Working Cattle Video Series!
We thought we'd change it up this week and have a couple of short videos that show the steps of how we work cattle. Are you ready, because we sure are!
These guys are the Pen 8 cattle and they were very excited to be let out. Pen 8 is a bit of a hike from the working system so we have to set up some gates and move a few cattle in order to get everyone where they are supposed to be.
Here we are pushing the cattle from the holding pen into the sweep tub. The sweep tub is a half circle that has a gate that pivot from the center point in order to push the cattle into the chute. This process requires our full attention, which is why the video stops before any enter the chute!
These steers are waiting in the chute for their turn in the headgate. The chute is made so they have to be single file and cannot turn around. The green metal in the chute is a backstop; when the cattle go past it, it prevents them from backing up any further than that point. Our goal is to keep the cattle in the chute for the smallest amount of time possible so we work through the headgate as fast as we can. At the end of the video clip, you can see a steer in the headgate/squeeze chute. With this group, it took us about 30 seconds from the time the steer entered the headgate to when he left which is about as fast as we can work them through.
Pen 8 has been worked so now it is time for them to be put back in their pen! Our entire working setup is designed with the cattle's comfort, safety, and our safety in mind. We did a large amount of research to design our working system to work with the cattle's natural instincts and most of the time it is very successful. Of course, there is always that one steer that someone has to get behind and push the whole way through but thankfully, that doesn't happen very often!