# Looking for ideas: basic but passable cattle loading



## fireweed farm (Dec 31, 2010)

Is there a basic and fully functional way to get cattle from a field into a trailer?
What I've been doing is getting the selected calf or cow (dexters) into a corral of 4, 10' panels, and with a friend or two help by prodding and hand winching into the trailer from there- incredibly dangerous and a total waste of time.

A herd this small can't afford a commercial cattle farm set up. Hoping for ideas on what the little guys do. Thanks!


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## myersfarm (Dec 24, 2004)

if you can get them into 4 corral panels i assume they are a square....with the cow inside move the panels into a diamond then open up the point were the trailer is backed up to....<> tralier here .......giving her a way out into the trailer . '''''' <= trailer here ..just keep moving panels in till it makes a run.== trailer here.....but leave the back two panels hooked together ..that way no human is inside with her she should load as soon as she realizes the trailer is the only place to go put boards behind her as she goes forward...to not let her back up...watch how close you pull panels together so she can not turn over on her side ...panels cow and all


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## myersfarm (Dec 24, 2004)

just saying best investment you can make is working pens......what would it cost if somebody or cow gets hurt...time off work or needing another cow...be carefull


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## fireweed farm (Dec 31, 2010)

Thank you. yes that makes a square.
I tried something just like what you said- with dragging panels to the open trailer leaving no room for them but to jump in trailer. It worked ok but having seen a calf stick it's head under and push panels along the ground I do fear of injury to cattle or farmer.
When pegged down they can't move it, maybe just backing up the trailer slowly will do it. Well that needs a helper too. WIll figure something out.


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

No, no, no.... I have exactly what you need to do. This is how I did it and it worked out beautifully for me - the one and only time I have loaded a heifer. My only helpers were another aging lady with absolutely no experience backing a trailer and and her 15 yr old daughter. None of us had ever loaded a heifer before so if we can do it this way- you can.

FIrst, back the trailer exactly perpendicular to the barn about 2 feet less distance from the barn than you are tall. Place your panels so they make a alley right next to the barn. Run the heifer TO the trailer so only her head and front feet are inside. Quickly. put your back against her backend and brace your feet against the barn. Hold for 1 hour. If you are stubborn enough, she will give in before you do- if not, you will have to start all over again. DO NOT do this with your frontside next to her back side if you want to save your shirt. You could even run a few ropes from the front of the trail all the way around her and have helpers pull on the rope while you are still pushing with your feet. It won't help....but it will give them something to do. If your helpers would like,they might try lifting her feet -one at a time only, of course, into the trailer. Her having 3 feet in the trailer will give your back a bit of a breark. Eventually, she will start to give. When you feel her weakening....be VERY FAST...because you have nothing to support your weight when she steps into the trailer and you will land on your backside in the piles of pooh she released while you were waiting for her to make up her mind. It might not hurt to have an ear of corn ready, but do not offer it until at least that required hour is used up. Then you will never know if it was your stubborness that got her inside or the ear of corn. Sweet corn only. This worked very well for me the one and only time I loaded a heifer into the trailer.

(Sometimes, I think I should charge my neighbors an entertainment tax to live near me).


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## sammyd (Mar 11, 2007)

We back our trailer to a gate opening right on a corner.
open the gate inward so it kind of funnels the animals towards the trailer and close it slowly to force the animal towards the trailer.
A big bucket of grain to entice them in helps too.



> she should load as soon as she realizes the trailer is the only place to go


LOL a cow can always find other places to go


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

The guy that hauls our steer each year to the butcher always has the trailer at an angle so they have to turn a corner. They always load first time and without a hitch. They are a bit more tame than a regular beef cow might be.


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## Cheribelle (Jul 23, 2007)

Mine usually load right up for a loaf of bread thrown into it.


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## mozarkian (Dec 11, 2009)

Our cows and calves will follow grain, so we usually have success with making a big show of putting grain just out of reach in the trailer. We ignore them while they nose around a little and when they step up we push them on in and shut the gate. If the truck, trailer or people helping are strange to them, it will be more difficult. Parking the trailer in the field for a day or so before you load will get them familiar. 
Do not make it rodeo time-- my inlaws didn't speak to me for 2 weeks once years ago, because they brought a video camera to my field on loading day and wanted thier youngest son to be photographed "like a cowboy". Although they were buying one of the steers for meat, the steers didn't know them from Adam, and were upset. So video camera, in-laws and young BIL were removed against their will from the field. Once they were out of site, a little grain got them where we needed them to go.


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## chester5731 (Jul 6, 2011)

Setting up a corral for you is like a headgate for me. It doesn't make a whole lot of sence for four cows but it is cheaper and a lot less painful than a trip to the ER.


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## Cheryl aka JM (Aug 7, 2007)

BE CAREFUL
Last year I helped my neighbor load cattle pretty much the way you describe. It was me, my neighbor with a broken foot and her 70 year old uncle....I was doing most of the get in there and push the cattle. One of the cows kicked me a good one in the thigh~ swole up and bruised but seemed to be ok. It was months later that my hip starting hurting bad enough to drive me to a Dr, and after a month of screwing around an MRI finally showed my hip was fractured~ mostly likely from that cow kick. I probably took a stress fracture then and later the weakened are broke through. I had to have pins in my hip and spent 7 weeks in a wheelchair. It's a good thing I have good health insurance and I'm still having to do some financial games to get my co-pays paid. So~ trust me.....it's cheaper to build a catch pen!

I built one and I've used it a couple times to hold an animal for one reason or another. The trick I'm trying now though~ I've got a BIG Steer due to go in on 5th of October. A couple weeks ago I caught him in the catch pen, used the gates to trap him in while I let everyone else out, then moved him over to a smaller pasture with almost no food in it, but with the trailer in it. Then I put grain in the trailer....and ignored him. It didn't take very long at all before he was happily loading into the trailer every morning when I put the grain in it. Much faster than I anticipated. So I let him back with the other cattle now and I've got the trailer in with the pigs ~their appt is the 3rd, and they are already happy to get in the trailer too. On the 3rd I'll feed the pigs in the trailer...close the door behind them and take them to the processor, then I'll put the steer back in the little pasture with not much food and the trailer with a grain bucket that he already knows and wants to get into (he moo's at the trailer on the otherside of the fence from where he is now!)

Be careful! Patience, a couple gates and a trailer are all cheaper than 7 weeks in a wheelchair and a limp for the rest of your life (I really hope the limp will go away someday)


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## G. Seddon (May 16, 2005)

It may take some time, but try feeding the cow IN the trailer with no activity going on around the area. I've had to do that in the past. Or, make the corral panel pen and get her used to eating in there; put some hay inside the trailer. Bet she'll go in after a few days. 

Very hard to have any cattle without facilities of some kind. What do you do when you need a vet?


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## fireweed farm (Dec 31, 2010)

Thanks for the tips. Haven't needed a vet in 4 years miraculously! As in, I need to work this out asap.


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## farmgirl6 (May 20, 2011)

this is a dumb question I know, and since I only have a couple of pet cows it is certainly easy for me, but wonder why as a rule people don't halter or lead break the cows? too much time and effort with too many cows probably? I am kind of a duffas and just train my cows the same way I train the horses, give them ground manners I suppose, tying leading loading picking up feet..my hay guy says I am nuts and has to shoot his with a dart gun to treat them, wow!


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## lakeportfarms (Apr 23, 2009)

farmgirl6 said:


> this is a dumb question I know, and since I only have a couple of pet cows it is certainly easy for me, but wonder why as a rule people don't halter or lead break the cows? too much time and effort with too many cows probably? I am kind of a duffas and just train my cows the same way I train the horses, give them ground manners I suppose, tying leading loading picking up feet..my hay guy says I am nuts and has to shoot his with a dart gun to treat them, wow!


We train ours like horses also, with a herd of 20 Dexters and 30 Highlands. Of course it helps my wife is a teacher and has the summer to work with the calves. But it has helped us develop a successful side business (I must make that clear if the IRS is looking in) that is also one of our hobbies.

Since we also do pasture rotation (more accurately "mob grazing") they also respond very well to certain cues and associate us handling and moving them for good things like NEW FOOD, and you can fool them into doing things they otherwise may not want to do. Well, our cows are smart so you can maybe fool them once or twice anyway


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## marytx (Dec 4, 2002)

Last two we loaded, I put the feed on the front of the trailer and walked away. Steer went up, DH appeared and closed gate. It helped that he'd put the trailer over by where they had been coming to eat, and the back was lowered so that it wasn't a big step up. 

I teach them to come to the sound of my voice first thing.

I guess I don't have a lot of horse sense, though, or else just haven't had the knack for teaching them to lead. I tried with the calves I brought home last time, but it was all I could do to tame them enough to come to dinner. One has always been too strong for me to lead. The other was doing pretty well until just this last week when I let the donkey into their area, and she is afraid of the donkey. So now she balks.


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## goodhors (Sep 6, 2011)

I would agree with the others, put trailer in the yard and feed the animals inside. Let them load themselves for a few days, but be around the trailer or nearby. Act calmly, no running to slam the doors, be deliberate in your movements as you walk by the back end while they are eating inside. Should be no big deal to shut the door in a couple days while they eat, then let them out again. Becomes part of the routine of eating in the trailer. 

I WOULD have the trailer hitched to a truck when cattle get in, to stabilize everything.

You then separate the animals, keep the one you want to haul in the pasture or yard with the truck and trailer, feed him inside and shut the door on the day you want to haul him. If you are nervous about making a certain appointment time, feed him and lock the trailer door on him the day before. Then give him hay inside and a couple buckets of water until you are ready to go. Be calm, deliberate in your movements and think about being successful! Cattle are so sensitive they will KNOW if you are worried or tense about the loading process and get upset too. Then things can get difficult, which you want to avoid.

Since our animals were 4-H projects we knew they would have to be hauled for Fair tagging, to practice meetings. Both I and DD practiced loading them and feeding them in the trailer. Calves were calm, heifer was calm, because inside the trailer was a NICE place with FOOD waiting! They loaded quietly and easily, no refusals, with just halters and lead ropes. 

Husband took DD and her cattle to the Fair tagging place and was astonished at how badly all the other animals acted!! They were dragging calves, calves down or dragging the kids. He refused the help offered "to load your calves for you" by picking them up and throwing them in the trailer!! DD just led them over the the Vet and tagger person, got things done in about 30 seconds, led the calves back to the trailer and put them inside. Vet remembered her when they met again in summer, as being almost the only kid not fighting with her animals!

I sure agree with training our cattle like we do the horses, lead well, tie, loading practices, brushed, feet picked up, they are so much easier to deal with. Having a larger quantity would be harder, but getting calves leading well, practiced at tying, loading with a halter, would be a big benefit to you as the cattle age. Should be much easier to deal with as adults.


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## lasergrl (Nov 24, 2007)

Took a highland brahma bull to butcher last week. Took one hour to trailer him. used a 10' square panel catch pen, and folded it in on one side overlapping making a triangle. I also had a hotshot but was only a just in case and used it as a prod without the zap part. many kicks my way later, he descided after an hour it was easier to go in then argue with me longer. He was pretty gentle but my hands were shaking pretty good after that.


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## Oakshire_Farm (Dec 4, 2008)

My cows are all halter broke and load into the trailer as easy as my horses, they have gone on school trips, to the feed store to have photos taken with santa  

My bull on the other hand is not halter broke, to load him I take a cow out of the field for a few days, when I bring her back I lead her through the field, and when I catch his eye, walk the cow into the trailer..... He follows just incase she is in heat. Then I walk out. If I am moving him, I leave the cow with him as company in the trailer. 

Loading calves is another one... I have a little chute that I run the calves up and into the back of a pick up wit ha cattle box.


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