PLEASE HELP! I bought an ornery cow...

[herfrds]

Does not matter what great calves she throws or any of that, this cow is a danger to you. Talk to the owner and send her back to them. There is a reason they were willing to get rid of her.

I was chased by a bull while on a 4-wheeler. This same bull charged me in the corral and later stalked me around the corral; I was outside he was inside. Loaded him up and sent him to auction and warned the workers there about him.
these types of animals are not worth your time.
You can find better animals that you can work with and deal with easily.

WildRose spoke the truth.

 

[CochinBrahmaLover=)]

i dont even know that much about cattle and stuff but you HAVE to get rid of this cow. My grandma's cows arent even that nice and but they arent loco like this cow. Hope you find something to do with the cow! and that no one gets injured!

 

[Mike Fronczak]

Im a newbie to this. I raised two steers last summer for the freezer, a Jersey & a Jersey/holestien. When we got the steers we didn't have electric to the fence, after rounding them up twice it was put to it, no problem since. I now have Highlands, we haven't had any problems, the guy we bought our bred cows from told me a story about a cow he had that was aggressive, went right to the butcher, along with her offspring. Every animal I have bought has loaded realitvly easily & previous owners always assisted. You need to get your money back & look for another animal. He shouldnt of sold her to you in the first place knowing your new to cattle. There are plenty if good ones out there. If he won't give you your money back, either talk to an experience livestock transporter or the slaughter house for a recommendation, I wouldn't want a crazy animal on my property. I joke with people how I don't want animals that can't go to slaughter, but it is the truth, if it isn't working out the freezer will get it.

 

[Stubbornhillfarm]

Chickenlady, so sorry that you are going through this ordeal. I understand that even if you did see this cow in person at her previous home and were around her, etc, that it is possible that she was calm as a cucumber there in her familliar setting and is crazy in yours. I know this from personal experience. I also know, that after 3 days in a row of tracking our "crazy" cow 4 miles through the knee deep snow each day, fixing corals, risking life and limb to get her and the steer that followed her, it is not worth it. Unfortunatly, on the 3rd trip of getting our crazy cow back, she was tied as there was no other option at the moment. She was out of control and my husband shot her. It was a devistating situation as these were our first cows and we had just spent all of our money! He actually pulled the trigger on the steer as well, but the gun jammed. The Lords will, as the steer did escape another time and had to be tracked, hog tied and put in the back of a pickup truck, but also became a very valuable learning tool for us and is now well behaved and our dominant bovine.

Again, I am sorry that you have had to walk through this. I can asure you however, that in hine-sight, you will learn a lot from this and your next bovine experience will be better.

 

[dreamriver]

Hello, I'm a bit confused is this cow still at the 'previous' owners place? If yes, demand your money back ( future note, don't pay for animal til it's loaded) and leave it THERE!!! I agree very much with the other posts on how dangerous this is, not how dangerous it could be but it is a dangerous situation.

best of luck,

 

[TheChickenLady]

------------------UPDATE---------------


WELL..... I SHOULD'VE LISTENED......



A couple days after I posted my question we went ahead and separated the calf onto our property and left the momma cow at the previous owners property. We came twice a day to feed and after about a day of mooing for the calf she seemed like her "paranoid" disposition had seemed to subside and before we knew it she was eating grain out of our hands, and would let us pet her nose. We thought she had really warmed up to us and we would be able to get her to our house....So Sunday we rented a stock trailer and drove over to the property. The plan was to get her into the lower barn and get her in the trailer that way.

Timeline of events:

Sunday: She hears us driving down the road and comes running to eat. Takes one look at the stock trailer and runs back toward the forest area mooing like a crazy woman. Hubby takes my vehicle into the pasture to "drive" her to the front and I go in to help. We couldn't believe it; it was working!! Until she JUMPED over the fence...My hubby then flies to the gate to stop her from go anywhere near the local hwy that isn't really close, but the ground she was covering in the little time she was out; we didn't put anything past her. Hubby bottoms out right before the gate and squished my exhaust on the hill so now I have an exhaust leak. We ended up chasing her around for about 2 hours and got her back in the pasture. Decided at that point shes hamburger; gave her grain and hay and left.

Monday: Neighbor text me at 6:00am and told me cow was out on the main roadI freaked and thought good thing my hubby left at 4am to the other side of the mountains and I grab the kids and head over..6:35am Sheriff calls and tells me the cow was hit, but got up and ran towards home needs my info and he cant find the cow. GREATTT!.11:30 am got cow on the pasture.12:30 pm butcher (who I begged on his day off to help me) gets there 2:00pm butcher left because he couldnt get a clear shot (she would hide in the back pasture woods by ducking and watching you) or she would go to the lower swamp and we wouldnt have been able to get her out 6:00pm I came and gave her a BUNCH of grain and hay as a peace offering..

Tuesday: 8:00 am NO COW, 9:00 butcher arrives with back up STILL NO COW, we looked and looked and looked, finally found her with her body backed into the woods in between the two neighbors houses watching every move we make.both neighbors said dont shoot in my yard, the cow farther down those stupid people said dont shot it but get it out of my yard chased it for about 25 more minutes and FINALLY the butcher was able to shoot her..

I just want to say I AM SORRY and THANK EVERYONE for their wonderful advice

 

[Queen Mum]

The issue wasn't a crazy vicious cow. It was a cow afraid of a trailer and an enclosed place. She had claustrophobia. It is clearly obvious from the description. I don't know how many times I have told people this and they have always failed to hear it. Put her in a squeeze chute, put a tight harness around her body and then a girdle on her. She would have calmed right down.

However, you can't cure claustophobia. You would have gotten her home and she would have continued to be claustrophobic. Eventually you could have handled her with a squeeze chute on a regular basis. She would have probably been FINE!

Claustrophobia is not congenital. It is NOT genetic. It is a behavior that is caused by some traumatic experience the cow probably had when she was younger. She did not pass it on to her offspring. That is a silly notion. It is common in horses as well. If a horse has a bad trailering experience, they can become impossible to load. Many a horse has been sold because of trailering issues caused by ONE bad trailering experience that leads to fear of the trailer and eventually fear of small enclosed spaces.

Oh well, live and learn. She may have passed her fear on to her calf but you can, with patience teach them that being trailered is a pleasant experience and that issue will go away.

Sorry for your loss.

And sorry for that poor scared cow. She must have been utterly terrified.

 

[WildRoseBeef]

We all live and learn, no need to Hopefully you won't let this experience daunt you from a second chance at getting another cow, and hopefully a better, less "claustrophobic" or wilder animal (never heard of that before) than you ended up with.

 

[redtailgal]

Well, I am glad that everyone is ok. You had quite the weekend, lol.

She was a wild cow with a bad attitude. They happen. It's rare to get one that crazy, so I agree with Wildrose, dont let this stop you from trying again.

I have to respectfully disagree with Queenmum. Watch that calf carefully. Attitude is often genetic, and crazy mommas will pass that trait on to their offspring. Perhaps she had a fear of trailors, but perhaps she did not, perhaps she was a bullheaded snot that figured out "HEY, if I act ugly and run off they will leave me alone, plus give me hay and grain". Please pay attention to the attitude of the calf and at the first sign of aggression, stupidity or whatever......call the butcher.

Please, please, please, do not try to put a girdle or harness on an upset cow. You are asking for a major head injury. Even the best squeeze chute cannot give you the protection you will need if you have a panicked cow. Putting a claustrophobic cow ina squeeze chute WILL cause a panic. They've been known to panic to the point that they beat themselves to death, and I know of SEVERAL people who have dealt with panicked cattle in a chute and now have permanent injury. There are other ways to handle it that are much safer to you and the cow (or horse if applicable).

And, also dont beat yourself up over this. It's a learning experience, we all have them. Yes, you could have handled things differently, and a more experience cattle person might have gotten that cow loaded. But, on the other hand, I am a mor experience cattle person, and I would have shot her and sold the calf.

There are far far too many good cows out there for some one new to cows to have to try to take on one with this sort of attitude. You did the right thing in calling the butcher.

No need to apologize. We all live and learn. You've earned a few farmgirl points in my book, anyway.

 

[SuburbanFarmChic]

SO so sorry you had to deal with this. I lay blame for this with the person that sold her to a newer cattle person instead of taking her to the stock yard. We ran into similar issues with one of our previous bucks and the options were somebody that KNOWS what he is getting can have him for a very reasonable price or I'm eating him. His teenager stage was BAD and it wasn't going away. A big 6'4" guy that wanted diary in his meat herd came and got him. He was strong enough to pick up my butt head and carry him. I have never seen such a massive man. And I turned down several buyers that said things along the line of "well he can't be that bad". Well yes, he can and yes he will attack you and yes it takes 3 people to do anything in the goat yard because of it so No you can't buy him.


Aggressive/crazy animals can either be put down or given into the control of somebody that can manage them. You earned your stripes on this one. Good for you calling the butcher. I'm sure at that point she was pretty much dog food due to the stress hormones but I hope they were able to haul the carcass way for you.

Please do watch the calf. If it shows signs of crazy, the freezer is a great place to go. And while specific phobias may not be genetic a predisposition to paranoia is. Crazy breeds crazy. You just have to look at odd families to know that there is something a little not right about each one of them. It's not the exact same thing in every person and some it skips but it's definitely there.


I truly hope your next cattle experience is better. There are some great animals out there in the world and after this you deserve one.