Calf puller

Tuesday I bought a calf puller off of Craigslist.  Hopefully I will never need to use it, but it could be handy/important to have, and could save a calf's and/or cow's life.

I bought the calf puller from Ernie.  He is retired and downsizing.  He used to have forty head of cows and cared for another 80 head for others.  He said he used the calf puller a number of times over the years.

The calf puller has two hooks attached to the ratchet handle. A person attaches chains/rope to the hooks and to the calf's legs  Pull the handle one way and one hook is moved up the rod and the ratchet slides up the rod.  Pull the ratchet the other way and the other hook is moved up the rod.   The end sits against the cow's haunches and the chain across the top of the cow to keep the puller from sliding down.

The calf puller is very heavy duty and well kept.  It must be older as the rod is solid instead of being a tube and lightweight metal as most stuff is now-a-days.  At $75 it was a buy.  New calf pullers are $180 to over $200.


Ernie also gave me a box of odds and ends.  Some things (lotions? powders? etc?) I am not sure what they are for.  He gave me some pig rings and the tools for them.  After I bought the calf puller Dan was here dropping off two cows with calves and I gave him the pig stuff as I don't do pigs.  Dan's calves are Buddy's children from last year.  They look like Buddy's children.

Ernie also gave me a de-horner tool to be used on small horns.  A backup tool if I can't do the banding in the future for horn removal.  Ya know... everyone has told me after the fact that they were surprised the banding worked as they didn't think banding horns to remove them would work.  Sometimes it pays to be ignorant and willing to try something new.  Sometimes it works out.