Bob attended a one day school we gave June 11, 2005 in St. Clair County, Missouri. Here’s what he has to say about how stockmanship is working out for him now!
After we worked them we loaded them thru the same alley to haul them to another farm. My son commented, “we’ll never get’em back thru there.” If anything, they went thru better the second time. All the time we were building it, the boys kept telling me it wouldn’t work and making plans to retro fit it with a gate in the box. I’m sure my oldest son, who helped that day, is really convinced now. Last week we helped a fellow at Osceola lay out and build a corral. As I was laying out and explaining the ‘box’ they, were all looking at me pretty funny (remember, I’m used to this, I started managed grazing in the ’80s). My son enthusiastically told them how good it worked.
It’s so sad how much money and effort go into facilities to compensate for inferior stock handling. Not to mention the untold stress on the stock.
Just another little story. Last week I had a bull get on the neighbor’s place. I located him Saturday morning. I went to fetch him back with 2 dogs (Jim and Scot). Basically I let the dogs ‘hold’ him, and I drove the cows away. Then we just walked him 1/4 mile to the gate, which I had to open while he stood there, took him onto the road and walked him 3/4 mile home. The bad part is, nobody was there to see all this good stock handling by both man and dog! Oh yes, all this took about an hour. I’m sure it could have taken longer if I would of had 4 or 5 cowboys with broken fences, injured livestock and not have gotten him.
