So as you may have taken from that I started to break a 9 yr old cow today. This cow is lookin pretty phenomenol at the moment and she has a real pretty heifer calf a side, she is also one of my donor cows( a cow used is embryo transfer ). Last week a decided I was gonna try at take her out to some junior shows this summer mainly to kick some but, also to see if I could actually get the job done!
This morning i figured it was finally dry enough to start the process. I made a small pen in front of the squeeze chute so she couldn't run to far when i let her out. finally I threw a halter on a opened the head gate expecting her to come out like a bullet! well she didn't go flying out of the chute, in fact she she didn't come out at all. it took about five minutes to finally walk out the headgate, then the fun really began! for fifteen minutes straight she ran aound the perimeter of the pen, with me at the end of the rope trailing behind her. let me tell you it aint easy holding on to a 1900 lb cow that has no respect for a thin piece of rope around her head. once she quit circling she was actually really good. within half an hour i was combing her off without her even being tied up or kicking me. ( I'm kinda prone to taking hooves to the shins) After having the halter on her for a couple of hours i figured that was enough for a day and let her go. Now i just have to do this everyday for the next couple of months to ensure she will be safe for town.
Broccoli, soon to be show cow!
I tried to halter break a 5yr old cow last year. Needless to say, after she flipped herself upside down over the halter in the cattle run and we had to use the tractor to pull her up, I decided I would stick to halter breaking calves, while I rethink strategies for halter breaking cows. Good luck!
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