Teresa & Mike CHS - Our journal

[Bruce]

I think Wren has not been informed of her heritage and duties! Or if she has, she's refusing to abide by them.

 

[thistlebloom]

I think Wren has not been informed of her heritage and duties! Or if she has, she's refusing to abide by them.

Yes, it's true, she's a herding failure. We got her from a little farm when she was one year old because she wouldn't work the cattle. But she can work a ball to death!

 

[Ridgetop]

Our old Pyrenees all refused to come into the house ever. When we had tropical storms (we get them up from Mexico with thunder, lightening and rain so heavy you can't even see to drive) the children would go our=t and drag the Pyrs into the garage. As soon as someone opened a door, they would knock them over and make a dash for the outside with the children calling "Come back, you'll catch cold!" It was hard to convince the kids that the dogs were happier outside in the storm and they could shelter in the barn if they wanted to. Oddly they preferred to hide under bushes!

Our Anatolians, Rika and bubba, will come inside. Angel is less interested in coming in but will come in if we demand it. Bubba is the one that likes being inside the most, then Rika, then Angel who prefers the company of her sheep even though she always comes up for loving when we go outside. The other night Rika was standing at the back door looking through the glass so I let her in and gave her a treat. She enjoyed about 2 hours inside then asked to go out - probably to breath treat breath on Bubba and Angel to make them jealous. LOL

I think selling the cattle now is a good idea. Cattle are bigger, heavier to handle, cost more to feed and you have established yourselves in the sheep business with repeat customers. Getting rid of them with the prices of beef now is probably a wise business decision. I did notice that prices are up a bit in Texas this month. They have been super low for a while, With the high quality of Katahdin sheep you and Teresa have, growing your ewe flock and adding outside rams is a great idea. Plus you have the sheep set up already in place with chutes etc.

We considered raising few head of beef when we move, but our expertise is all in small stock and we have decided with the poor prices on beef these days we will stick to sheep, add some rabbits, a garden and home orchard, and enjoy our time watching the sheep and lambs. We can buy our pork from Bay! LOL

 

[Ridgetop]

Yes, it's true, she's a herding failure. We got her from a little farm when she was one year old because she wouldn't work the cattle. But she can work a ball to death!

She probably figures why should she do all the work, there are 2 perfectly good humans around to herd the sheep! LOL

 

[Mike CHS]

We got some Jersey beef from the friend that we buy hay from and have to say that we were impressed with the taste.

 

[Bruce]

I got Jersey Angus cross beef today, enough for 1 steak a week for a couple of months. Can't tell you how good it is yet because it is still in the freezer.

 

[Mike CHS]

I moved the cows into the paddock that I'll use to load them up when the time comes. They have gotten trained to the bucket well enough that they just followed me across the field. I put up a catch pen up and they stood there and watched so they don't seem to fear it and went right in when I put some feed out for them. It's just T-posts and cattle panels but I'm hoping that will do since they seem pretty calm. We have a buyer for 1/2 of one and hopefully can get a taker for another half and we have enough freezer space to keep the slightly smaller Angus for ourselves. I'll pull the trailer out there using the tractor and just leave it there out of the way for them to get used to.

 

[Shellymay]

I moved the cows into the paddock that I'll use to load them up when the time comes. They have gotten trained to the bucket well enough that they just followed me across the field. I put up a catch pen up and they stood there and watched so they don't seem to fear it and went right in when I put some feed out for them. It's just T-posts and cattle panels but I'm hoping that will do since they seem pretty calm. We have a buyer for 1/2 of one and hopefully can get a taker for another half and we have enough freezer space to keep the slightly smaller Angus for ourselves. I'll pull the trailer out there using the tractor and just leave it there out of the way for them to get used to.

Mike, like you we DO SHEEP, but had a good deal offered to us last summer of trading some sheep for 2 cows, sure why not right...…… Well we were not set up to handle cows or not sure how we were going to get them loaded when the day came. This is what we did, we put the trailer in the pasture that cows were in and unhooked it and removed vehicle, we blocked behind the tire of trailer and opened the back gate, we drove a t-post and just hooked a chain around the back gate to t-post so it could not close in the wind.....We then put feed pan on ground right at back of trailer, we let cows eat out of it there for several days, then we moved feed pan inside trailer about 4 ft or so, just enough they could see it and they knew that was the pan that had their yummy feed in it, they did indeed hop right up in the trailer and ate, we fed in this same place for several days. Once comfortable getting into trailer and eating and getting themselves back out, we kept moving towards the front of trailer until the day came that they were eating all the way up front of trailer and very comfortable...Well the day came for slaughter day and once they got in we unchained and quickly closed door behind them and I couldn't believe how easy it was, then we backed truck in and hooked up and pulled out of pasture.....Note: we already had a slaughter date set, we began doing the feed pan behind the trailer about 7 days before the slaughter date and it only took about 5 days and all was working well, yes there was cow poo back of trailer doing it this way but nothing a pressure washer couldn't clean up!

 

[Mike CHS]

Thanks @Shellymay I may wind up doing something like that but for now, I'm stuck doing what I am since where I had to build the chute is also the main entrance to most of my paddocks. That plus the larger of the two is inclined to use his weight to push anything that can be pushed. We had the stock trailer and a lighter utility trailer in the same field with them and they both got pushed into fences.

 

[Mike CHS]

I did a trial run with the cows this afternoon and called them into the chute for feed and they came right in. I went ahead and pulled the cattle panel gate closed to see how they reacted and they didn't react at all. I kept it closed till they finished eating to check their reaction and they just stood there till I opened the 'gate' and they walked right out. I put a little more feed in their bowls and they came back in so I hadn't spooked them. They don't spook at all when I'm around them so I'm pretty sure it will work once we get the other half of beef sold.