Pulling calves with jeep/tractor?

Chemical Byrne

I've heard of a number of people doing things like this with difficult calvings. I'd imagine such a practice is heavily frowned upon.

D'father told me of one eejit of a lad years ago who pulled a calf and destroyed both the cow and the calf killing them.

On the other hand a neighbour I worked with, great stock man, used to use the jeep or the 46 to pull difficult calfs. He is a good man for labour saving and making jobs easier by devising methods of avoiding manual mullocking.
He used tie up to the arms or the hitch and ask put a light strain on the calf. Then the actual heavy pulling would be done by standing into a loop of rope he'd have hanging from the main rope to put your weight onto the rope. You could apply a lot of pulling force this way. Every so often you'd move the tractor forward a 6 inches to keep a light strain.

An awful lot less back breaking work than straight hand pulling with a rope or messing with a jack that could fly this way or that.

Always worked from what I could see anyway.

pajero12

That is disgusting behaviour, These lads shouldn't have stock.

whisky_galore

A great way of killing both cow and/or calf.

Maybe your neighbour has been lucky, so far. If his foot happened to slip off the clutch pedal it could all be over.

blue5000

pajero12 wrote: »

That is disgusting behaviour, These lads shouldn't have stock.

He is just using his weight as force, a calving jack would exert more force.

''actual heavy pulling would be done by standing into a loop of rope he'd have hanging from the main rope to put your weight onto the rope''

cute geoge

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

I've heard of a number of people doing things like this with difficult calvings. I'd imagine such a practice is heavily frowned upon.

D'father told me of one eejit of a lad years ago who pulled a calf and destroyed both the cow and the calf killing them.

On the other hand a neighbour I worked with, great stock man, used to use the jeep or the 46 to pull difficult calfs. He is a good man for labour saving and making jobs easier by devising methods of avoiding manual mullocking.
He used tie up to the arms or the hitch and ask put a light strain on the calf. Then the actual heavy pulling would be done by standing into a loop of rope he'd have hanging from the main rope to put your weight onto the rope. You could apply a lot of pulling force this way. Every so often you'd move the tractor forward a 6 inches to keep a light strain.

An awful lot less back breaking work than straight hand pulling with a rope or messing with a jack that could fly this way or that.

Always worked from what I could see anyway.

WTF you are discussing on a public forum
I dont think anybody who calves cows this way should have them

_Brian

Hate this type of thread as it depicts farming soo badly.

This is the practice of a very small number if savages that shouldn't be allowed have animals.

It would so us all a service if the thread was deleted completly.

whisky_galore

Keep the thread (with a mod warning) to let others know that this activity is not tolerated by the majority.

farmerjj

Have you ever seen this Byrne?? Sounds like one of these "a lad was telling me in the local" ... Pure rubbish

Mayo_Boy

Why would you even start a thread like this??

pajero12

blue5000 wrote: »

He is just using his weight as force, a calving jack would exert more force.

''actual heavy pulling would be done by standing into a loop of rope he'd have hanging from the main rope to put your weight onto the rope''

Tie it to a gate if you're that badly stuck,Granted people get injured but If you're not capable of operating a jack you shouldn't be calving cows.

patsy_mccabe

I got laughed at here before for suggesting that people should be trained to calf a cow. I pull calves from time to time for neighbours. The amount of times I see guys putting in dirty hands, pulling way too early, never even checking to see if the calf will come out in the first place. A lot of these farmers wouldnt be young either.

Absolute madness pulling with a jeep. Buy a calving jack.

welton john

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

I've heard of a number of people doing things like this with difficult calvings. I'd imagine such a practice is heavily frowned upon.

D'father told me of one eejit of a lad years ago who pulled a calf and destroyed both the cow and the calf killing them.

On the other hand a neighbour I worked with, great stock man, used to use the jeep or the 46 to pull difficult calfs. He is a good man for labour saving and making jobs easier by devising methods of avoiding manual mullocking.
He used tie up to the arms or the hitch and ask put a light strain on the calf. Then the actual heavy pulling would be done by standing into a loop of rope he'd have hanging from the main rope to put your weight onto the rope. You could apply a lot of pulling force this way. Every so often you'd move the tractor forward a 6 inches to keep a light strain.

An awful lot less back breaking work than straight hand pulling with a rope or messing with a jack that could fly this way or that.

Always worked from what I could see anyway.

Are you not the one on here who is outraged and disgusted if someone even suggests something which is not within health and safety guidelines.? Since when is this safe practice? From the tone of your post you seem perfectly fine to condone this. Hypocracy at its finest

Chemical Byrne

Well I would not condone the use of jeep to acutally pull the calf. Using it to make a rope taut which can then be strained and pulled by putting your weight on it is not the same thing. It's more of a movable tie off. That seemed to work well with the neighbour.

The first guy was from down my father's home area and I would condemn what he did. IIRC he used a tractor to straight pull the calf.

kay 9

I'd be ashamed to call myself a farmer doing that ****, although there's a few vankers around here that are pure ignorant brutes. Winching calves with Jeeps & tractors as above and skulling with no norracaine. It's not the 1920s ffs

welton john

Give me jack any day even if only for a light pull , seconds to assemble and wash after. With a jack you have the best sense of pressure your applying. Must be easier than standing on a tensioned rope or inside in knot. How easy would is be to fall off? If hes too mean to buy a jack well you know what they say about pride.

Chemical Byrne

He has a jack but it's rarely used because he says it is more difficult to control the force compared to leaning your weight on a rope.

Tbh, all I know about calving is from this guy. I come from tillage farm and would have no other experience of stock.

pedigree 6

It's bad practice end of. Tell him to get a calving jack pronto. Talking about this here is not going to give a good impression of farming. If you're looking for pros and cons of this, there's no pros for this.

Chemical Byrne

As I said, he already has a jack but doesn't really use it. I'm hardly going to go telling a lad how to run his business when I've little experience of stock myself.

Anyway, I kind of just naturally figured that it was bad practice, it doesn't seem right to pull a calf with a vehicle. Was just unsure as to how bad or rare it was for this to happen.

Suckler

It must be April 1st...........

kerryjack

Its a serious act of savagery and anyone doing such practice should be warned to stop and if not be reported to the relevant autoraaties for cruelty to animals any right minded individual would not do this practice

cute geoge

The plot thicken!!!

djmc

A calf has to come out straight ie. Legs first with head between or if backwards back legs first. If not straight or sideways it will get stuck in the cows pelvic bones also other problems like head turning as you pull or twins with one leg each out or otherwise tangled up
All this can be felt by hand or with a calving jack with a vehicle you could kill the calf damage the cow and cause unnecessary suffering.
Cows are easier calved standing up as well.
The only thing I use a tractor loader is to move a downer cow that can't stand ie. calving paralysis.

boggerman1

Any "farmer" that does something like this should be barred from having animals in his/her care.end off.

kerryjack

Problem is who would be man enough to report such sn ass if I saw an neighbor at such an act I won't be long telling him to cop the **** on

CloughCasey1

Can't believe this ****. Does anyone do that?? I don't think so. Are you trying stir ****e again chemical?? What would your reaction be if your missus was at the height of labour and the midwife pulls out a length of rope and roars out the door back up the 390 there lads!

Chemical Byrne

Look, I don't know much about stock and I remember my dad telling me about that fella and helping my neighbour calving from time to time. I always sensed that it was not the right way to do it and I was reading some calving practice manual this morning and it said to never pull with machinery. I just didn't know whether it's officially denounced but still is common, or frowned upon or completely unacceptable. Now I am clear that it is the latter.

Kevhog1988

that is mental!!
ive seen some unsafe things in my time but tbh thats cruelty

pajero12

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

He has a jack but it's rarely used because he says it is more difficult to control the force compared to leaning your weight on a rope.

Tbh, all I know about calving is from this guy. I come from tillage farm and would have no other experience of stock.

F*ck that, There's no way to control the pressure anyways, If a calf will come with on average 80 or 90kg of pressure, she'll come herself,Lots of lubricant would be much more use.
Not to mention when you stand on a rope you're pulling it down at a sharp angle towards the ground,That's hard on the cow and you're also pulling at completely the wrong angle.

Limestone Cowboy

As bad and all as it is and I don't agree with it but there are some lads who are doing just as much damage with the calving Jack trying to Ratchet a calf out in 15 seconds.

farmerjj

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

As bad and all as it is and I don't agree with it but there are some lads who are doing just as much damage with the calving Jack trying to Ratchet a calf out in 15 seconds.

Don't think anyone one would disagree that some ppl are rough, but no person with half a brain would pull a calf with a tractor that's in a different league.

Jb1989

CloughCasey1 wrote: »

Can't believe this ****. Does anyone do that?? I don't think so. Are you trying stir ****e again chemical?? What would your reaction be if your missus was at the height of labour and the midwife pulls out a length of rope and roars out the door



......back up the 390 there lads!

Reggie your needed

frazzledhome

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

As bad and all as it is and I don't agree with it but there are some lads who are doing just as much damage with the calving Jack trying to Ratchet a calf out in 15 seconds.

Very good point. +1

The 2 methods mentioned are acts of extreme brutality towards the cow and calf. On the other hand I've seen similar acts, occasionally might I add with a calving jack.

A calving jack in the wrong hands is as dangerous as any of the above. The trick with a jack is knowing when it's required and when it's not. At calving here we could have quiet a few in a day and the jack is only used on 2-3% of the cows and perhaps a little more patience may see it used less.

Trick no2 is when it's required knowing how to use it. A cows contractions are enough to birth most calves and the jack should only be used to hold the calf between contractions. Angle is also very important as is knowing the force that can be applied by levering the end of the jack.

If anyone doesn't know how to operate one they shouldn't be allowed to have one.

To finish I worked in farm in Holland and the rule at calving there was if its a cow starting smoke a cigar and if it's s heifer smoke 2 cigars, in other words have patience and let nature do the heavy lifting

Greengrass1

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

I got laughed at here before for suggesting that people should be trained to calf a cow. I pull calves from time to time for neighbours. The amount of times I see guys putting in dirty hands, pulling way too early, never even checking to see if the calf will come out in the first place. A lot of these farmers wouldnt be young either.

Absolute madness pulling with a jeep. Buy a calving jack.

I think that is a brilliant idea. Shouldn't have to calf cows. I'd say in last 2 yrs I've pulled about 10 calves

Limestone Cowboy

Greengrass1 wrote: »

I think that is a brilliant idea. Shouldn't have to calf cows. I'd say in last 2 yrs I've pulled about 10 calves

Buy a Charolais bull and you'll need it

Limestone Cowboy

farmerjj wrote: »

Don't think anyone one would disagree that some ppl are rough, but no person with half a brain would pull a calf with a tractor that's in a different league.

Extremely rough but I have seen more cows down with a dogging from the calving Jack than being pulled with a jeep/car. I have seen lads start ratcheting and stay ratcheting on the Jack giving the cow no chance to open properly or making no attempt to work with the cow in the process with the cow throw over on her side bawling, no great difference between that and tying them to a jeep in my eyes.

Kovu

Enough.
Learn how to guage by getting your arm dirty. Ffs.

pedigree 6

frazzledhome wrote: »

Very good point. +1

The 2 methods mentioned are acts of extreme brutality towards the cow and calf. On the other hand I've seen similar acts, occasionally might I add with a calving jack.

A calving jack in the wrong hands is as dangerous as any of the above. The trick with a jack is knowing when it's required and when it's not. At calving here we could have quiet a few in a day and the jack is only used on 2-3% of the cows and perhaps a little more patience may see it used less.

Trick no2 is when it's required knowing how to use it. A cows contractions are enough to birth most calves and the jack should only be used to hold the calf between contractions. Angle is also very important as is knowing the force that can be applied by levering the end of the jack.

If anyone doesn't know how to operate one they shouldn't be allowed to have one.

To finish I worked in farm in Holland and the rule at calving there was if its a cow starting smoke a cigar and if it's s heifer smoke 2 cigars, in other words have patience and let nature do the heavy lifting

Totally agree as you say the trick is knowing how and when to use it. The experienced farmer will know when a cow is in trouble and check to see if head and two right legs are coming and always hygiene is essential. Wear gloves if you can. The less intervention needed the greater chance of going in calf again.