 5pm, I was unloading the group and tried coming in the side door to push them out. I was all alone, the group ran by me and he jumped out the side door. Chased him a while that night through a foot of snow in the woods, dark that time of year. My buddy and I tracked him on snow shoes the next day, found him quickly then chased him for a few hours before I ended up shooting him in the head from about 35 yards with my HK USP .40s&w. Got him in the trailer and back over to the slaughterhouse. I had my GPS and logged over 7 miles that we chased him for on Christmas Eve morning.

It's interesting how their instincts kick in, they haven't lost them over the years.
 
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