Dan came over in the afternoon with his puncher. This was my opportunity to use my newly installed head gate. Dan really liked how my uncle Curt designed the attachment method to the post and railroad tie and was very impressed. It was one of the best attachments of a head gate that he had seen.
The attachment was solid as several steers were not happy being held in the head gate. They fought but the gate held solid. The same could not be said for the rest of my loading chute.
After last year's effort to tag my cattle's ears where I had crammed all 12 into the end of the loading chute and held the back gate shut while Dan stood on the fence and reached down, I figured this year's effort with the self locking head gate would be a piece of cake. Boy, was I wrong!
The easy part was herding the cattle into the loading corral. Then the trick was to get them to try to run through the head gate one by one. The gate was open partway inward and the cattle's body would push the gate shut and the top locking mechanism would then lock the gate into place.
The first steer hit the gate but it didn't lock in place and he was able to back up and get out. Huh? I tested the gate again by hand and it worked and locked. I tried again with another steer. He stopped at the gate. He wouldn't put his head through the gate and push against it - so it wouldn't lock. He backed out of the loading end of the corral. I had shut the mid gate and he decided to try to jump over it. Naturally he didn't make it over but got his legs over the top and his weight tore the old wooden gate off its hinges and to the ground. *sigh* Why did I think this job would be a piece of cake? Famous last words.
Now the cattle wouldn't run down the end of the loading chute and being in among the 12 milling cattle in the loading chute was a dicey situation. I couldn't get close enough to get them to run down the ramp.
I remembered dad had a cattle whip. He could make it snap loudly. I don't have the technique. But I got it anyway and by slapping the cattle's rear end I tried to get them to run down the chute and in the head gate. Ya know, I don't think I'll ever get interested in S&M and whips.
I had a hard time whipping my cattle to get them to move. I was trying to lightly tap them to get them to move. That wasn't much incentive for them. I've seen when barbs from a barb wire fence meant nothing to cattle with their thick skins.The cattle wanted nothing to do with the gate. I had to whip the cattle harder. And also yell. That I also didn't like to do. But I got some to move down the chute. Too many as the sides of the chute were bent outward when multiple cattle tried to squeeze in the space of one. *sigh*
The sides bowed but held - somehow - and the cattle got more into single file.But with multiple cattle they slowed and the first one didn't make a run at the gate and therefore did not trigger it.
Let's try again with few cattle. I let them back and resorted some from the herd at the back.
Finally one made a run and the head gate locked.
Dan tagged her ear and then I flipped the lever to allow the gate to open outward to release the heifer. She wasn't released. What? What's wrong with the head gate? I flipped the lever backward and the heifer was released backwards back into the loading ramp.
We then flipped the lever and manually opened the head gate and I encouraged the heifer to run through the gate. Even though the gate was fully open she didn't want to go near it. After some encouragement she ran through and out of the loading chute.
One down. 11 to go.
More situations where the head gate didn't lock. More situations where it wouldn't release outward. I ended up with three tagged cattle back in the rear of the loading chute with the untagged ones. Naturally, just to make sorting them harder.
Cattle may be dumb, but they catch on quick. Especially some of them. I noticed the heifers who were first to figure out how to climb into the feeder where the ones who would turn around and run back from the gate when I had them part way down the chute. Later I couldn't even get those heifers to where the loading chute narrows. Smart females are trouble!
A few steers still had their heavy winter fur and I found that the whip had no effect on them. I gritted my teeth and whipped harder. I hate doing that. That may be part of the reason I have a headache now.
I was getting worn out. I had to run back and forth trying to herd them down the loading chute, watch out I was not close enough in case they kicked, watch out when they turned around and ran back that they didn't knock me down, and once they were in the head gate climb out of the loading chute and get to the lever to release them once Dan tagged them. Dan was still recovering from his arm injury at work and I didn't want him to do anything to strain his one arm.
By the end I found I was whipping harder and yelling louder. I am sure the neighbors outside wondered if I had lost my marbles. I still wasn't liking it but I had no choice.
A few times when several cattle were wedged in the end of the chute Dan reached over the fence and tagged a few ears. Once a steer moved and the tag didn't get set properly. I saw blood, which one seldom sees when tagging their ears. Just as I don't like to see human blood, the same can be said for cattle. My poor steer. While I was having Dan tag the left ears on all the cattle, for this one we switched to its right ear.
Slowly we were getting down to the last few cattle: a heifer and the steer with the heaviest winter coat. I got both to the end of the chute and steer got his head in the gate. Tagged that one. I had picked up the broken gate and held the heifer up against the steer and Dan reached over and tagged her ear. She - not a small girl - turned herself around and pushed against the gate I held. I wasn't going to win and moved the gate to one side and used it to protect me as she squeezed by me as she ran.
Ya know, you wouldn't think these big animals could turn around in such a narrow space but somehow they do so. They are like cats sometimes when they turn around in a narrow space all curled in a U.
We released the steer and I figured out why the gate wouldn't open when a steer or heifer was in it. They were trying to back up. I slapped its rear a few times and it went forward and out. Dan jumped out of the way just in time.
The last heifer. Since her ear was tagged we left the gate open. She ran down the chute and out. She wasn't stupid. She knew how the gate worked.
Finally done. This was harder than last year.
My loading chute needed work anyway. Several posts weren't solid. Now more posts are not solid. Dan will measure the width of his loading chute and when I rebuild the chute this summer I will narrow it. I also plan to add intermediate gates and boards to block a retreat. That will hopefully save me from running them down the entire chute's length over and over.
I numbered the tags 10 through 60 for heifers and 105 through 155 for steers. Yes I know the difference in sexes from looking at them, but the numbers are a way to make it easier. From the front they look the same.
After the cattle were all done they didn't want anything to do with us and kept to the far end of the corral and away from us. A difference from the morning when they crowded around me when I fed them hay. Then I had to watch that one wouldn't step on my foot or push me aside. And when I was looking for a new location for a pocket gopher trap the herd would follow me along the fence from end to end over and over as I walked the hayfield back and forth. I got them fresh hay and a few came near me to eat. Most stood and watched and a few wandered off looking for grass. One heifer stood and her nose wrinkled as she smelled the fresh hay, but she waited until I left the feeder before she came over.
I guess I am on my cattle's "mean nasty rancher" list now.
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