After we posted our ad for a bison bull in the NBA member's forum, we received a large number of reponsed and have found a seller in Texas with a bull that we intend to purchase. In preparation for the transportation of the new bull we've been adding a few upgrades to our equipment.
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| As mentioned in a previous post, Delta cattle trailers don't come with a painted bottom unless you ask for it. I didn't know I had to request it when I ordered the trailer and only recently noticed the problem when I happend to look under the trailer. Yesterday, I
finally finished sanding and painting the underside of the
trailer. That was a very hard job, which I never never intend to do again. I
used an angle grinder with a wire wheel to scrape away all of the rust.
This took about two days of intermittent work. I wore leather gloves, a
respirator, and a face shield, but still manage to injure myself when I
briefly and stupidly lost control of the angle grinder, which bounced
off the metal and scratched my arm. For the paint I used a
Polyester-Acrylic Aliphatic Polyurethane Topcoat, called Amershield, produced by PPG
Industries. The paint comes in two parts which you must mix just
before application. I used a four inch roller for application and wore
rubber gloves and a respirator. I'm glad I wore the gloves and
respirator, but I probably should have worn a long sleeved shirt instead
of a t-shirt as the confined work space under the trailer caused me to
inevitably get paint on my arms and head. I had considered wearing one
of those Tyvek
coveralls with a hood, but the weather was too warm (I've seen people
pass out when wearing these in even cool weather). I was able to get most of
the paint off with a lot of paint thinner and scrubbing (a special
thanks to Jess for help with this). |
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| When transporting animals a long distance it's important to try to minimize the amount of time you spend doing things like refueling. For this reason I removed the truck box that I had welded together myself and replaced it with an RDS box. The RDS
box is both an auxiliary diesel tank and a tool box. One compartment
of the box holds 95 gallons of diesel and is linked to the truck's original tank
and the other compartment holds all the tools I had in my old truck
box. So far the auxiliary tank has been working well although I am
having some small issues with leaks in the hose connecting the two
tanks. I think I've mostly worked that issue out though. |
In addition to improving the transportation equipment, we've also been making the ranch more bison friendly.
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| The location and moment of the traumatic fence breech of 2014. At that time I had foolishly run the electric fence through a narrow corridor in a strip of forest. The young, excited bison became crowded in the corridor and the ones in the back of the group ended up pushing a few of the bison in the middle of the group through the fence. We got them back in, but I had nightmares and panic attacks for weeks afterwards. |
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| The same location photographed today after clearing away the crowded vegetation. This cleared area gives the bison a wide space and a clear view to the field on the other side. It also has the added benefit of giving one of the cameras from my security system a view of the far field. |
