The further adventures of Stormy the ox

[OldKat]

Sometimes animals amaze me, regardless of how well I think I know them. I have a big steer, Stormy, who is technically an ox because he is over 30 months of age, that I have talked about before in other posts. When he was a little fella I inadvertently left a trailer gate unlatched and he fell out of the trailer when the door came open. Unfortunately I was doing probably 25 to 30 mph at the time so I knocked the bark off him pretty good. That experience hardly fazed him. He has stayed with me even when I have had to cull cows sharply due to persistent drought in 5 of the last 7 years, because he is so gentle and so calm that he makes the perfect baby sitter. When I have a bull that has come in from the cows I stick him with old Stormy until it is time to use him elsewhere. When I was in the heifer buying mode I would stick them with Stormy upon arrival and they would calm right down. No fence walking, no bawling and carrying on. He is black, with both rear feet and his switch being white. An attractive animal, he is out of a Holstein cow and a Black Limousine bull; probably just under 6 feet tall at the shoulder and weighs at least 2,600 pounds … maybe more. The gentlest giant you ever met.

Last Saturday I had to load a bull that I am selling and get a weight on him, because I am selling him by the pound to a guy that has just a few F-1 Brahman heifers he wants breed to a Red Angus bull. Old N201 is the perfect choice because he is a medium framed, flat muscled bull that turned out to weigh only 1,700 pounds. He has known Stormy his entire life and has been running with him non-stop since early this year, including when I was using him to cover about 10 or so of my smaller framed cows and a couple of heifers. None of my other bulls would ever allow Stormy in the pasture with them while they were servicing cows, but this bull will. However, N201 is expendable because I have decided to eliminate any non-registered (commercial) cow and that is what N201 was mainly used to breed. I was going to weigh the bull, then haul Stormy and a weanling heifer to the other side of the creek and across the electric fence from where they had been running. When I returned from weighing the bull I unloaded him the pen on the east side of the creek, but when I loaded Stormy and the little heifer the bull jumped back into the trailer. It was too much of a hassle to unload all of them and reload just the two, so I got the bright idea of taking all three to the west side and then just let Stormy and the heifer out of the trailer, but keeping the bull in until I returned to the east side.

Everything went fine until I got in the gate on the west side of the creek and the cows started surrounding the trailer. The bull got real animated and every time I tried to open the rear gate he tried to jump out. Finally it worked out that he was facing the rear of the trailer, Stormy was facing the front and so was the little heifer. The trailer is a 16’ foot bumper hitch trailer with a slider/swinging rear gate combo and let out gate on the front. I reached over and opened the let out and Stormy started crawling out, more like squeezing out because I am sure the manufacturer never had in mind using that gate for anything quite his size. You ox drovers no doubt know what happened next; yep he got out to his hips and hung up. He was wider that the opening for the gate. I have seen things like this happen before and it usually means a broken hip on the animal, a dead animal or a destroyed gate. Something has to give and most bovine are not receptive to standing calmly while they are wedged in such a situation. To make matters worse Stormy’s sizeable girth had made it past the opening in the gate and then he relaxed his gut so that he was now wider in front of the gate and behind it as well. I knew that the land-owners son-in-law was up at this shop, because he had waved when I drove in. I also knew that he has an oxy-acetylene torch up there and I contemplated calling him from my cell phone and asking him to hurriedly bring the torch down so I could extricate the big guy from his dilemma. I wasn’t looking forward to cutting open the side of the trailer, but I would have done it.

For some reason I just reached over and started pushing on his flank just on my side of the door. At that point he did the most amazing thing I could even imagine. He literally sucked his gut in; just like the fat guys (such as me) do at the beach when pretty girls are around and started BACKING into the trailer! I kept shoving his belly inside the door frame and he kept going until he had to lift his feet and step up inside; no mean feat as he had NEVER been asked to do anything like that before! I stepped in front of him and put my hand on his poll to encourage him to keep backing. Finally he was inside the trailer, except for his head and neck. However, he had come out when he was facing the front of the trailer. When he backed in his rump had swung around and was now at the very front of the trailer. He is longer than the trailer is wide, so he was still stuck. I pushed down on his poll and when his head was near the floor I pushed his nose straight back and POP, he was back inside the trailer. Within a few minutes I had the little heifer out, turned the bull toward the front and let Stormy out the back door.

This may not be THE MOST AMAZING animal feat ever, but it was a pretty darn significant deal to me. I can’t tell any of the people I work with about it because with ZERO exposure to cattle they wouldn’t have a clue what that big guy pulled off, but I know some of you will find it interesting. I just wish I had worked with him like some of you do with your oxen, because I have a feeling he would have been a really quick learner.

[CharlyBonifaz]

because I have a feeling he would have been a really quick learner.

he still might be 😉

[Carl Russell]

Great story. Get a single yoke and give him a try!!!

I have a big steer, Stormy, who is technically an ox because he is over 30 months of age,

Not to diminish the value of your story, technically a steer is always a steer, until it is trained to work, then it becomes and ox, when mature.

Carl

[Vicki]

How can a body not LOVE cattle?!? Your telling made it clear in my mind exactly what happened. Stormy obviously trusts you and your leadership. And is smart! You should start working him!

I have been amazed at the docility and trust of steers who have gotten in a jackpot, and wait patiently for you to help them out. I have two big stuck ox “rescue” stories, not as dramatic as Stormie’s, (I was ready to call for a cutting torch in a blizzard at night because of a round bale feeder section and a Dutch Belted’s head, and dug out a shorthorn who somehow got upside down with his horn buried in mud–I was certain at first he was dead) so I understand the exhiliration and pride and wonder you feel afterwards.

I read in an old SFJ about an old oxman in Maine who trucked his big boys to logging sites. Somehow, almost miraculously, they could turn themselves 180 degrees in the truck to face the back and come out, which amazed onlookers.

Thanks for telling, OldKat.

I knew an ox team that was Holstein/Limmy, trained by Brandt Ainsworth. Very handsome, very powerful, very smart critters. Brandt actually let me pull them in the powderpuff pull at Fryeburg fair. They did great, and could have done better had i driven them better. That was a thrill of a lifetime!

[Gabe Ayers]

Vicki,

Can you get Braint to participate in this forum?

He has truly earned a place in this community of interest. I have met he and his father a few times over the years and he is a good hand.

At least make him aware of it and telling Jason Rutledge was bragging on his skill and called him a “bull of the woods” kind of guy.

Sincerely,

[Carl Russell]

Vicki got me recalling several rodeos that I had with my old Holsteins. They weighed 2700# each, and were nearly 6 feet at the shoulder. I could spend far more time than I have right now retelling them, so I will hold off for now.

But the maneuver that really came to mind when she mentioned the steers turning in the truck, was how I could drive my team yoked through a single-wide swinging door in my barn. I would back them to the door, back the off ox through the opening, back gee their heads through, then come-up gee and the nigh ox would step frontwards through the door. I would follow. Many animals can be amazing in how they respond to our guidance, but there is something notable when such huge animals are so amenable.

Carl

[Tim Harrigan]

Carl, great story. When my steers work with me like that I am just so thankful to have the opportunity. I am continually surprised at how intellegent cattle are when they want to be.

[Nat(wasIxy)]

Great story – I would certainly try riding or working him, but taking it verrrry slowly…

Non-ox people don’t appreciate these stories – For a while we had a band of cattle including my oxen roaming the yard here because there was nowhere else to put them, and for some reason Angus my simmi likes to climb up piles – dung heaps etc. We had a pile of gravel, and a ladder lying up the side of it and sure enough Angus wanted to climb it, so up he went on all this gravel. At one point, he put his hoof through a rung of the ladder and I saw the gravel shift under him so his leg became trapped. I started panicking because I could just imagine him going crazy, the gravel shifting, more legs getting caught in the ladder and some bones breaking! But no, He stopped dead, calmly thought about it for a second or two, and then very carefully backed off the pile, pulling his hoof out with him 😀

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