Essential Machinery

[grassfarmer]

Feeding with a 2wd on the frost sounds like a good
plan in September after some wet days. Not so much
in winter when you can go out to 3 feet of snow. Then
there are drifts.

[smcgrath76]

I am rather fond of both bale grazing
and not walking. Hence the 2WD and
horse. Depending on the terrain I can
see a quad, if the terrain is like here,
I am not sure what I would do with a
quad when a cow crosses a creek, goes up
a cutbank and through the bush (other
than swear).
I also like the horse in the corral for
sorting, etc. and feel safer tied onto a
cow with a horse then I probably would
with a quad. Also, that extra brain on
the job has come in handy a couple of
times. To each his own (LOL).

[perfecho]

Quad certainly has limitations. Our terrain/cows allows this, most will come to grain and close gate. Sorting is usually ok because they are used to people and any heads up ones are gone. Could see a good dog, however we don't have enough work for one...and I would probably screw him up.
Changing to spring calving and am expecting cows/calves to be more heads up. Winter calving, I beleive does quiet your herd because you are in them much more, plus we put close cows in at night....and some of them have me fooled by a month.

[ASRG]

Sean: When I still had a horse....I think at times she had a lot more brains than I did(which might have not been much!).
For me it was about money(and that particular horse was just getting too old). It costs a lot of money to keep a horse?
I never used her that much. The kids didn't want to ride her.
And though I said "the best day of my life was when the last horse left"......that is not entirely true. She died while I was on vacation in Mexico.....some kind of infection....and I will admit I shed a tear or two.
She was a real good horse.

[smcgrath76]

ASRG - they do cost - especially if you
don't use them. We have just enough to
do the work (and might be a horse
short). The machinery thread makes me
laugh as I have more money tied up in
good cowhorses than I do in my tractor
and more in my bull battery than our
entire equipment lineup. We are
technold fashion I guess...
Plus I just like horses. I find them
cathartic.

[kato]

I miss my old horse, but unfortunately Hubby and horses are like oil and water. He just can't figure them out.

One of the biggest jobs our quad does, besides spring time fencing, is to set up the temporary fences in the corn field. You hold on to the reel, and drive across the paddock in a couple of minutes, rather than trudging for a half hour. LOL And our cows come to the quad too, after associating it with new corn paddocks, which comes in handy checking pasture.

[ALLFARMER]

I have been missing V-cutting. It's been 2 or
maybe 3 years now since we cut bush. My
neighbors have been going hard with land
clearing. They just finished plowing last week with
3 breaking plows....like 4 bottom....big plows! We
had lots of fresh snow on the roads so we tied the
v cutter up to the back of a super b. Neighbour
had to haul a load of oats to the yard where my
welder works out of so.. Kept the front of the
cutter about a foot off the ground and giver.
Cleared the extra snow off the road. Worked
perfect.

[grassfarmer]

Never been on a horse much since I was a kid
and no great desire to start again. Never owned
a quad but from observation of others they
seem to encourage the desire to "win" against
the cattle and force them to go where you want
them to on your schedule. Never seen an ATV
low-stress cattle handling demonstration - is
that an oxymoron?
So I tend to work on foot, with canine assistance
although I'm between dogs now as the old one
has bad hips and can't do much anymore and I
always hate starting a young one until the old
one is gone - the old ones just take it so badly
emotionally and seem to give up on life. So
some frustrating days at the moment herding
on foot minus a dog - probably gives the
neighbours some good entertainment and an
expanded vocabulary lol.

[perfecho]

The quad can work for low stress handling....its all about where you are and the quad is just a set of legs. Probably prolonged my cattle days as knees and hips are an issue.
(Will, however admit that they can be dangerous if you lose your temper...age has away of "tempering" this problem)

[SADIE]

Again I would like to reflect what I saw "over the ages" being a practicing vet in east central Alberta from 1976-96. That area had large cow herds and back in 76 it was by horse---all horse.

Then some of those ranches brought in the Quad and it was usually for the senior person of the team.

The quad used properly soon replaced some of the horses. It appears the "low idle" the quad can crawl around a herd was accepted by cattle.

The quad had the ability to "pick up speed quickly and that could help haze or head animals through a gate"

Bringing cattle in for preg-checking in the fall the quad and horse appeared to be compatable. The worst machine I saw when there was snow was the action of a snowmobile. That is a huge "Stupid" action to use around stock. When that machine was used the herd was a very undesireable group to own or operate around after that.

I go back and visit the area and those ranchers now appear to have more quads than horses around the place.

Idle down and the quad works well.

[tweaker101]

We use the quads almost daily around our cattle
and they have accepted them.. I believe if you just
idle around with the quads the cows are okay...
But you come in driving like you are in a quad
derby then let the games begin lol. The only
problem I have or our cows have is that every
time they hear the quad they think that they are
going to a new pasture with new grass. I would
like a set of tracks for my quad as this winter with
the bale grazing the snow is getting to be almost
to much for the quad to churn through.

[gaucho]

So far we have had over 4 feet of snow ... last time it was winter 06/07.... most times we could get around with a cheap little Toyota 4X4... its nice to be in a heated cab, especially when you have a 4 year old and a 2 year old with you.... that said we we have cows, yearlings, bulls, and heifers bale grazing on over 5 quarters of land... forget driving out with a truck this year...3 years ago I bought a used Skandiac ($2500)... trapper type snowmobile... We are very glad we have it and works awesome for laying out bale grazing strips and for checking animals, which we have to do daily because of the wolf issues we have been having ..... The cattle are fine with the sled, just use some common sense and let them get used to it and use some good stock handling.... forget the tracks for the quad, just buy a decent used sled the oil patch boys are always flipping for newer and better. We have horses and quads... Horses has its purpose in our leases and for marketing our beef with customers and quads for getting out to the fields quick and efficiently while multitasking with other duties like running the office and beef sales..... that said they are dangerous and the worst are new interns that think its a license for speed