Unforeseen sawmill hazards

[Nealm66]

This seems to be my nemesis.

 

 

[chep]

I think they may regard you in the same light ;) fresh cow plop is hard to clean off that's for sure

[Southside]

Is the bent square stock from them too or another incident? 

[Brad_bb]

How the heck did one even get in there tight space?! Looks like they slid on that board.

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[Nealm66]

The bent square stock is bent from the factory for winching on logs. Also works for rolling oversized logs I've found. Ya, this isn't the first episode with the cows. The really really like the sawmill. I took a video of me trying to relocate the mill a while back and they were surrounding me.  Very entertaining for the 94 year old land owner lol

[Nealm66]

I've got a lot of white speck Doug fir on this job and another. Looks beautiful to me. I'm thinking about making some live edge out of the larger stuff. Most has been for board and bat so far

 

[Bert]

Cows : At least they taste good.

I left my log truck parked in a pasture one weekend and when I went to get it they had pulled any exposed wiring out and chewed on it. Lot of work to get the lights going again. 

[Chuck White]

I've had days like that!

At the end of the day, I started rolling the logs tight, right up to the mill, but there would still be stuff we had to watch out for!

[Magicman]

Since I am 100% portable, often saw for landowners, and always leave the sawmill overnight, cow plops are very common with me.  Cows are curious and have to check it out.  Horses, donkeys, and especially goats will climb up on the sawdust pile, but cows just push stuff around and leave plops.  Just get your sawdust scoop out and do your janitorial duties each morning.  ;D

Cows or not, I never ever leave any of my tools or sawmill supplies at the sawmill overnight.

[Nealm66]

I was warned by all the family members that they would eat the wiring and they offered to temp fence around it but I explained that those cows won't eat that wiring from china. Actually, a temp fence would just be a pita in my case. But, luckily ( knock on wood) they've only bit and disconnected a couple yellow wires from the ignition and my 50/50 odds were good that day. It is funny when they come in like that. They're in no hurry and want to sniff and check out every inch of what I've been doing. Scary part is I have to be careful not to spook them when they're in a spot where they could either hurt themselves or squish something valuable 

[Nomad]

     I did a lot of work over several years on a ranch with lots of cattle.  Generally they'd all come check out the mill first day or so.  The calves would come around for a couple more days before they lost interest.
     A few shovelfuls of sawdust takes care of the cow exhaust, but don't leave anything you want to keep on the ground for them to crap on.
     I used pipe insulation to cover the main rail.  Don't do that on a ranch.  They eat it.
     They liked chewing on my truck more than they did the mill, (something I strongly discouraged!) but of course the truck wasn't there when they were most active, when there was nobody there.

[barbender]

I think that cattle are a lot more intelligent than we give them credit for, probably because we eat them. You'll hear folks going on and on about how smart their horse is, but probably not that steer they're fattening up for this fall. I saw a video compilation of different cattle doing things like opening a milking stanchion to release the othe cows, and running a water pump to give themselves a drink. If any of us had a dog that did the same we would be fawning over their intelligence!

[Bert]

 I had forgotten the same group that ate the wires off my log truck also went to town on my pickup when it was covered in road salt. Nothing looks better than a cowlicked black pickup. 

[Nealm66]

Lol, salted pickups are delicious. It probably looks like I just left tools there willy nilly but they crapped on the winch hook while passing through. It was pouring down rain all day and sawdust was sticking to everything. I was tractoring slabs out of the way when they migrated in and I stopped hoping they wouldn't linger and not push them into destruction mode. I have a fear of them squishing my mill like a pop can. Have to mill in the rain here. Have to learn to do everything in the rain here in the pnw

[mudfarmer]

horse took a bite out of steering wheel (window down) and chewed a bunch of paint off my 1yo truck while I was fixing a fence, don't trust them!

[Nealm66]

Lol, oh man, that would really suck. In one of the videos when I was re situating the mill amongst the cows I had climbed out of my pickup and left the door open and sure enough one of the yearling heifers had its head poked in. I use an old beater truck for logging/milling so I wasn't too excited but I thought for a second of a story a buddy of mine told of a cow protecting its calf tried to go through the beater pickup they used when they were working on the calfs and how destroyed that  ranch truck they used was from working cattle 

[SawyerTed]

I learned a long time ago not to leave machinery or equipment or anything else important in the pasture where the cows graze. 

I once had a "popup" deer blind in the pasture. I went to hunt only to find a calf standing inside and a big hole in the side where it found its way in.  

[Southside]

BB all joking aside I say that all the time about cattle.  I get to see it daily, they will come when called, some know their name, they have a social hierarchy in that they will assign baby sitters for a period of time.  They know what not to eat at certain times of the year and i am pretty sure they never had a Tide Pod Challenge.   ;D

[hardtailjohn]

It's just green grass, water and a little bit of salt. It'll wash off. ;D
John