My second week at home has been a little more eventful, but I have somehow managed to sneak a little more time for rest in there. I have been helping quite a bit at my family’s cattle auction (Dad can always use a little free labor) and this is no easy task let me assure you. We have been socked with some rain this week so it seems we are only digging ourselves deeper in the mud and farther away from being able to make our first cutting of hay.
Our auction is every Tuesday and this week we were a little short on hands and stock because of the heavy rains the day before, so I jumped in and worked wherever someone needed an extra hand. As I was going throughout the barn helping the vets push cattle through the head gate, helping tag in cattle on the docks, load cattle into the scales, or sort cattle to be loaded out, I noticed something different about how the cattle are handled in our barn. About a year ago my dad took away all of the
cattle prods in the barn with the exception of two; one at the vet’s chute and one in the loading chute to go onto the scales. There has been such a difference in the cattle handling without cattle prods.
I hadn't been to our local auctions in several years, and finally went this last spring. I also noticed the electric prods and whips were gone. They use the whips, but have the end cut off and just have a flag on the end. Also at one auction they use compressed air and a long wand with a flag on the end to push the cattle into the ring. I guess it all helps improve the "image" of cattle auctions.
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