All the suggestions are valid and most are from people with cattle so they know. I will take exception with the "angus are wild " mentality, though. We have them, just commercial cattle, and don't find them to be any worse than any other in general. We have had some that are "high-headed" and looking for a way out, but have had that in most all the different breeds and crosses from time to time. The worst one we ever had was a hereford heifer that we bought bred. She would take off for oshgosh as soon as she saw you. We ran her with out quietest and calmest cows and after nearly a year, with her raising her calf, she made the mistake of coming in the pen and my son was in the field with the truck and he drove it right up to the opening and we got her caught and on the trailer. Her calf was skittish but not near as bad as her.
Most of our cattle will come running to a bucket. It doesn't matter whether my son or I call. We sound different but they know that being called is a good thing, "oh my, we get feed....." If you are doing the calling being consistent is good but use your regular voice. We call, "hey girls, comeon cows," and we also whistle sometimes. They hear the truck and come....
How long have you been trying to "tame" them? It will take several weeks at least to where they are comfortable to not spook if they were raised on cows and just weaned and sold to you. Yes there are some that are more skittish by nature. But keeping it separate is not good. They take comfort in the "herd mentality".
One thing about freezer queen.... the high strung attitude may make her the worst candidate for the freezer. The high adrenaline will adversely affect the meat. She would be my last choice to keep to eat.
I also have some dairy cows that I raise nurse calves on. Jerseys, guernseys and crosses. But there is one calf that is on one of the cows that is a nut case and I am around them everyday twice a day. Go figure... the rest I have to shove out of they way to get feed in the trough for the nurse cows to come into the pen for.[/QUOTE
Im just mad at Freezer Queen. When she ran thru the fence the first day, she got in with the neighbors horses, escaped into the farmers field next to that, and he got her into a corral. She crawled out of that by going under the corral gate and got in with his cows.
Ive been trying to tame them for about a week and a half. I use my regular voice when calling. I think these were pulled off their mother and brought up to me. I dont think they were handled at all.
I was able to touch them a little last night but they are still pretty spooky.
The chicken yard doesnt have much grass in it. How much grain should I feed? I also have hay Im giving them.
Rammy