Not My Everyday Bobcat Job

[YellowDogSVC]

This certainly won't make "WorkSaver" but it was an interesting morning to say the least. About 4 and half days ago, 7 young heifers were killed by lightning after seeking shelter under a tall cedar elm tree. The tree was struck by lighting and the electricity traveled down to the ground. A couple of the cows had their hooves blown off. Never seen that before. The temps have been in the mid 90's since they were killed. Not a pleasant job site to say the least. Thank God for enclosed cabs but I still won't be eating beef for a while. I don't think I could have imagined the number of flies, maggots, and the amount of stench coming from this pile of cows. I had to move them about a mile so they could be burned. Yep, I loaded them on my equipment trailer...it still stinks after 10 minutes at the car wash and a hundred gallons of water sprayed on it at the ranch. It's hard to tell but the second to the last picture is where they laid down for the storm and never got up.. I will have more pictures next week after we download the other camera.

Poor cows. A few more days and they were mooving..

[Duramax8832]

Careful, don't squeeze the grapple too hard.

[bobcat_ron]

NICE!!!!
It's when they pop open and you can see the unborn baby heifers inside that will make you cringe.
I buried 14 dead heifers many years ago that were involved in a massive barn/bunker fire, and they popped open even before we grabbed them.
If your machine and trailers still stink, use lots of tomato juice mixed and slightly diluted in a large garden sprayer, if it can take away skunk piss, it will take away rotting odours.

[Tigerotor77W]

Wow. Hopefully they died peacefully.

Was the job itself to move the cows? Or was it part of something else? And do you have something welded to the loader arms (around the front of the "bend" of the arms, more or less parallel to the cab door)?

[bobcat_ron]

And do you have something welded to the loader arms (around the front of the "bend" of the arms, more or less parallel to the cab door)?

That's a metal sheild for the hydraulic couplers on the loader, good idea.

[coopers]

Oh they died quickly and without pain. The power of electricity is absolutely amazing!

[YellowDogSVC]

That's a metal sheild for the hydraulic couplers on the loader, good idea.



You can see the kind of brush we work in. Bobcat of San Antonio call it the "tree shear package". I think they invented it because it has changed over the years. It also consists of a heavy duty muffler guard and light guards.

[YellowDogSVC]

Wow. Hopefully they died peacefully.

Was the job itself to move the cows? )?

I was helping a friend. The poor guy found out while he was traveling. I wanted to help. We initially were just using the bobcat to get them out of the woods vs trying to hand load them into his tractor. It was my bright idea to save about 4 hours of hauling to load them onto my trailer. It still smells bad but I'm glad we got done before noon..it was getting bad. I was as gentle as possible on the carcasses but the heat, bloating, and gasses had done a number on the them. The fluids made the ground slick.
I apologize for not putting a warning label on the thread for any sensitive individuals. I was numb when I posted! My sense of smell has just returned..

[dozerman21]

Poor cows. A few more days and they were mooving..

I caught that... if it was on purpose.:usflag:

That's too bad though. I couldn't imagine having to do that if you had open rops...:dizzy:

[ARP]

And to think I was going to have a burger tonight...

Nice pics Yellow! I really like that coupler guarding there. Would you mind taking some more pics of it when you get a chance?

[YellowDogSVC]

I'll get some more pics of Bobcat's "tree shear package".

Yes "mooving" was on purpose. The little gals were heading to another ranch next week for breeding.

One of the creepiest things about this job other than that they were all laying next to each other was that none of them had eyes.

[bobcat_ron]

You really do have some "scary" looking trees and brush, and the rocks, yikes!
A CTL would be in hell there.

[Tigerotor77W]

none of them had eyes.

Wow. This guy from Illinois has no idea what happens in other professions! :/

[YellowDogSVC]

You really do have some "scary" looking trees and brush, and the rocks, yikes!
A CTL would be in hell there.

There are so many sharp pieces of flint and limestone that my hulk tires are constantly cut up and chunks are missing. The cedar branches get hard and when they are pointy will pop a hole in a hydro line or blow a tire. The trees grow like that..thick, up to about 20" at the base, and just plain hairy.The tall straight ones we trim up. The bushy ones are usually cut out to make room for cattle or goats. This is rough country. We don't have the boulders in the fields like GR posted a year or so ago but we have a lot of little annoying rocks up to football sized and some bigger that dozers have pulled up over the years of clearing cedar. If I was 10 years younger I'd be pricing a rock eater but there is only so much time in a day when you got kids and a ranch to work.

[Fieldman12]

That brings back allot of old memories when I was about 13 and 14 hauling off dead hogs in the bucket of a front end loader tractor or rapping a chain around there legs and hauling them off to the bone pile. I learned allot working on a 2400 head hog operation. We use to disk the baby pigs in.

[bearmtnmartin]

well that brings back great memories of the CPRail calling me out to remove three horses from the tracks near Deroche that got on the tracks and were run down. There were horse parts for over half a kilometer. I thumbed them off the tracks on the way down and ran down the side and clammed them up on the way back. Quite the mess.

[WillieWonka1850]

Reminds me of a story my uncle told me that when he was a kid (he's now 52 BTW) he found a dead cow in the field next to my grandpa's house. But the interesting part is that the cow's genitals were cut out, but not just any old cut off, it was like really clean cut like it had been cut off by a laser. Thats just weird. How would you explain that? He thinks it could possibly be Aliens (me and him believe that)

[YellowDogSVC]

Reminds me of a story my uncle told me that when he was a kid (he's now 52 BTW) he found a dead cow in the field next to my grandpa's house. But the interesting part is that the cow's genitals were cut out, but not just any old cut off, it was like really clean cut like it had been cut off by a laser. Thats just weird. How would you explain that? He thinks it could possibly be Aliens (me and him believe that)

Down here in South Texas we have Illegal Aliens but they don't carry lasers.:laugh:

:usflag:

[WillieWonka1850]

Down here in South Texas we have Illegal Aliens but they don't carry lasers.:laugh:

:usflag:

:jester: :p
Real Funny.
No really, it is.

[THEGOLDPRO]

dang, thats a pretty crappy job.

[ksss]

Reminds me of a story my uncle told me that when he was a kid (he's now 52 BTW) he found a dead cow in the field next to my grandpa's house. But the interesting part is that the cow's genitals were cut out, but not just any old cut off, it was like really clean cut like it had been cut off by a laser. Thats just weird. How would you explain that? He thinks it could possibly be Aliens (me and him believe that)

Maybe them aliens like Rocky Mountain oysters and needed a "walking stick"?:drinkup:

Assuming its was bull or steer. Now if it were a heifer.........um....that really makes you wonder. I am sure deep space gets rather lonely.;)

[YellowDogSVC]

Maybe them aliens like Rocky Mountain oysters and needed a "walking stick"?:drinkup:

Assuming its was bull or steer. Now if it were a heifer.........um....that really makes you wonder. I am sure deep space gets rather lonely.;)

I said they were cows, not sheep. You western guys have it backwards.