Can I do cattle farm without a tractor?

cowboydoc · Jul 3, 2004

Yea Bird cattle will get accustomed to alot of things. But they don't like change and for cattle their main defense is to run. So when they see a threat they run!!!

As far as working cattle with horses I wouldn't do it any other way. I can get a cow or a herd to do most anything on a horse but on foot I just get mad, /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif. Can't run as fast as I used to. Working cattle is an art though. You have to know where to push the cow, how to turn them, who's the boss and how to read each one. A push or release here and there makes all the difference.

Speaking of being there for cattle we had one of those days yesterday. My daughters were riding yesterday morning and came across a calf that had gotten mixed in with the horses. Well it was a pretty new calf and was trying to nurse on the mares. They were kicking him and knocking him down and he just kept going from one to the other. My one daughter got in the middle of them and kept the mares away from calf. The other daughter rode to get my wife at the barn. She came back and got the calf back in the right pasture with his momma. Then she sees a cow stuck in the pond. So she goes down and ropes that cow and gets in to help her while my daughter pulls her out with the horse. They get her out and back out of the pond. Her calf goes through the fence instead of the gate and gets caught up in it. My wife goes to get the calf out, the calf jerks, and she gets pulled into the fence and gets a couple good shocks, remember she's wet from being in the pond. They finally get everything straightened out.

That night I get home about 7:30 from the office and figure I better go up and check the calves. Sure enough can't find the one calf that was in the fence. I know it's been gone awhile as the momma is pretty bagged up. Probably hasn't nursed for at least four or five hours. I look for him but can't find the calf. I call the girls and they come up to help look with their horses. At 10:30 we finally find him. There was an old fence we hadn't taken down yet and we they ran off from the pond the calf must have gotten on the other side and layed down. Well by this time I've got him up and he's ok. He starts bawling and here comes the momma. Behind me is the new fence. The calf starts struggling and I fall back in the fence and can't get up cause the calf is laying on me and I'm half in the fence getting the grief shocked out of me!!! Finally get off the fence and get the calf back with his momma.

Just another day on the ranch.... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Bird · Jul 3, 2004

( Just another day on the ranch )

/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gifYep, doesn't sound too unusual, but you hope you don't have too many days like that. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

riptides · Jul 4, 2004

( Ain't cattle ranchin' fun? )

The only way I handle cattle is on my plate.

-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

cowboydoc · Jul 4, 2004

No four or five days a month like that Bird. The rest of the days are spent doing the same thing with the horses, trying to get machinery to work right and fixing breakdowns, fighting the weather and bugs, figuring out how to make it profitable, etc. Wouldn't change a thing though.

It compares to golf to me. As an avid duffer I play for the one good game or the one great shot. You can play ten bad games and have 100 bad shots but that one sweet shot, long putt, eagle, or best game ever keeps you addicted and playing on. Ranching is the same way. Our second cutting of hay has been a beauty of a crop for hay. One of our best ever. And the feeling of finding that calf alive and getting him back to his momma. Selling a great looking crop of calves for a great price. Taking a horse you raised to a championship. It's rewarding. Yes the mulligans, three putts, and lost balls outnumber the good ones by a long shot but that one great 340 year drive to the green makes it all worth it. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

MFL · Jul 4, 2004

Egon,

Are you asking because you don't know, or are you checking on our knowledge of "cow history"?

During the late 1800's, when the cattle business really started to become an industry, the only way to get them from West to East was by railcar. In the cities of Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, etc. , huge cattle lots encircled every railyard. If you were a burnt out cowboy, drunkard, lay-about or any other unsavory type, you could usually find day labor in these lots making a dollar of two a day. One of the jobs going was as a "cowpoke". Two or more men would stand on either side of a loading chute leading to the railcar, and if the cattle balked at loading, it was their job to "poke" the beaves with a long wooden rod, and get them to load. Way before the days of electric cattle prods, you had "cowpokes".

Back then being called a cowpoke didn't have the same romantic, friendly feeling it has today. Then, if you were a cowpoke, it meant you were maybe a rung or two above the spitoon cleaners! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

BTW, it has nothing to do with the more unsarvory idea of a lonely cowboy out on the plains, wishing for some female companionship, and being surrounded by a sea of cows!! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Poppa · Jul 4, 2004

I think you just spelled out the key to life Richard. If there is something you want to do, really love doing, then Do it. But remember to go into anything with your eyes wide open and fully aware of all the pitfalls that are associated with your endeavor.

I've always been a romantic. I can see the allure of something without filling my brain with all the possible things that can go wrong. Makes for a pretty picture in my brain but sure comes as a rude awakening when I am crotch deep in alligators. Farming and ranching surely fall into the "Romantic" category but somehow, maybe thanks to grandparents who fought through it, I have never been silly enough to give it a try.

If I ever do take up ranching, it will be one animal and it will either end up on my own plate or die of old age in my front yard. Anything I farm will also end up on my plate. And, If my farming and ranching ends up like so many of my other "hobbies", well then I thank you in advance for being crazy enough to keep me fed.

Mike

EastTexFrank · Jul 4, 2004

Cowboydoc and Bird,

For me, you guys pretty much summed up what raising cattle and ranching is all about.

Someday, someone ought to write a book of "Cow Stories". I've got a few I'd like to contribute and I'm sure the other members have to. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

herdfan · Jul 4, 2004

( BTW, it has nothing to do with the more unsarvory idea of a lonely cowboy out on the plains, wishing for some female companionship, and being surrounded by a sea of cows!! )

Reminds me of a story my dad told me of a lonely, somewhat mentally challenged stall hand at the local horse farm. Guess he would have been called a "pony poke?"

BobJG · Jul 4, 2004

My father-in-law who is a long time dairy farmer says you should always buy as many horsepower as you have acreage. As well every farm must have at least one pickup truck and one loader tractor.

This puts you in need of a 30 HP utility tractor, and a nice 20 HP riding mower as it sounds like you already have the truck.

/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Egon · Jul 4, 2004

My interpetation was from long before the stock yards and loading chutes.

It was when poles were used to herd cattle in the days before the lariat.

Egon

MFL · Jul 4, 2004

Spain's conquistadors and the Spanish colonies of what is now California and northern Mexico did herd cattle with a pike or staff, so it's a pretty valid interpretation, but I don't now that it would have survived two languages and 300 years. Course I could certainly be wrong. The western lexicon is full of co-opted Spanish words and phrases, so anything is possible. That's the great thing about reading history, unless you were there, it's all somebody's interpretation of what THEY think happened! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Incidentally, about 5 years ago I was in Spain and had the chance to visit a horse breeding facility about an hour SE of Seville. The outfit also raised some beef cattle, and for the most part they still herded them with a long, pointed pike. Modern day "cowpokes". /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Elkoboy · Jul 5, 2004

( I haven't figured how to move hay around. )

Keep in mind that some 30 hp CUTs might be too small to move large round and square bales around safely and/or easily. The smaller tractors would limit one to lifting large round bales with a 3 pt bale spear at best, since they might be too heavy to lift with a loader spear. (Large round bales can weigh anywhere from 600 to 2000 lbs. +.)

3 point spears aren't really made to lift large square bales at all. And that limits options as to storing that type of bale as well (you can't stack large square bales in a barn for instance with a tractor that can't lift them on a loader spear). And if you can't stack them, you lose one of the big advantages of large square bales - efficient storage. (I think the large square bales run about 2000 lb)

Many people moving and selling hay around here use skid steers and loader spear to move large square and round bales.

I'm running 6 head of cattle on our small farm and one of my hay guys makes me smaller round bales (750-1000 lbers) that I can move with my B2910 on a 3 pt spear. However, I can also push around (slide) larger round bales that I can't lift with my loader/bucket.

Moving large square bales is beyond my tractor's capability since I can't lift them with my loader. But the times we've bought the large square bales the hay seller brought a skid steer to unload them and stacked them for us in the barn as well.

We usually feed the cattle round bales only when they're off pasture though (in the winter - we have that up here in Minnesota /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif). The square bales we use for our horses.

EastTexFrank · Jul 5, 2004

( they still herded them with a long, pointed pike )

Probably because most Spaniards are frustrated bullfighters. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

By the way, I met a bullfighter in Spain once who told me a charging cow is more dangerous that a charging bull. I don't know why I mentioned that but I thought I'd just throw in some totally useless trivia.

Bird · Jul 5, 2004

( a charging cow is more dangerous that a charging bull )

I remember hearing long ago that a charging bull closes his eyes just before he gets to you, so he doesn't see you step aside, but that a cow keeps her eyes open and will turn with you. Talk about useless trivia, 'cause when I was dodgin' those critters, I never looked to see whether their eyes were open or not. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

cowboydoc · Jul 5, 2004

I don't know about more dangerous but a momma cow is JUST as dangerous as any bull I've been around.

EastTexFrank · Jul 6, 2004

That's basically what he told me ... that a bull closes its eyes and tends to hook in one direction. When a bullfighter works a bull a couple of times, he knows which is the safer side to work from and can pass the bull closer on that side. A cow keeps its eyes open and will hook in both directions so there is no safer side. I can't honestly say I believed him and I was never dumb enough to do my own research, but hey, he annoyed cattle for a living so there may be a grain of truth in it ... who knows. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

I promise, no more useless trivia!!!!! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

cowboydoc · Jul 6, 2004

I would have to disagree with that statement. I rode bulls for almost 20 years and I can tell you that they will go at you from every which way and will change directions on a dime at a dead run towards you. A mexican fighting bull may be different but a regular bull will hook you right, left, or straight up the gut. I've got the scars to prove it. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

EastTexFrank · Jul 6, 2004

Ah !!!!!! You know I semi-believed what he told me for well over 10 years. Another illusion shattered. I don't have many left. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif There goes another urban legend down the tubes.

My own experience is a lot like Bird's, when one came after me I was too busy running to see if he had his eyes closed or not. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

ljh2 · Jul 7, 2004

Hey rlee,
I'm a little late to the party here, but I wouldn't apologize for asking the stated question. Actually if you can hire hay and such done, it is fairly feasible to raise cattle without a tractor.

Your indirect statement that you are considering raising cattle 1.5 hours away has me WAY more concerned! They aren't just something that you can walk away from for days at a time. I don't know much about Florida winter pasture grass, but up north, you have to be able to feed your animals EVERY day in the winter, usually twice a day. What protections do you have in place if your animals get out of your pasture? With a 1.5 hour drive, they could do a lot of damage before you get there to put them back in, assuming anyone would know to call you.

Before you try to raise animals, I think you should probably be living there - OR at least have hired help there to look after them.

As to the tractor, it will make a lot of tasks easier, but I wouldn't say that you'd HAVE to have one. Like others have said, you would be pretty much limited to small square bales since it's not too easy to move the big round ones without a tractor.

Good luck with your adventure, but take your time and prepare for all of the responsibilities before you get into cattle.
/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

dixiedrifter · Jul 7, 2004

I dunno how cool it gets down there, but if you intend to feed hay (which normally comes in round bales due to less labor) your gonna need a tractor with a spike on it to move bales and set them in hay rings.

If not your gonna have a lot of hay tromped into the ground.

You also need a tractor in the summer to do your mowing. If the grass gets too tall, it gets in their eyes when the cattle eat and causes pinkeye, IMO.