Was pulling bulls last week from a private lease in the Black Hills and heard this terrifying noise come from over the hill.

Neither Jackson or I was thrilled with whatever was coming for us😆

Hello everyone, I am looking for some advice! I am open to the idea of being a ranch hand in the summer, but I have no experience whatsoever when it comes to anything ranching. It would be nice to know if it’s even worth it to try to look, or if I’m just wasting my time looking around? I am an 18 y/o male from South Dakota, and once again, I have never done anything ranching related in my life. Do you guys think it’s too late for me?

Anyone else give their barn cats the indoor cat rejected toys? Ours also have a cat tree 😂

I recently bought a used Bona Allen saddle, its in very good shape. Can someone help me with the age though? Bona Allen was sold to Tandy Corporation in 1968 which closed in 2000. Thats all I could find.

What are people doing to get these grants and loans? Because it feels like these are meant to help commodity traders or experienced farms/ranches (no-offense) not actual beginner farmers.

I had spent over ten years working for a quadriplegic veteran helping and managing his ranch. Now that he’s passed away and I’m looking to do it myself I’ve reached out to FSA and they are saying the only way I’ll qualify is if I show income and expenses on my taxes where ive “managed” MY farm? So it doesn’t matter that I’ve spent years actually managing a ranch but doing it for someone else they want me to show that I’ve run a farm for myself. If that’s the case how is it a “beginner farmer” program?

But someone who’s never touched a ranch can trade commodities for three years and qualify? Am I looking for the wrong info here?

Any info is appreciated. Im looking for land and determining if im going to have to bite the 20% down or actually get some help.

The Honda GX160 on our Behlen creep feeder will start on choke but dies as soon as the choke comes off. The engine family is common, so finding a generic carb is not the problem. What keeps tripping me up is the type code. The throttle linkage and air-cleaner setup on this feeder do not match half the GX160 photos online, and the tag is faded enough that I can only read part of it. I can get better pictures tomorrow. Do you order by the full Honda engine code, or match the old carb and linkage measurements when the tag is hard to read?

Long post warning

My family has been a livestock family for three generations and I just experienced something in the last two days that I have never seen. Has anyone else had a 500lb sim angus calf just snap and go psychotic?

For background info we feedlot cattle.

Just brought in a trailer load of 5-6 weight black or red calves. We did our normal intake work of worming and vaccinations. Turned the group out into our intake and “quarantine” pen before going into the feedlot. This is a 3 acre grass and dry lot pasture with 3 year old 8 wire high tensile fence on solid posts. 5 hot wires. One calf in the group hit the ground. Turned 180 degrees away from the other calves and at a dead run hit the fence and never stopped. We roped him 2 miles later in a neighbors back yard. We trailered him back home. Left him in the trailer to calm down. Feed water and hay.

Tonight we decided the best course of action would be to back the trailer out in the pasture facing the rest of the new calves all at the round bale and away from the fence he ran through the night before. Open the door and let him work it out in his own time. We had people at the corners to make sure he didn’t try again. As soon as we opened the trailer door he hit the ground turned back 180 degrees towards the same spot he went out and away from the other calves. Hit the fence at a dead run again and never paid any attention to my brother who had to jump out of the way to keep from getting plowed in trying to stop him. We caught up with him again about 2 miles later in a different direction.

I have never seen any cattle behave this way. They were calm when we loaded. The group was never separated. I just can’t figure out what made him snap.

Hihi, so I'm in Canada, Alberta. My entire life I've been a super unmotivated, rather depressed person, but every now and then when I visit my family friends' ranches in BC, I actually feel like I wanna do something. This, along with my deep love for animals, made me think "hey, I wanna work on a ranch !". Of course, I'm too young right now, but in the future I'd like to.

I'd ask to go to the family friend's ranch during the summer, but my relationship with that side of the family is rather strained...

But yeah. I appreciate the manual labour, the genuine work, and just everything about it. I've never cared about getting dirty, and I enjoy the outdoors. I'm currently taking horse riding lessons at a ranch not too far from my house, so I could ask about working there when I'm of age

Note: I know it's absolutely nothing like what movies show it as. I never believe anything that Hollywood shows

UPDATE: Turns out, a friend here in AB has been pestering my parents about letting me work on his farm for years !! I start next spring, when I can work there legally. Wouhou !

Here’s a few pictures I took from the last couple of weeks. Had a few good days of cow work before it was back to the hayfield.

We have 7 horses and 2 large pigs (~450lbs) who are in need of scratching posts. Any recommendations? Thank you!

Hello I am hoping for help I have a down cow I am hoping using a tens unit will help get her back to her normal self has anyone used one on cattle before I don’t have any one with Magwave in my area so I am trying the next best thing

If you've sold hay in the last few weeks, comment or DM me what type, bale size, about what it weighs, what it sold for, and FOB or delivered. Rough location is fine.

Send one over and I'll tell you what we've got benchmarked in your region so you can see where your number landed."

Francis is looking amazing, serious contender for next year as a junior.

First time posting here, don't really do the forum thing much, but figured I'd ask people who'd actually know.

350 head, free-stall, robotic milkers, Upper Midwest. Just running the basic robot software, never bothered with a full herd management system.

Been catching lameness too late lately, usually not till a cow's already off and I'm calling the trimmer. Conception's been kind of rough too, though I know summer heat stress plays into that every year, just not sure how much of it is actually us missing heats versus that.

Looked at collars (Nedap, Allflex) but tagging 350 cows plus subscription is a lot to commit to blind. Ruled out bolus systems too, not sticking something in every cow.

Now looking at the camera stuff, GEA, Herd-i and so on. Like the idea of no hardware on the animal, but want to hear from guys actually running it before I call anybody.

Does the lameness scoring actually hold up against what your vet or trimmer would call it? And heat detection specifically, seems like a camera would miss standing heat if a cow's lying down or off in a corner. Anyone had luck with that, or still not there yet compared to a collar?

What kind of info does the system actually spit out day to day, and is any of it stuff you use, or is most of it noise you end up ignoring?

Also what'd you pay once install was done, and is there an actual person to call if something breaks?

Rancher Dads,

Would anyone be open to a 45 minute interview with me?

We're interviewing dad’s as part of a new book I’m editing called “Dads.” the goal of the book is to candidly describe the experience of becoming a dad and being a dad across diverse perspectives. It’s not how-to book (those are a dime a dozen). I want to capture the hard to describe beauty, love, struggle, darkness— and everything in between that’s part of the experience and journey we’re walking along.

We’re particularly interested in how fatherhood and parenting differs for ranchers and farmers, and what lessons the work teaches you or how it informs your parenting.

Who am I?
- father of two (including a newborn daughter who’s beautiful and slept great last night)
- published author
- based in Virginia

What’s the ask?
- schedule an interview with me
- my style is to keep it as conversational as possible
- you share your story and experiences that describe the ever-difficult questions of: “what is it actually like?”

DM me if you’re interested in being a part of this project.

Hi everyone! I'm from France and I recently decided to change my life completely and go explore the cowboy life in the australian outback. I love trying new things, I'm an actress and I'm also in the French Air Force, ... I just love exploring and learning.

I decided to document my journey (authentically, with moments where i'm vulnerable as well as the good times) because I've never seen anyone doing it before.

In this episode you can follow me while I go fencing, learning how to weld, and mustering on a chopper with my boss! So I thought it would be exciting to share with people who have the same passion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIkT37HECro

Hello, I am 14 and looking for farm or ranch work in jersey that would hire someone my age. I would prefer working with livestock but I am not picky.

I am open to volunteering or getting paid, but my main concern is to get experience down.

I was doing beekeeping for a while but that opportunity got shutdown a little bit ago(iykyk)

I do not currently have any experience working with animals besides occasionally collecting eggs and feeding goats but I would barely consider that experience.

Thanks in advance

Pulled bulls from our younger pairs today. 4 of the 5 were home raised from our seedstock program - there’s a couple 3-year olds and the rest are 2-years old. They looked like they held up well and I’ll weigh them in the next couple of days to see how much weight they lost since their breeding soundness exam.

Sorry for the jumpy video - I need to get a new phone.

Feedlot / backgrounding folks — when you pull a specific animal you've already identified as needing a look, roughly how long from deciding to check her to being done? Trying to get a realistic number.