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The typical view of the roundup from my body camera. I'll try using a different perspective next year. |
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Eventually, after hours of trying different things, the three biggest bulls entered the crowding pen to eat the sweet feed. Once they were in the crowding pen it wasn't that hard to get them down the ally and into the chute. Unfortunately when the first bull had entered the chute I mistakenly started closing the headgate too early and he decided to come to a stop just short of the gate and refused to move forward. I then decided to attempt to use the push bar to get him to move forward. On my first attempt with the push bar the bull kicked the bar with his hind leg so hard that it came flying out of the side of the chute. On the second attempt I was ready for it and managed to keep hold of the bar when he kicked it. This time, although the push bar stayed in place, the force of his kick caused the emergency side exit on the chute to swing open and he escaped. Subsequent examination of the emergency side exit revealed that a pin holding tension on the exit latch spring was broken and needed to be replaced.
At this point we decided that the best thing for us to do was to end this roundup. The chute needed fixing, it was getting late in the day, and we'd learned what needed to be changed in the corral. There was no point in putting the bison through any additional confusion until I'd fixed the issues with the corral. Hopefully things will go better next time.