Cattle baron again

Friday I bought eight heifers.   My plan was to buy six steers but cattle are scarce and steers especially so.  Dan had been keeping an eye out for cattle I could buy but everyone was not selling or were holding on to their cattle for a while longer.  Cattle prices are higher and look to stay that way.  And with hay plentiful and cheap, ranchers are holding on to cattle to have them eat their hay up.

I was the second person on Rich's list and the other person ahead of me bought the half dozen or so steers. Rich only had heifers left when it was my turn.  Rather than wait and take a chance some steers would come available later I decided to buy the heifers.  I have hay I want eaten up.

The heifers are also lighter than I planned to get.  I wanted cattle that weighed between 500 and 600 pounds. In the past I got cattle as light as 539 lbs and heavy as 720 lbs.   The heifers I bought weighed on average 459 lbs, with a few on the heavier side and a few looking to be much lighter.  This will be different for me and I'll see how much they gain weight.

Lighter cattle don't eat as much as heavier cattle.  In the past I wanted lighter cattle because I didn't have as much hay to feed them - and then couldn't find any cattle on the light side, but this year I have a barn full of hay and would have liked heavier cattle.

Oh well.

I used my stock trailer to get the cattle after I bought them.  The last time I used my stock trailer to move cattle was four years ago.  During that move my stock trailer's brake locked up damaging my tire. I fixed the brake.  Today's trip was the first time I used the stock trailer since then.  How would the brakes work, especially after sitting for four years?

The brakes did not permanently lock up like before, but a few times they would lock the tires by the time I stopped.  Darn. However I noticed that by the time I got to Rich's place the tires didn't seem to be locking up.  When the trailer was loaded with cattle the tires never locked up and worked like they should.

But something always goes awry.   This time when I backed the trailer into Rich's loading chute I was a little to one side and I couldn't fully open the handle to open the trailer door.  I moved the trailer a little hoping to move the trailer further away from the one side.  Somehow the handle got caught against the corral and broke off.  Now I couldn't lock the trailer door.  Not a good thing.

Fortunately before I left home I decided to throw a couple ropes into the pickup in case I needed them.   And did I!  That was how I secured the trailer door once I got the cattle inside.   Rich has a welding machine but he was unable to use it to create a solid weld of the handle back onto the trailer door.  I'll have to take the trailer to a welding shop and have a professional weld the handle.

The ground was uneven in Rich's loading chute and the cattle are smaller and shorter than usual so they had trouble stepping up into the trailer.  It took Rich and I some effort to convince the cattle to climb into my trailer.  The last heifer was short and I lifted one of its legs onto the trailer floor before it climbed into the trailer.

As the cattle were smaller they all easily fit in the trailer with lots of room to spare.  That made pulling the trailer more interesting as occasionally they would move around as I drove which altered the weight balance.  This was especially interesting when I drove at highway speeds.

The cattle are skittish.  I imagine rightfully so as they were from two herds and spent the last so many days being moved around.  Also Rich gave them eight-way shots for their health protection and branded the ones without brands with his brand so all would have brands.  That made it easier for the brand inspector's bill of sale.

For the first several days here the cattle would all run to the far corner of the corral when they saw me.  They also stayed together as they moved around the corral.  Today the cattle are not in such a tight group and don't always run to the corral corner when they see me, but they still keep their distance and always stand up when they see me out and about in the yard or corral.

As you can see some of the heifers are black and white.  Kind of like an Oreo cookie look or a skunk look.

I had to wash out my stock trailer and the rubber floor mats when I was done moving the cattle.

I could have used my rancher girl Tammy to help me with opening and closing gates as I drove through them and to help me wash out my stock trailer.  She'll be here Wednesday.