Damn that really sucks.

$164. per CWT last time I purchased  This varies from week to week and depending on area, breed, etc. These are livestock auction prices.

Thanks for posting Sean.  Another hard lesson learned and my guess there is unfortunately many stories like this that go unreported.

Vic

The money on the cow is an issue but sometimes ranchers get "attached" to certain animals as well.

We have a small herd of heifers and a bull, but they are all named and all but one eat out of our hands regularly. Not to sound all toughguy'ish, but if we found a dead cow, the whole crew would arm up and start tracking. There is certain things you don't let lay.

And we are amateur herd keepers who don't relay on them for our sole income. I can imagine how pissed a full time cattle guy would be and how he might pursue the issue.

That's a big read in.....

It doesn't work the same in the country as it might in the suburbs. If you don't protect your crap you can get stepped on big time.

It's kind of like the time we found the six guys poaching. Assholes even had the nerve to park right in front of some new no trespassing signs I posted. This wasn't even "my" land but some family land. I pulled in, blocked their vehicles, called some family and waited. After they arrived, police were already called but they can take 30 minutes or more. After a little while I tracked the group down not far from the vehicles. Since it was getting near dark and I knew the police were coming, I wanted to give them an easy "out." So I simply yelled out- "To the assholes that are trespassing here, the police have been called, you have about ten minutes to GTFO."

After about 5 minutes two come walking up out of the woods with no visible weapons. BS story, "we lease here"- no you frickin don't. We were armed, NO ONE WAS THREATENED, no stupid shit happened on our end, but we made it abundantly clear it was what it was. I said "get your friends the F*&& out of here also, call them!" Pretty soon two more amble out, they are armed. Typical dumbasses sloppy handling- I yell out "keep your F'in muzzles pointed down, this is not a F'in game." Suddenly it's real to them. I don't know who TF they are so we aren't taking chances.   Finally the last two come out and it's the same sloppy shit. We stand there while they take their sweet ass time coming with duck decoys and other hunting items. I make them all put their rifles inside the truck right off the bat- I don't know them and they are trespassing so I'll be damned if I will take chances. I was very clear that we were trying to get them out of their before the police showed up. They left and two minutes later of course the police showed up. We talked to them, told them exactly what we did and did not do. The deputy smiled and said "we like it when people handle these things themselves, call us if you need us" and drove off.

Irony was not a month later we see a couple of the guys at our gym. They spread the story that we are crazy and don't fudge around out by them. They talked to some people who know us who verify this. For several years later we have not had a trespassing problem.

I realize this is hard for someone to understand if they live in the suburbs where the cops can show up in 3.5 seconds but in rural areas, a lot of shit is handled by the landowners themselves.

It's yearlings and it's through a gate.

Once again you are reading entirely too much into this. NO WHERE did I state anything crazy like we would have killed anyone, that is a F'in HUGE STRETCH.

Let me ask you this-

If you saw a bunch of dudes in your backyard in the suburbs carrying weapons and you knew it might be close to an hour before the Po Po's show up, would you JUST call 911 and then lock yourself in a closet? I highly doubt that. Most of us would usually get a weapon in hand before even dialing the police.

NOTHING MORE HAPPENED HERE THAN THAT nor did I insinuate we were ready to kill anyone, etc. You dropped crap about "bodies being disappeared"- I never said any dumb shit like that.

While I don't agree with the "magic wand" fantasy- the idea that just "the mere presence of a weapon is all you need"- anyone with half a brain would be EXTREMELY FOOLISH to show up to trespassers and NOT BE ARMED. I mean shit, aren't most of us CoolDaddy CCW carriers any damn way? So why now is having a firearm on you while dealing with dirtbags a huge flipping deal to you???   Did the fact that the trespassers saw a rifle in my hands (never pointed at them) and the command voice have something to do with getting everything cleared up without any problems? If you HAD to go into that Convenience store on the wrong side of the tracks at O Dark thirty that has 20 "youths" hanging around the outside of it, would you NOT go in armed????

In the area this happened, ALL kinds of crazy shit has and regularly does happen. 10 or so years back a friend of mine and I were over on that same plot of land hiking around and trying some new gear out. A rainstorm came up quickly and we rigged up a tarp and sat down and cooked some food while we waited out the storm. 1/4 mile off in the distance on other piece of land we hear a lot of screaming back and forth and then a couple shots. My buddy asks WTF was that. I told him "this is kind of a nefarious area, we will jet out as soon as the rain stops." We are packing up our stuff not long after and I see this dude in a blue jumpsuit dipping through the woods heading our way. I bring my rifle a little closer to my hands. Dude runs to within about 20 yards of us before he sees us. I say hello and ask him politely WTF he's doing. He's wide eyed and got the crazy eyes looking back and forth crap going on. In this barely understandable redneck English he says "old Coondog came around der man and he says you got some pills? I says no I aint got no pills and HE SHOT AT ME MAN!! I'm just trying to get home!"   We are kind of speechless at this point but I've looked the guy over and he doesn't seem to be armed or a threat. I say "good luck man, that way is probably the fastest way out of here" and point in a direction. He says thanks and heads off in that direction. You couldn't make up crazy shit like this if you tried. I mention this to show it's not your subdivision with little old ladies nagging you to mow your lawn cause the grass is two inches tall now.

And yes, the deputy on the trespassing story did indeed tell us that they preferred that people handle stuff like that themselves. Did he mean some crazy wild west crap like your insinuating? OBVIOUSLY NOT. But I think he could tell from a couple minutes of me explaining what all we did and did not do that we were sane individuals.

To be completely clear- once again, no where or in no way shape or form was I suggesting any violence whatsoever. But the reality is this is not the suburbs and anyone who lives in remote rural areas know they either have to do stuff like this from time to time or they end up having crap stolen from them, dirtbags poaching all over their place, etc.

That's the reality of the situation. Laura Ingalls doesn't live out there and no where is Walnut Grove anymore....