Livestock Trailers

I've been doing this all my life and no, I have never heard this or seen it.... If you can't get cows to load on a clean trailer you need to go back to haulin a freight box..This is a perfect example of what's wrong with the livestock hauling business nowadays, with people that have no business around livestock wanting to be cowboys...

And as far as the floor being slippery, as long as your trailer is not a wore out pos the floor is not gonna be any more slippery clean, actually the opposite..

 

Well then I guess we should look at the facts. You are 13 years old and only playing with toy trucks and just a wannabe.
Been on a farm my entire life with over 150 head of cattle. 40 years old as well so I think I have some experience handling cattle. Gp back and read some of posts to get my history. My semi rig is for my horses which pretty much makes me a cowboy. Real issue with this whole thread board is we have too many people talking about stuff they have no clue on.
You must be hauling someone's show cattle. Most of the range cows have never seen a human close up, other than on horseback, ATV, in a truck, let alone a traler. You must be still living the lie of a 13 year old and watching DVD's or reading a book. Real world stuff kid is that cattle don't always load easily......and we are not talking about loading the family milk cow on the trailer to take to the fair.

 

And here is one that I know you have never heard of........some folks even weld hog panels to the floor to help cattle get when they fall. Do some research on this one before commenting........

 

I've hauled alot of rank cows and bulls in my day and no they don't always load easy, but if you know what your doing a clean trailer isn't gonna ruin you day...

Oh, and just because you own cattle doesn't mean you know a #### thing about them, or hauling them... I've hauled for people like you before, the guys that get some money and buy some cows and some cowboy boots and all of a sudden they're a real live cowboy that knows everything about everything....

 

cowmobile......I live and work on this farm and get dirtier than anyone else. But I do know the type of "cowboy" you described but thats not me.
I also will agree that a clean floor will not ruin anyone's day. AT the same time to make a post indicating that a clean floor is absolutely no factor, well that is just incorrect as sometimes it can come into play.
And oh by the way....just because you haul cattle does not mean you know a dam thing about cattle as I have had plenty of steering wheel holders show up I had to send to the cab before they hurt themselves.

 

I clean out my trailer between loads and washout when I can. I'm not talking about sloppy dirty, I'm talking about shoveled out and dry with little to no aluminum showing on the floor. Given your experience, I'm surprised you have never seen, usually the lead cow, balk up before stepping onto a shiny floor. The guy I haul for runs thousands of cattle and hauls a lot of his own with his pot, I was doing his interstate hauling, and he is experienced and says he doesn't like loading freshly washed trailers. I often load out of pastures, from portable panels (if I'm lucky) by myself. Between My step-dad, my brother in law, and myself, we run around three thousand head of cattle. Some are out on shares, but we run over twenty thousand acres full of cattle ourselves. I wouldn't consider myself a greenhorn. We've hired trucks out of the south before, we loaded 21 trucks out of our ranch one day, and the southern drivers all head into their trailers and have the cattle pushed onto their trucks by the people on the ground, and they just catch the gates. The next year we did something similar but hired northern trucks, just the buyers preference I guess. Never had a hog on my trailer, in fact I cut the rail out so I wouldn't get weak and try it. You might have more tread on your floor and lights on your truck, but I don't have a mortgage or a banker either.

 

Thanks for the tips, we're just a bunch of hayseeds up here. Course sticking 48k on a 50' trailer is probably harder than sticking 64k on a 53'.

 

Hey if it works for you guys then great, maybe things are different where y'all are.. But to tell people you gotta have a dirty trailer to get cows to load easy is stupid... A big majority of my loads come out of Florida, home to some of the rankest cows in the country, and regardless if they are range cattle or not it's still someones livelyhood and when you show up with a nasty ### trailer (inside and out) that says alot about you, and leaves a rancher second guessing who he hired to haul his cows, and in an industry where having the best reputation gets you the better customers and more $$, I can't see how having a dirty trailer could benifit you in any way.. Don't get me wrong, I have had to show up places with a dirty trailer because I had no choice, but that is the exception not the rule, I'm not gonna leave my trailer dirty just because I think it will make my day easier.. Sale barns are a little different but ranch to ranch, no way.. Oh, and I ain't never had no nasty ### hogs on my trailer either..


Guys, I've been doing this all my life grew up on a ranch and still work cows everyday on horseback when I'm not on the road, started out with a truck and a pot hauling my family's cows, because I was tired of all the morons that we hired to haul them, then started contracting out to other people, to supplement my income and I love driving, and now I'm so busy with contract work I can't keep up with myself and one truck and trailer, so I'm about to purchase another, I'm not just another dumb truck driver....

 

Houston we just found the problem. Cowmobile believes that the rankest cows are from Florida of all places. Son do you realize what you just said?
Lets be clear here, we are talking about the floor of the trailer not showing silver and being as smooth as your arse. If you are as a good of a cowboy as you say you are then you would know how to take of the cows so disease is minimized.

I don't want to get into a debate over who's daddy is bigger but pretty sure my cattle experience is greater than yours as I don't play cowboy whenever I can't find a load, I play cowboy all day long, everyday, and have my whole life.