Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Brown: Many ways to wrangle cattle

Gathering cattle is a job that can vary in scale from a small corral to a small country.

link Audra Brown

Differing conveyances and tactics can be used to accomplish the desired wrangling of bovines, but it might be surprising how many different ways cows can be punched.

In the corral, where space is tight and cattle frequently have nowhere to go but over (either you or the fence), on foot is popular due to the maneuverability, visibility, and well, mostly the maneuvering.

The cattle are controlled primarily via psychological manipulation, and maybe a stick or whip to direct attention. Fences should always be climbable, and the nearest climbable fence should always be in one’s mind.

Just in case.

The next step up in the corral situation is onto a horse. Giving up the subtle and infinitely controllable mobility of afoot, one gains mass equalization or better, while retaining a very effective level of maneuverability.

(It also means not walking, or running, and that’s always a plus.)

The few places in a corral where a horse cannot go are probably hoof-cannon firing lanes and should be avoided anyway.

Then, there are bulls, of the stubborn variety — or worse, the anything-other-than-calm variety. Such large and muscular creatures are too big and quick to be around if they are even the slightest register above mellow. In such cases, the work must get done and the bull must be persuaded to move to the desired location.

You can’t wrestle on foot, you can sometimes wrestle on a horse, but you can always wrestle in a loader (or other heavy piece of equipment).

If you don’t have a loader around when you are working cattle in a pen, you must not have a loader. They are not always needed, but between feeding hay, rescuing bovines in unlikely positions, and encouraging immovable beef to move, they are irreplaceable.

Cattle may not understand mass and physics, but they can sense weakness. If they are disinclined to cooperate and are being encouraged by a horse, or flimsy gate, or anything that gives an inch, they will fight on. And on … and on …

Hopefully, the location of the stubbornly stuck steer (or other bovine) allows for the insertion of loader. The bovine will quickly stop being so stubborn once it senses the superior immovability of the loader.

Otherwise, one might have to get creative. A situation involving a ratcheting strap and a hefty Hereford comes to mind.

Audra Brown knows where the fence is. Contact her at:

[email protected]

 
 
Rendered 03/25/2024 14:28