2.5 hours

[Darlene]

Last November we tried for 3.5 hours to load Idiot, the steer, up into the trailer to take to the butcher. He jumped over fences, lifted cattle panels with his head and was simply destructive We were unsuccessful so I had to take Plan B instead. 
 

Idiot has spent the last 5 months escaping his pasture and I have spent countless times corralling him back with the Kubby. 
 

Today was try #2 and we spent 2.5 hours trying to get him loaded today and thankfully he decided to hide in the barn on the far side of the big pasture. 
 

The tractor bucket braced the gate to the barn because Idiot is unpredictable and not trustworthy. I backed the trailer up with the truck, we slid the gate open enough for him to escape into the trailer and slammed the doors closed behind him. He was ticked. 
 

I drove the truck with trailer out of the pasture and parked it until morning. He tried to escape twice by attempting to climb over the double doors in the back through the 18” opening at the top. He was unsuccessful but it has me stressed so we put some ratchet straps across the top for added security. 
 

I plan on driving Idiot off the farm at 8am sharp tomorrow morning. I am so done with him and his attitude. Any large animal like that is dangerous but his temperament was not necessarily so. He just had a huge attitude problem and love to say “screw you” which ticked me off. All the animals know better than to tick me off so I happily and prayerfully counted the days till today and I could be free from all the hassles he brought. 
 

Hopefully he’ll still be secure in the trailer in the morning and if I could say one thing to him it would be…

 

I win…and, thank you for taking care of my family. 

[Mother]

I pray all will go as hoped for but…..you might not want to count on him being in the trailer in the morning, or even there being a lot of trailer left.  We’ve had a few critters like him.    

[Littlesister]

Hope it all goes well and that he is still in trailer with trailer still in tack in the morning.  you are going to need it. 

[Becca_Anne]

Good luck!

 

[Jeepers]

Please be careful!  He sounds so dangerous.  

 

I have three parting words for him...

Rare, medium and well done.

[Dee]

Hope you're soon on you way to be rid of him.  Anyone raising livestock for any length of time knows exactly what you're talking about.

 

Good luck and thank him with each bite you take.

[Darlene]

Uggggg...

 

I got him to the butcher and had alerted them of his boisterous ways. It took them a little bit of time to get him going and as he stood at the doorway looking straight at me, I couldn't help but feel a little bad. Not bad enough to take him back home, but it's never 'fun' to take life, at least for me. I just have to keep my eye on the goal, which is taking care of my family, thank the Lord for the provision and turn and walk away.

 

It never gets easier though.

[Mother]

I know that feeling well.  It is a sad part of life but I’m super glad he behaved himself in the night and he arrived at his destination with you intact.  

[Midnightmom]

6 hours ago, Darlene said:

I got him to the butcher

That is good news. I was so afraid that he was going to act up in the trailer while you were driving and cause issues..................or, an accident!

It was also good that you got to keep the "appointment" with the butcher. From what I've been reading on other sites they are all backed up by weeks, if not months, and if you miss your "turn" it may not come back around for a long long time.

I hope he is still tender when he hits your plates - all of that fussing might have sent some wrong hormones into him that would affect that.

[Eliana]

I'm glad that in the end, all is well.

[Homesteader]

Little Bro has been dealing with two Scottish Highlanders that have escaped his rifle scope for over a year now. Every time the butcher-on-wheels arrived, the cattle went back up into the pine forest. Bro baited them with food and they finally started coming at regular times during the winter. He had friends come in early morning and late afternoon with their rifles. The cattle seemed to sense what was happening and would wonder off to the surrounding neighbors. He finally got desperate and found a former military guy with special equipment. It was now or never as the grass is starting to grow and the cows would head out onto the back forty for another season.

 

Bro's new friend arrived after dark the other night with his equipment and told Bro to get his tractor ready. Bro laughed. He still did as his new friend ordered and headed to the barn. A few minutes later he went to open the big doors and was startled to see the former military guy standing in the service door with a ear-to-ear grin and shining his pearly whites. Bro said he had never been so startled in his life, and he's the adventurous type. 

 

The shooter had special heat sensing gear and a silencer. What took almost a year of terrible frustration and constant anxiety ended in less than 14 minutes.    Come to find out, this special hunter was friends with my deceased brother. For the next hour, they laugh and told stories of their early days. After gutting and hanging the cattle in the barn, the hunter went home with a truckload of meat from previous butchering events and was tickled pink. Bro said that he's buying pastured beef from his Amish neighbors in the future.

 

 

[Dee]

Love this story, Homey.  Sounds like so many escapades we've had around here.  How about the "idiot" Darlene.  When you get your meat?

Edited April 13 by Dee

[Darlene]

I picked up Idiot on Friday    He wasn’t real

big, 600lbs HW but good enough. I have really enjoyed the peacefulness of his absence. I am raising the next generation now to replace the one from November and Idiot in an attempt to keep the cycle going. 
 

I need to take a few sheep in and get a pig too. Sheep are difficult to load too. Not because of attitude problems but because they’re so flighty. 

[Mother]

Good morning, Darlene. I love the cycle on the country homestead.  We lived it for decades.  We found that feeding any animal we wanted to load in the trailer/pen we were going to use to haul/load them with has a great advantage.  We have had both sheep and pigs run right into a trailer or a transport cage simply by following the routine they got used to.  We’ve used everything from sweet feed to apples to potato chips.  Yup, once had a set of pigs readily run into a cage because they had an addiction for the salty snack.  About once a week I would feed them chips inside the cage.    Chutes and funnel gates help too.  In my opinion a calm animal has sweeter meat without the adrenaline of the chase.  Many  homesteader prefer to dispatch the animal on their home turf.  
 

Now that we are doing urban homesteading I am finding a similar cycle in growing and harvesting that gives me the same feeling of satisfaction if not the same product.  
 

Thanks for the update.  Keep the tails/tales  coming. 

[Jeepers]

On 4/13/2022 at 9:13 AM, Homesteader said:

  He finally got desperate and found a former military guy with special equipment.

 

[Darlene]

On 4/18/2022 at 8:07 AM, Mother said:

We found that feeding any animal we wanted to load in the trailer/pen we were going to use to haul/load them with has a great advantage.  We have had both sheep and pigs run right into a trailer or a transport cage simply by following the routine they got used to.  We’ve used everything from sweet feed to apples to potato chips.  Yup, once had a set of pigs readily run into a cage because they had an addiction for the salty snack.  About once a week I would feed them chips inside the cage.    Chutes and funnel gates help too.  In my opinion a calm animal has sweeter meat without the adrenaline of the chase.  Many  homesteader prefer to dispatch the animal on their home turf.  

 

Yeah I know what you mean but we need the trailer for other things so it would be hard to make it more stationary. We do have a chute that we used for pigs years ago that is still in place. I could put the sheep in there and that would make it easier in the long run.

 

And I agree with keeping them calm. Idiot was 'special' though and I didn't have any more energy to care about his feelings lol.

[Mother]

LOL. I wasn’t thinking of his feeling but his taste…..Adrenaline can give the meat a strong taste.  

 

 

[Midnightmom]

19 minutes ago, Mother said:

LOL. I wasn’t thinking of his feeling but his taste…..Adrenaline can give the meat a strong taste.  

 

 

I mentioned that previously. Hopefully the quickness of his eventual demise negated that effect.