# My SA Boerboel working Cattle



## Tony McCallum (May 26, 2009)

As a "holiday" , l work different breeds besides my cowdogs .
Just for usefulness value, this is my young daughters gaurdian, helping out on the farm
Tony

pasture work http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1Nn1M2jGWo 

yard work http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0IS7eXmjSE


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## ann schnerre (Aug 24, 2006)

wow--that was NICE!!


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## Ben Thompson (May 2, 2009)

Tony McCallum said:


> As a "holiday" , l work different breeds besides my cowdogs .
> Just for usefulness value, this is my young daughters gaurdian, helping out on the farm
> Tony
> 
> ...


In the one video she chased that stray right back into the herd. Nice doggy. If I remember correctly Boerboel means farm dog in Dutch.


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

Nice work. Do you guys AI and run a clean up bull with the Hereford cows or just natural service from the bull?


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## Tony McCallum (May 26, 2009)

Yes Ben, Boerboel means Farm Dog, in Dutch, she seems to believe it, she is very handy around here.
Maren, our breeding is a la natural here. l normally use a black bull on the herefords, and keep the resulting heifers as breeders. But a friend had that big Santa bull so l borrowed him to try on a group of cows.
Tony


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## Jeff Oehlsen (Apr 7, 2006)

That is nice to watch. Looks real good.


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

Excellent farm work! Great natural instincts. I'll take that any day over a points competition dog.


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

Tony McCallum said:


> Maren, our breeding is a la natural here. l normally use a black bull on the herefords, and keep the resulting heifers as breeders. But a friend had that big Santa bull so l borrowed him to try on a group of cows.
> Tony


The reason I was curious if you used him as an AI clean up bull is because people around here seem to like to AI Herefords with Herefords for purebred stock, but they may use a black Angus bull for cleanup to check the success of their AI techs. So lots of black baldies/white faces around here if the AI techs aren't doing a good job.  I don't we see too many Santa Gertrudis around here, so I'm not real familiar with them yet. One popular breed around here to cross is the Gelbvieh. Plus as a vet student, I appreciate that they are pretty easy to work with along with being good producers. :smile: Seems some folks love their Angus, but some are just nutty and difficult to work with. Time is money after all...


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## James Lechernich (Oct 20, 2009)

Saw the yard video a few years ago, it's one of my favorites. Also like the looks of that tsu dog. Really nice! 




What prompted you to use boerboels when you live in the land of kelpies and boardogs?


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## Nicole Stark (Jul 22, 2009)

That was a real pleasure to watch. Beautiful dog too.


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## Tony McCallum (May 26, 2009)

Maren, l have found that good dogs will quieten most cattle.If you know the nature of your stock and handle them accordingly, there is no need for any breed to be unruly.
l live in Austrailia and cancer is a big drawback in the Hereford, we like the baldies for their pigment. We run a very low maintenance operation, so they mostly have to cope on their own , 
Tony


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## Tony McCallum (May 26, 2009)

Thanks folks,
James as l said , l work off breeds like the boerboel as a "holiday" or hobby.
For the big stock jobs l use my cowdogs, l like to have a dog around to look after my family out here when l am away. So as l have no slackers they all have to do general farm work as well.

Tony


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## James Lechernich (Oct 20, 2009)

Tony McCallum said:


> Thanks folks,
> James as l said , l work off breeds like the boerboel as a "holiday" or hobby.
> For the big stock jobs l use my cowdogs, l like to have a dog around to look after my family out here when l am away. So as l have no slackers they all have to do general farm work as well.


It's late, didn't catch the holiday part! lol But good dogs nonetheless, and I agree completely.


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

Tony McCallum said:


> Maren, l have found that good dogs will quieten most cattle.If you know the nature of your stock and handle them accordingly, there is no need for any breed to be unruly.
> l live in Austrailia and cancer is a big drawback in the Hereford, we like the baldies for their pigment. We run a very low maintenance operation, so they mostly have to cope on their own ,
> Tony


Yeah, I like the temperament of the Herefords (I had a post freshening cow about 2 weeks ago I had to tube feed because she wasn't cleaning up well after calving from retained fetal membranes and was dehydrated and she was quite good natured about the whole thing), but the tendency to prolapse and the eye cancer (squamous cell carcinoma) is certainly a drawback. The black baldies are a popular cross and all the better if the white stays off their eyes. 

Unfortunately, a lot of folks around in the States don't do cattlework as their primary job anymore. They have a job in town and when they get home, that's when they work with the stock. So the stock probably don't get handled and tamed down as much as they could. Plus people like to buy stock cheap at the sale barn and they are often not pre-conditioned before sale to be used to handling and moving. So of course, they are wily, stressed, and get sick because they have a sketchy vaccine history, if anything. But people get them cheap, so they don't seem to care, even though they take longer to handle and work. But like I said before, time is money... *shrug*


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## ann schnerre (Aug 24, 2006)

maren--you're in Missouri for heaven's sake, that's how they do things there. go to western NE/SD and work with the ranchers there--a completely different outlook


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

Yeah, that's very true. I almost thought about doing an externship out in western Nebraska to get some of that. But there are a lot more feedlots out that way and that's not really my bag. I prefer smaller cow/calf and small family/hobby producers to huge feedlots.


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## ann schnerre (Aug 24, 2006)

if you get really out west, there aren't feedlots--family-owned ranches, for 3-4 generations. now timmerman owns a lot of ground out west, but that's their cow/calf operations; south and west of here is feedlot country, north and west is ranches.

i like going out to carol's cause the country is wide open cattle country; saw a pasture last may that had probably 100+ angus bulls in it, good-looking bulls, 2-3 yr olds with a few older guys as well. made me happy that our producers are using quality...

lastly, IMO, theres no better cross than herefordxangus, they make a great terminal cross and a great commercial cow for crossing onto something else if wanted for a different terminal cross. hybrid vigor


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## Al Curbow (Mar 27, 2006)

Very nice dog


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## Terrasita Cuffie (Jun 8, 2008)

Interesting videos. I do hate it though when the dog gets underneath a cow. Somehow, they manage to come out unscathed. I keep thinking Khira has nine lives. You're right though. The dogs don't care much about a kick or getting underneath. They just keep on ticking. Watching the Boerboel made me think of one of my club members saying yeah Khira could move cows, but shes a big target. She's only 23 1/2 and 60 lbs. I like the smoothness of movement of the Boerbel and even though he will get right in and create motion, he's mentally calm. We have several club members with cattle and they don't fit Maren's description at all. They raise their own and its a very serious operation. Part of the raising is being handled by people and dogs. Like Tony, they breed/select for the easy keepers but there is also a lot of thought given to management to minimize any potential for illness or loss of productivity.

Terrasita


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

There's a lot of individual variation on how people raise their stock all over the state, just like there is with how people raise their dogs. Makes sense that people with working stockdogs would take an interest in handling their cattle. I love when producers have well tamed stock and who select for easygoing, easy keepers. Makes everyone's lives easier.  But not everybody does this. Some don't even see the calves until their one day of processing before sale, if that. We had an Angus steer calf so crazy in Hermann about a month and a half ago that attempted a literal backflip in the chute before we could get the headcatch on it. There was this moment for about 5 seconds when it landed on its back that we were like, what do we do if it can't get it up out of the chute? :-o There's actually a guy out by Moberly known for taking the junk cattle from the sale barn auctions for a song, getting them in some semblance of shape, and re-selling them for profit. Not that way I'd do it, but those kind of producers are definitely out there. Some of them spend time with their stock and select for good tempered stock, but some don't.

Most producers in Missouri (but not all) don't do a strict cow/calf to market operation. There are various steps where the calves are weaned +/- preconditioning (meaning the calves get their vaccinations, are dehorned, ear tagged, hormone implanted, and are castrated before being sold, not all in one step). Many people just have cow/calf pairs and sell the calves at weaning. Some people buy weaned calves either at a sale barn auction or privately from a breeder (what I previously described) and keep them on pasture until they are purchased by someone else to go to a feed lot (called stocker operations, often people with land who can graze the cattle, but don't want to mess with breeding). Some others buy those animals, once they've attained an appropriate weight, either from another sale barn or private sale and introduce them on a mix of grain and forage (called backgrounding) or send them straight to the feedlot. So there's often numerous steps to the process and a calf born at one farm may end up in 3-4 other locations before market unless they are going to be used as a bull or replacement heifer. In fact, it's the exception rather than the rule on a non-hobby farm in Missouri that people have a calf from birth to death at slaughter on one farm if it is intended for the beef market. It's more the hobby farmers or the people who do direct marketing of grassfed/organic/natural/etc beef to keep a calf from birth to death. It may be different in other states, but I've shadowed and externed in a couple locations around the state and that seems to be the general idea.


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## Terrasita Cuffie (Jun 8, 2008)

Maren Bell Jones said:


> There's a lot of individual variation on how people raise their stock all over the state, just like there is with how people raise their dogs. Makes sense that people with working stockdogs would take an interest in handling their cattle. I love when producers have well tamed stock and who select for easygoing, easy keepers. Makes everyone's lives easier.
> 
> 
> My sentiments exactly--there's variation. As for the working stockdogs, the individuals that I'm thinking of came from what Ann described as those 3-4 generation family farms. The dogs came later. We do have the non-hobby farmer/ranchers here and they talk in terms of selecting for the easy keeper which includes ease of handling. You can appreciate the ones that have been bred/selected for temperament after unloading or even dog breaking the sale barn nutsos. The good ones though can go eyeball a lot of cattle and pick out the ones that are better mentally. Then there is the part that Temple Grandin has become famous for---how to see the geographic set up as the cow does to minimize fight and protest. It may not be the temperament but something in the environment that is spooking him.
> ...


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

I think when people have full time jobs "in town" but they still want to keep the small family farm around, they may not get as much contact time with the stock as could probably be ideal as if they worked the farm full time. Teaching the stock to move through gates and the chute without panicking gets to be lower on the priority list of things to do, which is understandable, I suppose, when you've got a full time job on top of farm chores.

One book I really like on the subject is "Grass-fed Cattle: How to Produce and Market Natural Beef" by Julius Ruechel. It discusses in depth how to select and train your cattle to be led from pasture to pasture since grass finished cattle usually need to rotational grazing and emphasizes choosing breeding stock for hardiness, fertility, ease of calving, etc. and culling those who don't fit the bill.

In livestock, the two cancers that are probably most important for beef production is the squamous cell carcinoma (cancer eye, common in Herefords) and bovine leukemia virus (BLV). Both are a problem for producers because of carcass trimming and condemnation and decreased production, so selection and prevention against it genetically and with good medical and husbandry practices are pretty important.


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## Christopher Jones (Feb 17, 2009)

Hey Tony, have you had much experience with Koolies? My freind has just brought a puppy to herd his sheep and cattle with. Really cute puppy, looks like a Kelpie x Blue Heeler.


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## Tony McCallum (May 26, 2009)

Yes Chris, have worked with a few Koolies over the years,
cute is as cute does !!!
what age is it ?
Tony


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## Christopher Jones (Feb 17, 2009)

Tony McCallum said:


> Yes Chris, have worked with a few Koolies over the years,
> cute is as cute does !!!
> what age is it ?
> Tony


 Im thinking 14 weeks? How do you find them compared to BC's or Kelpies etc?


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## Tony McCallum (May 26, 2009)

Much the same really, they usually have a little less eye. They tend to be little rougher working in general.
Has he started training yet, early foundation is important.
Tony


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## Terrasita Cuffie (Jun 8, 2008)

Maren:

I just don't understand your frame of reference. Are you saying cattle on farms where the people are living in town part time don't know how to do chutes and gates? Do they keep them in the same pasture and never move them? Its not such a big deal moving them through a gate. Chutes can be a little tricky depending on the setup but maybe you're trying to do all this without a dog. Even folks I know that live in town, rotate from pasture to pasture and do some chute/catch work for ear tagging, medication, de-horning etc.

Terrasita


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

Well, it's not really so much of a people who work in town don't handle their stock versus people who work on their farm as a full time job always do. I do think people who do a pretty tight rotational grazing style have to work on gentling their stock out of necessity since they have to move them so often and that book on grassfed cattle I mentioned does a good job of explaining how to do it. I'd like some sheep and goats eventually, so that's probably what I'd do.


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