A mistake

[cowman]

I had a heifer last year who decided it would be handy to kick the hell out of her calf whenever she got the chance. As a result she spent about two months in the corral wearing a flank rope!
Now I just won't tolerate that kind of behavior in a cow, but due to mad cow, I kept her and calved her out again...same behavior! Once again she gets to wear the flank rope! But never again...I'll eat her myself if the darn market doesn't improve!
As I get older I just refuse to mess around with problem cows. If I have to do anything with them, they are history!

[Bruce14]

Good policy to have cowman. We use the same, no matter what a cows "paper" says or what they might be able to produce.

I like to think we can all make one mistake but never the same one twice as many problems are heritable as well.

Cows need to work for us not us for them.

[cakadu]

It only makes sense to not keep problem animals - no matter what the species. We always give one chance - whether that's the smart thing to do or not is open for debate - but if it happens again, she is eaten and not passed on to someone else. Fortunately we don't run into this problem much at all.

[carebear300]

I took a tour down to a big ranch in South Dakota one time about thirty years ago, it was the best three days I ever spent. The old feller had one rule of thumb "cows are supposed to work for you, you aren't supposed to be working for the cows". He culled rigourously almost to the point if a heifer run around with her tail in the air he shipped her. It was the best education I ever got, never had much sympathy for a problem critter after that.

[Muttley]

I had a rancher from Maple Creek tell me once " our cows work for us, we don't work for our cows"

[CattleAnnie]

Hey Cowman,
I really hear what you're saying. There's quite a few cows that are being calved out that were on my cull list last year.
I have a question for you - you mentioned using a flank rope to stop the cow from kicking at her calf. I'm kind of curious about how this works, as we just use hobbles on our miserable mothers. I've got to say that a flank rope sounds a little easier to put on, as I've come pretty close to having a "hockey-player" smile when hobbling cows quite a few times.
Anyway, it never hurts to find a new way to skin a cat.
Take care.

[bunny]

Hi all, I too would like to know how that flank rope works..

[ALICIA]

If its what I think it is, you put a rope over her back,just behind the bag (udder) and snub it up as hard as you can till she can hardly walk, soom times I've put it right between the front and back teats till the calf gets done, but thats only if I'm really mad or have got kicked.

[cowman]

Tie a rope real tight right in front of the hip bones. Use a slip noose and suck it up real tight. She might try to kick but can't get that foot up. Make sure it doesn't press on the two nerves that run over the hip bones or she will fall down a lot.If you ever need to milk a cow out this guarantees you don't get your head kicked off! By the way there is a very effective way to paralyze a cow using a rope over the hips. You can easily paralyze her and throw her down while you do whatever needs to be done...feet, milking, whatever. In the old days before chutes that is how most cow work was done. My grandfather used to throw ton plus bulls by himself with no problem while using a saddle horse in his cowboy days on the big Burns ranchs. I believe the method is described in the Alberta cow/calf manual?

[CattleAnnie]

Thanks Alicia and Cowman. I believe I'll give that a shot in the a.m. (grafting a twin onto another cow that's definately not into co-operating). Take care,

[cowman]

When you put the flank rope on don't shove that calf in there if she wants to crow hop or she might fall down on the calf. If I ever have to help a calf suck I put the cow in a maternity chute, put a flank rope on and raise the bottom portion of the chute, but having her tied up to a stout post would work also. Just don't put the calf in a postion where the cow could fall on it.
You can leave the flank rope on the cow although she won't be able to move all that great.