Working Cattle

In Early May we worked all the cows and calves at Eden Shale Farm. Working cattle is never an easy task. Seldom do things "go right" and when you involve stubborn mama cows it can become down right challenging. Getting them out of the field and to the working facility is the first challenge. We walked the pairs down the road to the barn lot.

Once in the lot we pushed them into the barn so that we could sort the calves off of the cows.

Right as they were getting the last few head into the barn, a young calf turned back by itself and acted like it didn't know where all the other cows had gone. Its times like this that horses make the job a lot easier!

Once in the barn the calves were sorted off the cows and then the cows were ran through the chute and given their pre-breeding vaccination, dewormed, and fly tagged.

Once the cows were finished we pushed the little calves through to get worked. At only 3 months old then can easily turn around in the alleyway and they have to be pushed up by someone. Heath Mineer was volunteered for the duty.

Once Heath had them in position Dave Maples, and Ben Willoughby (KBN Intern) were able to give shots and put in the fly tags.

After everything had been through the chute we turned them out and pushed them back to the pasture.

The cows were certainly glad to be back in lush green pastures and they started grazing as soon as they cleared the gate.

I want to give a big Thank You to Dave Maples, Becky Thompson, Ben Willoughby, and Heath Mineer, Greg and Wyatt Cole for getting every animal through the chute successfully. I had to attend a funeral that day and was unable to help. I truly appreciate when people step up at times when you need it most.