Tricks of the Lick Tub Trade

If you've ever fed lick tubs, you probably know what I'm talking about when I say they are a royal pain in the neck to handle. Weighing in at 250 lbs, these short, stout tubs are beyond my ability to manipulate. Perhaps some of you other ladies, or anyone for that matter, have similar gripes about lick tubs.
Here is the solution I have devised, using tools from the ranching version of "duct tape and twine can fix anything" box.
First, I have my dad or brother place a block under one side of a few tubs wherever they are being stored. This gets them in a position so I can tip them over and roll them around. One key point here is not to have the lick tubs tipped over on their side wherever you are storing them if it's hot. This will result in no lick being left in your tub when you go to feed it....
I roll the chosen tub outside. Then, I go get a chain and the hydrabed. Or, this particular pickup is sporting Mr. Hydrabed's great grandfather, but it still gets the job done. While the tub is still on its side, I wrap the chain over the top and around the sides to the bottom. Then I half twist both ends around each other and wrap it back around the tub on the other two sides. This is just like wrapping ribbon on a present as far as technique goes. Once both ends of the chain are back on top, I tip the tub back over so it's upright again, and adjust the chains if they need it.
I then twist/tie the chain again at the top in a highly technical fashion that would have the men (who are not involved in the feeding of this tub and therefore have no input) cringing. Next I back the pickup up, lower the hydrabed, loop one end of the chain over the arm and secure it, then lift.
To help you visualize this procedure, I took photos the other day:

Once set on the pickup, I unhook the chain attached to the arm, and lower it around the top of the tub like so for transit. I haven't had one rattle off yet from this location. I think if you were going on a fairly smooth road you could just let it hang from the arm just off the pickup bed. I am in no way responsible if you decide to try this and it goes very wrong.

Upon arrival, the hydrabed arm is lifted and the tub rolled off the side. A mild struggle to get it tipped upright ensues. Eventually I win, and everyone is happy - me that it will be empty when I pick it up, and the heifers that they have something to eat.

Digestive preparations

I just mentioned in a recent post that we adjust our feeding schedule based things like bad weather. Today I was busy preparing for what is forecasted to be a nasty winter blizzard starting around midnight tonight.
The radio was saying they expect 30+ mph winds, 6-10 inches of snow, temperatures ranging from zero to 30 below zero...it doesn't sound fun.

The first thing I did was gather these 26 cows out of the pasture neighboring where they are supposed to be. After preg checking we just turned the cows into this pasture, and they typically make their way to the next one out of habit. If they don't, most come when you start feeding. The gates between the two pastures are left open, because when we're feeding usually the cows come every day and it isn't an issue.
But the nice weather this year...and the questionable intelligence level of these individuals...resulted in them never coming to feed. This wasn't a big deal with the very nice temperatures we've had so far this winter. The abundant left over grass was more than enough for these cows to thrive on so far.


But the impending blizzard, and the fact that we want these cows to come to feed along with everyone else, meant I gathered and trailed them through this gate to the proper pasture. Then I closed the gate, trailed them down to water, and fed everyone a double ration to get their energy levels up before the cold weather hits.
As I also mentioned the linked post, we feed our cows every other day. I just fed these cows yesterday, but gave them more hay today so they'll be ready for the wind, snow and cold.




Here they are trailing into feed.




I also briefly mentioned that a cow has a ruminant stomach, which allows them to utilize forages, or feedstuffs, over 24, or 48, hour periods.
This ruminant stomach is separated into four compartments.



When the cow swallows a mouth full of hay, it has two choices. Heavy, or big, pieces of hay will drop into the Reticulum. From this compartment the cow can regurgitate the feed and chew on it again. This is called chewing her cud, and is something cows do regularly, and is typically done when they're calm and relaxed. This unique ability allows a cow to eat a whole bunch in one sitting, like when I'm feeding a bale of hay, then regurgitate it later and chew it more thoroughly before digesting it. It's like a built in storage/recycling system for food, and is one reason you can feed them a couple days apart.
Smaller, and lighter, pieces of feed go into the Omasum. While the picture doesn't really show it, the cow's stomach will sort the bigger and heavier pieces of feed from the lighter, smaller pieces at the junction of Omasum and Reticulum.
From that point the feed goes on through the Abomasum, to the Rumen, then into the intestines.
Another key aspect of ruminant digestion are the microbes, which are just microscopic bugs, present in a ruminant's stomach. Most of these microbes are in the Rumen compartment. These microbes are what allow the animal to digest feedstuffs. For example, one group of microbes found in the Rumen are called Cellulolytics, and they break down Cellulose, which is the primary component in forages.
Humans and other single-stomached creatures lack the efficiency, and often the ability, to break down roughage's, specifically Cellulose, into a usable energy source. This is why cattle, sheep, and other ruminants are so vital to society. They take the forages found all over the country, and world, that we cannot utilize as humans, and they eat it, and because of their unique stomachs, they are able to convert it to energy to grow and produce a usable food for humans - meat.



Here's what it looks like from the outside. The other thing all this digesting creates is heat. The coarser the forage they're eating, the longer it takes the microbes, or bugs, to eat and process it. The longer it takes the microbes to break it down, the more heat they generate during the process.





So for those reasons I fed the cows a couple older, coarser bales. This means it was forage with bigger stems. While not the highest quality hay we feed, it has a definite place when we want to keep our cows warm.
Grass hay is an example coarser hay, that takes longer to digest. Alfalfa hay, is finer, and microbes can attack and process it faster. So Alfalfa creates energy faster, but it is much shorter lived, while grass is a slower starting, longer lasting form of energy.
We also feed hay that is a combination of the two, to maximize to the benefits of both.

Before the gifts...

...is feeding at our outfit. Christmas Eve morning everyone was busy feeding so we didn't have to feed Christmas day.
Cattle have a ruminant stomach that is separated into four compartments and is designed to maximize the utilization of the conversion of forages and grains to energy. A ruminant's stomach contains bacteria that allows them to adjust to digesting feed over a 24, or 48 hour period.
We feed our cattle every other day, and that allows us to dedicate one day to feeding, and one day to something else. It's a matter of time economics, and the cattle are used the routine and it meets their energy needs.
If it gets cold we will adjust our feeding schedule accordingly to ensure our livestock have enough additional energy to stay warm and maintain their body condition in the colder weather.
Where my family lives there is rarely enough snow to cover all the grass, and they can fill up on the old grass. We are responsible for providing them with the nutrients the dead grass is lacking, and that's why we feed a lot of cake. It's a good way to provide that energy in a way that is easy to feed.
But, where my uncle lives in the black hills, the grass is almost always under snow this time of year, so he feeds them hay to both fill them up and meet their energy requirements.
There is a lot of science, economics, humanities, weather watching and dietitian aspects to feeding cattle. We have to make sure their energy and nutrient requirements are met, they stay healthy, and we don't go broke feeding them.
We feed our cattle on this schedule no matter what, and Christmas is no exception. We feed before we eat our Christmas dinner, open presents, or play games.


Christmas Eve morning I went with my uncle to feed his calves and yearling heifers hay. We pull out to the feed ground, where the snow is packed down, after loading two round bales of hay onto the pickup.

Here is the hay feeding pickup. He uses a hydrabed, which will be demonstrated a little further down. Here we are adjusting where the arms are gripping the bale - you want the arms in the center of the bale, because you pull the bale behind the pickup and it unrolls. If you don't grab it in the middle it doesn't unroll well, and causes problems.
The calves arrive and wait patiently for the bales to be unrolled.



First is getting the twine strings off the bales. This is what holds the round bale together. Some bales are also wrapped with net wrap instead of twine.



All the strings are cut, then you pull them out. You want to have the bale picked up off the ground for this step, because trying to drag strings out from under a 1,200 pound bale is difficult at best.



A recent rain storm on top of the all the snow froze some of the strings to the bale. So my uncle used his axe, and pitchfork, to break up the ice, and free the strings.




Here is a chunk that is still caught in the ice. After freeing all string, it's looped and tied in a knot and secured in the pickup. A loose batch of twine string can make an awful mess, and mad ranchers.




Then my uncle gets in, lowers the bale to the ground, and takes off. The other bale just sits on the back of the pickup, and will ride there unless you try to go up a steep hill.





As the bale unrolls, you use manual controls in the cab to lower the hydrabed arms further to keep the bale on the ground and unrolling.
Sometimes you will pick up a bale backwards, and have to back up to unroll it.






Then you drive, and lower the arms as needed, until your bale is completely unwrapped.




Those two knobs are the controls for the hydrabed. One raises and lowers the arms, and the other moves the arms back and forth to grip or release the bale.



He just let the first bale go, and is raising the arms to grab the next one.






Pearl was supervising.




He will set the bale on the ground, get the arms centered on the bale, re-grab it, raise it off the ground, cut the strings, knock all that ice off, pull, loop and tie the strings in a knot, set the bale back down, then unroll the bale.
We fed these calves five bales, and repeated the same process for each one.




The calves fall in behind and eat. After every cow, horse and other creature on the ranch has been feed their ration, we go in the house, eat our dinner, open our presents, and thank the Lord for the birth of his Son, the food, our family, the cows and horses and other creatures we are responsible for, and the gifts we received.

Feeding calves cake

By cake, I am referring to the stuff seen below... Cake is a livestock feed we use to supplement protein to our cattle during the winter months. They rely on grass, and sometimes hay, to fill up on, and we feed them cake to meet their nutrient requirements.

This cake is 5/8 in diameter and contains 20% protein. We calculate a ration for our cattle based on their weight, the weather conditions (it takes more feed when it's colder), and how much we want them to gain. Cake is made from a variety of grains like barley and corn, other filler feedstuffs and usually a little molasses to make it stick and taste good.
You can also buy 3/8 cake, and you can choose from 12, 14 or 20% protein, depending on what you're feeding and what your feeding goals are. There are probably other cake choices out there, but where I'm from the ones I listed are most common.

Our cake is delivered by the semi-load, and stored in this aptly named cake bin. Our cake feeder, seen on the back of the pickup (it's in other pictures below too, if you want a better angle), sits on a scales so we can feed a specific amount of cake depending on how many come to eat, what we're feeding, etc...


You turn a lever, and a door in the bottom of the cake bin opens, and pours cake out. You can control the flow by how far you open the door. You want to be parked just right, or you'll pour cake all over the back of your pickup, or on the roof.




You want the handle you turn to open and close the door to be up-wind of the actual door. All that silt coming out is like sand, and when the Wyoming wind gets to howling it will sandblast your face if you're downwind of it. We had to switch our handle after learning this the hard way.


There is an auger in the bottom of the cake feeder that a little motor turns, and that spits the cake out here. That big wheel serves a number of purposes, one being that it prevents the cake from spewing out in a wide arc. You want it to be in a fairly narrow row when you feed so the cattle can find it and aren't tromping half of their ration into the snow and mud.


Now that the feeder is full, we're ready to feed something. These are our calves, and I fed them this morning. They love their cake, and if you aren't on the ball they'll all be waiting for you at the gate.


There is also a siren on the cake feeder that is controlled from in the cab. In larger pastures it's necessary to alert the cattle you are there to feed. Cows recognize different sirens, and pickups, and will come when "called" with a horn or siren. These guys are in a small pasture and can hear and see you coming easily, but I still turned on the siren a couple times in case any weren't paying attention, and to train them for the future.


Another thing that occurs in larger pastures is cattle have to wait for those that are still walking to feed. It's important to give everyone equal opportunity at feed, or some will get too much and some not enough. Calves can get impatient, but cows will stand around the feed pickup like this for over an hour while waiting for the rest to arrive at the feedground.


Then you feed. I took this picture one-handed, while feeding, and apologize that it's crooked. But it gives you an idea of what's going on. On the left the cake can be seen pouring out onto the ground, and the calves are falling in behind to eat.


We feed our calves in a circle, because if they're uncertain and wonder around and you have fed in a circle, they will hit the other side where their buddies are eating away. Calves are curious and give in to peer pressure, so when they see all their buddies eating off the ground, usually their curiosity kicks in and they try it too, and before too long you have everyone eating cake, or any other feedstuff. I did say usually, because as with all things involving livestock, there are always exceptions and the occasional unpredictable outcome.

These guys are getting on the cake pretty well. Not as fast as last year, when at this time I had one calf who wouldn't eat. This year we still have about 20 who aren't real interested in it. We are contributing this in part to the nice weather and abundant leftover grass this year. They have plenty to eat, and cold weather always generates more interest in cake, hay or other supplemental feeds. This week has been our first cold spell all winter, and no one is complaining about that : )

Pouring calves

This post has been in the works for a while. Over Easter weekend we poured our calves for parasites. This is much like worming your dog, only at a larger scale. To take you through the process I managed to get quite a few photos.
First we gathered. Obviously it's very hard... They love the feed pickup and will happily chase it anywhere in hopes of some cake. I am on a 4-wheeler to keep any stragglers from getting away.


After getting the calves into the corral my parents tried to read the directions on the box without their glasses...hehe...and we got everything set up, the cattle sorted and put in the alley way

My job is to bring the calves down the alley, into what is called the, "tub" ( you can see it down there)and up a narrower alley to the chute, where they will be caught individually and poured.

Here we come, my mom was taking pictures too

Yep, that's me, and yep, it was cold. This is how I dress at home in the winter. It might be part of the reason I love shopping and looking nice when I'm in public...sounds like a good excuse anyway :)

Here is the smaller alley leading to the chute, which is run by hydraulics, hence the pickup my mom is standing by and the hydraulic lines.

In addition to pouring we also weighed one bunch individually because we were getting ready to sell them. Our scales were set in front of the chute and as you can see they would hop right in. My mom in the previous picture is reading a weight and getting ready to record it.

My sister, Holly (who will have a post devoted to her soon) was in charge of letting the calves out of the chute. Here she is demonstrating because I couldn't get a photo while in the tub.
Here is the second bunch we didn't weigh, so the scales aren't sitting in front of the chute.

After everyone had been run through and poured we fed.

You may have noticed a few tales with duck tape wrapped around them. This is how we identify our replacement heifers (those we're keeping for breeding) from the cull heifers (those we are selling). It's not something very many people I know of use, but paint sticks and snow just don't mix very well and this works great and as you can see is highly visible.

An update

First a note on the photo. I am not a heeler fan, but since this one didn't snarl at or bite me I rewarded it by snapping a couple shots. He was hanging out at the bull test this weekend, more on that down the page a ways.

I have been busy, and sick. Not a good combination. We are at 28 pages for this weeks paper and my articles include two very technical pieces that I wrote based on Journal of Animal Science articles. College stress flashbacks were frequent throughout researching and writing them. I'm still not that impressed with how they turned out, but hopefully people get something out of them.

This weekend I went to dinner with the guy Friday night at Firerock and again with another couple Saturday night at an amazing Mexican restaurant whose name I can neither pronounce or remember. :)

Sunday I was between Shoshoni and Riverton taking pictures of bulls for the WBCIA bull test. I looked at the bulls on test a few years ago and was so unimpressed I swore never to return. BUT, this years group is much better and I was pretty impressed with a few based on looks alone.

I should also clarify that I wasn't taking pictures, I was carrying a sorting stick with a mooing stuffed cow tied to the end...oh yeah, you read that right. My job was to stop the bulls and capture their attention with the stuffed cow so the Roundup field rep could take pictures. It was fun, for the most part. I enjoyed wandering through a feedlot full of bulls. I also interviewed the producer of the year since I was in the area.
My reward for working all day Sunday? Lunch at Taco Bell and bottle of Crown, gotta love the people I work with!

Sunday night I didn't feel well, this carried over to Monday and I left work at lunch. This morning I was too stressed to be sick since I had so much to complete by 5. But, here is it 3:30 and I am caught up...I think. I also feel better so hopefully I am done with this annoying cold.

Hope everyone's week is going well!