Cattle farm husbandry – stockyards and handling tips

Cattle, farming, husbandry, stockyards for cattle, loading ramps basic principles, helpful construction suggestions, stand off and feed pads

By Dr Clive Dalton

Loading ramps
Having to build a set of yards for handling and loading cattle on to trucks can be an expensive exercise, but there is no avoiding it unless you can use your neighbour’s yards. Hand-pushed ramps on wheels used for sheep won’t do for cattle other than young calves.

Using old broken-down yards is a real danger to you and the stock, as you never know which bits are going to collapse next. Truck operators are now well within their rights to refuse to accept your business if facilities are not safe.

Make sure that any ramp used allows trucks to back up leaving no gaps for legs to slip down, and always keep checking for protruding nails, as they can work their way out over time.

Nails on yard that were never fully knocked in.
Waiting to damage both stock and handlers

Cattle yards - some basic principles

• Build on a level well-drained site.
• Cattle move best up a slope but it complicates building. So don’t make a big issue of this – build on a level site where possible.
• Have a good clear entrance to the yards at right angles to a fence so stock will go in easily.
• Circular yards and curved races are ideal for cattle movement but in small yards they add complication in construction and cost. Amateur builders should stick to building square things!
• Have a holding pen that will take all or most of your herd. If it won’t take them all comfortably, then you’ll need a larger area to confine stock like a small paddock near the yards.
• Don’t pack animals too tightly into yards – it’s dangerous for them, you, and the yards. Having a fence collapse and the cattle bursting out in panic at a critical moment is a terrifying experience!
• Have a small forcing pen before the race so cattle see only the one option of moving into the race. Stock like to see a clear-way ahead of them.

Example of using a gate to make a forcing pen for small herd of quiet cattle.

• The race is where they can be held tightly in Indian-file, head to tail. Calves can be held side by side.
• Close-board the sides of the race so animals can only see a clear way ahead. But don’t do it all as you may need some rails to climb out in a hurry some time.
• Have a good strong gate at the end of the race to keep cattle in. There will be a lot of pressure on this gate as cattle lean back on it. It needs a very strong catch on it, but one that can be easily opened.

A good solid gate at end of race

• Smooth the sharp edges off the top rail.

Shows edge smoothed off top rail for when you lean over.
Note the big galvanised nails holding the rail; should also be fixed by wire stapled
on to prevent twisting in the sun.

• It’s essential to have a good strong and safe head bail on the end of this race. Make sure it cannot be lifted off by an upset animal, so have pins through the ends of the hinges or reverse the top gudgeon.
• Have a vet gate to give access to the rear of a beast when it’s in the headbail.
• Have a couple of pens beyond the head bail so animals can be drafted and held separately.
• Concrete the crush pen and race and put road metal in the rest of the yards.
• Have cat-walks or narrow platforms on the outside of the crush pens and race to stand on so you can lean over safely into the pen to work.

Catwalk to stand on for treating cattle in the race. Note bird netting to prevent slipping.

• Put chicken netting on the catwalks to stop operators slipping mainly in wet weather.
• All rails should be wired as well as nailed and excess bolt threaded heads sawn off.
• Have gates that open fully so stock cannot get stuck behind them.
• Gate catches should be easy to get at from both sides, with self-closing latches where possible.
• Gudgeons holding gate hinges need to have bolt through them to prevent them being lifted off by cattle.

Safety bolt in gudgeon to prevent gate being lifted off

• No hinges should protrude to bruise animals or people.
• Have a weather-proof box for Tb cards on the loading ramp.
• Build a cover over the race to shelter stock and workers from rain and sun.
• Have a rubbish bin and get people to use it. Remember to empty it too. It’s a great treasure chest to let the vet see what products you have been using!
• Have a decent first aid box protected from the weather and make sure it contains the appropriate items and not just nesting starlings!
• Have a mobile phone at the yards.
  

General handling tips

Having to get in with big cattle to drench them can be dangerous
It's a hard physical job!

• Cattle walk normally at around 4km/hr and a lame beast walks at about 2km/hr. Bikes and ATVs don’t like going at these speeds neither do young riders on high-powered machines or tractors!
• When cattle are about to be yarded, park all vehicles and tie up all dogs well away from the action.
• Drive the stock in on foot and give them plenty of time to see where they are going.
• Throw some hay into the yards to attract them in if they are wary.
• If stock get stirred up and won’t go in, leave them to settle for 10-15 minutes before trying again.
• Talk to them in low tones when moving them, and only use loud shouting when necessary.
• You can’t let them refuse to go in for ever, so the final time, take them up to the entrance and hold them there long enough for them to see the entrance. Then making sure they cannot break back – put pressure on them with plenty of noise so they realise going in is their only option.
• Avoid leaving an animal on its own in a yard. The only exception may be a bull.
• Remove any “novelty” things around the yards that they have not seen before, especially things like plastic bags that blow around. That’s what the rubbish bin is for.
• Have a long stick or length of 25mm alkathene (about 1m long) with a small rag or flag on the end which cattle see as an extension to your arms. Use this for drafting as you can operate by standing well back from the stock. Hold two of these up high when moving bulls or agitated cows to increase your “threat” size.
• Some people love to poke stock with a stick through the rails as they pass along a race. Ban this practice or try it on them to see what it feels like.
• If you want to use an electric prodder- then only use it sparingly on stock like bulls that may not want to shift. Be careful when working with someone using a prodder as you may not see them prod the stock, but you’ll feel the beast’s reaction – a kick without a warning!
• Don’t get into pens among large cattle – work from the outside from a catwalk.
• Be especially wary of backing poles that go in behind a beast. You often get it half way in and if the beast moves back 30cm the pole becomes a missile flying back a metre into your delicate parts.

 

Fence post put in behind last beast. 

• Make sure the backing pole is the right length.
• Always wear safety boots or gumboots with steel toe caps.
• Use the animal’s “point of balance” to move stock.
  
• Don’t “eyeball” stock if you want them to move towards you. Turn your back and walk backwards (carefully) past their point of balance.
  

Getting advice
There are specialists who will design stock yards of all sizes and can arrange for them to be built. It’s a very good idea to go and see stockyards on other farms when they are being used, and after the newness has worn off them. Farmers are great, they’ll tell you everything that’s good about their yards and everything that needs improving – at no charge.

Stand-off pads and feed pads.

• The concern here is that the cow often finds it difficult to find a suitable area to lie down.
• Cows need rest and prefer to lie down between 8 and 12 hours each day.
• They can tolerate a minimum of 4 hours/day for 4 continuous days before they start to suffer distress – seen by hanging of their heads.
• When let out to graze after confinement, cows will rest in preference to grazing.
• Cows are reluctant to lie down on wet and/or slippery surfaces or in deep mud or slurry.
• They prefer soft surfaces to lie on such as sand or bark and should only be held on hard surfaces (e.g. concrete) for periods of 4 days maximum or they will suffer lameness and stress.
• For cows to lie down on stand-off areas they should have a minimum of 3.5m²/cow for short periods (12 hours/day for up to 2 days) and 5m²/cow for 3 continuous days or longer.
• On a feed pad not all cows will want to lie down at the same time as some will be feeding, so areas per cow can be modified based on their behaviour.
  

Disclaimer This material is provided in good faith for information purposes only, and the author does not accept any liability to any person for actions taken as a result of the information or advice (or the use of such information or advice) provided in these pages.

Cattle farm husbandry – bulls can be killers

Cattle, farming, husbandry, the bull, safety in handling.


By Dr Clive Dalton

The time of the bulls!

• The time of year when bulls are turned out after the Artificial Insemination (AI) programme is finished can be very dangerous for farm staff, especially now where on large dairy farms bulls are leased from special bull suppliers just for the mating period.
  
• Bulls are a major farm hazard and should be listed as such on the farm safety policy.
• ACC statistics in New Zealand tell a sad story as every year bulls kill at least 3 people, and hundreds of near misses are never listed. Many deaths over the years have been women on farms.
• Humans are not good at evaluating bulls’ temperaments. Where a group of experienced farm managers were asked to rank a group of bulls (that they’d never met before) in order of temperament, they all came up with a different order. This just shows that the human-animal relationship is very complex.
  

Complacency kills

• Complacency is the real killer as it’s the unexpected that catches you out. It’s so easy to forget that a tonne of beef on the hoof can go from zero to 30kph in a few seconds, and when it has caught you, a few swipes of its head even without horns can do fatal damage.
• Then when a bull gets you down you’ll feel his full weight on your chest and that’s the end of your air supply.
• Recent tragedies of handlers being crushed in yards have confirmed this to be common event.
  
• Being crushed by a bull moving past you trying to escape from a narrow race causes serious injuries.
  
• Other cases are where a bull hits the gate which then swings back on the handler and where the bull lifts the gate off its hinges to fall the handler. There’s also the direct frontal charge in a confined place.
  

Handling facilities for bulls

• It’s very important to check that any yards or handling facilities are bull proof before accidents happen. Sadly the small cost of reversing the top hinges on a gate or drilling a hole for a bolt to go through is not done until after a death or permanent injury.
  
• Also, don’t assume that a head bail that will hold cows will stand the power of a mature bull.
• On small blocks the hazards are often greater as the bull has often been hand reared from a calf and is almost a family pet, until the day he decides to play and kill you with his antics.
  
• Special care is needed with strange bulls leased or borrowed from neighbours to mate a few cows as once the job is over the bull can be a problem. You should never handle strange bulls on your own.

Peak danger time

• The most dangerous time with bulls is when separating them from his harem or a cow that he has just mated. The bull always thinks he needs one more go –even if the cow and the handler thinks he’s had enough.

Fight of flight

• A bull’s ‘flight or fight’ distance is 5-6 metres – but be watchful as he may not have read the textbook.
  
• Textbook advice recommends approaching a bull with a stick in each hand and arms extended to increase your apparent size.
  
• But again the bull may not believe you. Never trust a bull, and especially one that the owner assures ou has always been “as good as gold”!
  

Disclaimer
This material is provided in good faith for information purposes only, and the author does not accept any liability to any person for actions taken as a result of the information or advice (or the use of such information or advice) provided in these pages.

Cattle farm husbandry – home killing of meat

Cattle, farming, husbandry, meat, killing, slaughter of stock, farm meat for home consumption, the law, good practice.
By Dr Clive Dalton

Home killing on the farm

• It’s very important to have your home killing done by a licensed “home kill service provider” Operators are required to be licensed under the Animal Products Act 1999 and can provide their service on their own licensed premises or on your property. The welfare standards for home killing must conform to those given under the MAF Animal Welfare (Commercial Slaughter) Code of Welfare 2006.
• Home killing of livestock is subject to legal restrictions because of concerns that home-killed meat which has not been inspected by an approved government inspector in a licensed slaughtering facility may get into the export meat trade and threaten market standards.
  
• Our export markets view this as a risk, and farmers who kill stock for home consumption need to fully appreciate this. The risk is not so much with those who understand and stick to the law, it’s the illegal operators who are the worry and those who are tempted to look for and buy “cheap meat”, some of which is of very suspect origin and without a doubt is a human health risk.
• “Home kill” is the slaughtering and butchering of your own animals, either by yourself or by a licensed home-kill butcher for your own consumption which includes your family and household.
• A “family” normally includes parents, children and grandparents and does not include an extended family living elsewhere. Great grandparents miss out!
• A “household” are the normal occupants of a house and does not include an institution or tourist accommodation.
• Only animal owners who are actively engaged in the day-to-day maintenance of an animal, or keep animals of the same kind for a period of 28 days, may use home kill. In other words – someone making a serious attempt to farm them and not just dealing in stock.
• Home killed meat cannot be sold, raffled, or bartered for goods or services. It would not even be wise to give it away.
• You can feed home kill meat to your staff if they are regular employees, and they can feed it to their families. You cannot feed casual workers or contractors or your vet, accountant or bank manager, and you cannot feed home kill to paying guests.
• It’s very important to use a home kill butcher with a good reputation for producing top meat. A freezer full of tough meat is not a good prospect, nor is the nagging concern that you may think you didn’t get all your own beast back from the butcher, or why you have so much mince!
• When killed on the farm, the beast is shot from a short distance in the paddock with or near its herd mates so stress levels are very low. This single shot should put the beast down and it should not need more than one shot to kill it.
• It is very important to realise that under the Animal Welfare Act 1999, all animals must be slaughtered in a humane way without causing any pain or stress to them or their herd mates.
• Cutting the animal’s throat is not acceptable as humane, and it must first be shot correctly with a rifle or captive bolt pistol before sticking (bleeding).
• Generally other stock in the paddock don’t realise what has happened to their mate that has suddenly dropped down. However, if you want more than one beast killed there could be problems if other stock then realise what’s going on and may smell blood.
• As soon as the selected beast has been shot, then quietly move the others out of sight and smelling distance, and give them some hay to occupy them.
• Some operators will bury the offal on your farm or will take it away for disposal in an approved site. This will be part of the charge.
• Check with MAF for the latest regulations on home kill and for regulations to provide meat for Marae and ethnic and religious groups.
• Realise the potential hazards with home killing of meat. You would do well to consider sending a beast away off the farm to a licensed slaughter facility to be killed and processed. Then at least you have no human safety concerns, animal stress or food safety issues to be concerned about.
• Before you fill the freezer, check it with a thermometer to make sure it’s reaching the correct temperature and tape the plugs into the sockets. Also lay some rat poison near the freezer as they love the plastic on the cable and you don’t want to come back from holiday and find a freezer full of nice pink water with your meat floating in it!
• And remember that not all of a beast is fillet steak! Just think of all that fatty mince the family is going to have to eat. Consider spending the money the home kill will cost you on prime steak when your supermarket runs specials.
• If you are tempted to get the beast’s hide cured to make a rug, then you’ll have to deliver the rather unsavoury skin to a proper tannery that will accept single hides if you want a proper job done. Don’t try to home-tan a cattle beast’s hide - they usually end up like a sheet of plywood with turned up edges! And how can you walk on the skin of a beast that may have been your friend?
  

Disclaimer
This material is provided in good faith for information purposes only, and the author does not accept any liability to any person for actions taken as a result of the information or advice (or the use of such information or advice) provided in these pages.

Sheep Farm Husbandry - Euthanasia (Slaughter)

How to euthanise sheep, slaughter without pain, methods, correct shooting, throat cutting, blow to head, operator safety

By Dr Clive Dalton

If you have to euthanise (kill) a sheep of any age in New Zealand, it’s important to study the MAF Code of Animal Welfare No. 19 on “Emergency slaughter of farm livestock” because the process can be very dangerous for the operator, and you may end up being prosecuted for causing unnecessary pain and suffering to the animal. Here are the options:

Shooting

• Captive bolt devices are available without the need of a firearms license. The modern ones are a cylinder and don’t look like a pistol – which these days is a very wise move, as someone seeing you could call the Armed Offenders’ Squad. They are available from suppliers of veterinary equipment.
  
• Use the correct calibre blank cartridge for the size of the animal and hold it on the sheep’s head before firing. If in doubt use a heavier calibre blank.
• Firearms: For which a license is needed. With a shotgun or 0.22 rifle, hold the weapon at least 10-25 cm from the head when firing to avoid blowback.
• For polled sheep: the correct site for the shot is in the midline on the highest point of the head, aiming straight down towards the angle of the jaw ( see diagram below)
  
• For horned sheep: select a site in the middle of the head just behind the bony ridge between the horns aiming at the back of the throat. NOTE: if you use this position, it’s important to bleed the sheep promptly as they have been known to regain consciousness.
• Immediately after an animal has been shot, its throat should be cut to ensure it has fully bled and is dead.

Position on the head to aim
The diagram below shows the best position to shoot a polled ewe and a horned ram.


Throat cutting

• After shooting this is the next best method to kill a sheep.
• It’s been the traditional way to kill a sheep for home kill or dog tucker and for some religions.
• The most humane method is to cut the throat without breaking the neck. Breaking the neck only causes additional trauma before the animal has lost consciousness.
• The knife used should be very sharp and the blade at least 15cm long.
• Restrain the sheep gently but firmly, standing or lying on it’s left side with its chin in your left hand (vice versa if left handed), to extend the neck.
• Part the wool over the throat just behind the angle of the jaw. Make a swift firm cut across the upper part of the neck, severing both main (carotid) arteries and both main (jugular) veins. The windpipe (trachea) and gullet (oesophagus) will also be severed.
• The sheep will lose consciousness in 3-8 seconds and should be held firmly until then. A huge amount of blood will be seen pumping from the arteries, so be warned if you don’t like the sight of blood!
• The signs of death (as opposed to unconsciousness) are lack of pulse and breathing, the eye pupils widely distended, and lack of blinking reflex when the surface of the eye is touched.
• Take great care as many cut legs result from killing sheep when the knife slips.
  

Blow to the head

• This should be a last resort if a firearm or knife is not available.
• The sheep should be firmly restrained and then hit with a blunt instrument with sufficient force to break the skull and cause physical damage to the brain and cause rapid death.
• A soft blow will only stun the sheep so make sure you hit it hard enough to causes brain damage at the same time.
• The best weapon to use for a sheep is a heavy hammer or the back of a small axe (hatchet).
• Hit the sheep in the same spot described above for the captive bolt.
• Cut the sheep’s throat immediately after stunning it.
  

Disclaimer
This material is provided in good faith for information purposes only, and the author does not accept any liability to any person for actions taken as a result of the information or advice (or the use of such information or advice) provided in these pages.

Farm water supply needs careful management

One good thing about a serious drought is that it makes people in both town and country realise that if it doesn't rain, how very vulnerable we humans are, especially farmers who rely on pastures to make a living. Suddenly people are realising that water is a lot more important than oil – and that it too has a cost. So having an efficient, reliable water supply on the farm is critical.

Aim
To have a water system that delivers potable (safe for humans) water all year round to meet the demands of the farmhouse, the farm dairy and the livestock.

Good signs

• Clean and clear water when poured into a glass and held up to the light. No floating bodies!
• No family health problems, especially diarrhoea in the children.
• No milk penalties in the farm dairy caused by poor water quality.
• Healthy stock drinking the water with relish.
• A water reticulation system that keeps all the troughs full to meet the demands of the stock.
• Hot water pipes that don't corrode.
• No stains under taps.

Bad signs

• Children and adults with regular attacks of diarrhoea.
• Visitors who refuse to drink the water or even tea or coffee made from it.
• Troughs and pipes blocked with sludge.
• Iron (orange-brown) stains on all surfaces where the water runs.
• Orange-brown floating sediment in a glass of water when held up to the light.
• Blue (copper) and black (manganese) stains under taps and in the toilet.
• Water with a rotten smell.
• Stock reluctant to drink from troughs.
• Hard thick deposit inside the kettle or hot water jug.

Problems seen regularly on the farm

Fixing water problems is a major job on a farm, and most of them can be traced back to poor installation and poor maintenance. Here are some common examples:

• No farm map/plan to show where the water pipes were laid, so hours are wasted digging for leaking pipes.
• Wasting time trying to find a leak because its not be where the water is seen coming out of the ground.
• Pumps that are old and have not been serviced so break down at times when it's hot and dry and water demand by the stock is high.
• The water system cannot cope because stock numbers have been increased without the water system being upgraded to meet the extra demand.
• Water pipes are far too small to cope with demand so troughs are regularly emptied and stock are waiting for them to fill to get a drink. Low ranking animals such as heifers never get a drink until night and their milk production suffers as a result.
• Wrong sized pipes so water pressure is lost through friction in the system.
• Water pipes laid on the surface so they get damaged by machinery and the water is heated by the sun making it unpalatable to stock.
• Not enough trough space so all animals can get a full drink. A good example is a trough in a fence line so it is shared between two paddocks.
• Stray voltage on the surface of the trough from a leaking electric fence making stock reluctant to drink.
• Dirty filthy troughs, which the farmer thinks make no different to the stock drinking. It does!
• Valves not protected so they are always getting damaged and water is always leaking.
• High metal (eg iron and manganese) content causing off flavours so stock are reluctant to drink.
• Troughs blocked and the water surface covered with iron algae.
• No backflow prevention in the system so bores become contaminated from troughs and hose suck-back.

Water testing – what you can find out?

It's important to have the farm water tested by a registered laboratory. Here are some of the information you can get:

• pH. This shows how acid or alkali the water is. Acid water (low pH) can be corrosive and can cause problems in the farm dairy by lowering the strength of disinfectants. Alkali water (high pH) causes scale in pipes and hot water cylinders and can cause corrosion in metal pipes and fixtures. pH 7.0 is neutral and domestic drinking water should normally have a pH of 7.0-8.5. Slightly acid water has a tang that some people like.

• Hardness or total dissolved salts. Water with low salts is soft (easy to make a soapy lather) and with high levels of calcium is hard (difficult to make a lather).
• Nitrate. Water high in nitrate can be dangerous to infants and not good for adults either. It's very important that any nitrate doesn't come from any human or animal waste (leaking septic tanks or effluent ponds). This can be checked by a bacterial test.
• Iron and manganese. Clues for iron are brown stains (which are not toxic) on everything the water runs over. Clues for manganese (which can be toxic) are black stains. Both can affect the taste and promote bacterial growth. The stains are most easily seen below dripping taps on a white surface.
• Boron. At high levels this can be toxic to plants.
• Others. The test report will also report on copper, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, zinc chloride and sulphate. High levels of all of these can be toxic and will need treatment.
• Harmful bacteria. The main nasties are E coli, coliforms and faecal coliforms. You don't want these in your domestic water. If they are high, then suspect leaking sewage systems (from bores or wells) or animal faeces in streams/dams. So never put a bore down near an effluent systems. Surface water sources such as streams or dams need an efficient filtration and sterilising system.
• Electrical conductivity (EC). This is an indicator of the total dissolved salts and minerals in the water. High levels can cause scale to build up in pipes and precipitation in tanks and troughs. Very high levels can indicate saline intrusion (sea water getting into the system) especially at coastal sites in dry weather, or geothermal water contamination which can have high arsenic levels.

How to submit a water sample.

Contact the company or laboratory doing the testing to get their full instructions, especially if you intend to send the sample direct to their lab. Follow the instructions to the letter or else you'll waste your money.

For microbiology (bugs)

• Use a leak-proof sterile container. Sterilise it by boiling a glass jar and lid for two minutes and allow it to cool to room temperature before use. For chlorinated water you must use a container form the lab containing a special chemical.
• Don't touch the inside of the sterile container and don't rinse it before taking the sample.
• Send a minimum of 300 ml for testing allowing an air space of 1cm in the lid.
• If from a tap, disinfect the tap by wiping with meths or alcohol. Run the tap for 2-3 minutes and turn off. Flame the tap outlet with a lighter or treat it with meths and flame it off. Run the tap again- slowly, and collect the sample with a 10mm head space in the container.
• From wells or bores, operate the pump for at least 5 minutes before sampling.
• From rivers, lakes or reservoirs, hold the container by the base and plunge it below the surface in the current. If there is no current, push the container forward to fill it.
• Label the sample clearly with your contacts.
• For bacto tests, cool the samples before packaging to below 10°C and deliver to the lab within 6 hours. Cool the samples to 2-5°C for delivery within 24 hours.

Chemistry

Use a plastic bottle and collect at least 500ml, or contact the lab to supply you with containers, chiller bins and instructions. This is usually done with no extra charge. For other tests chill the sample to below 2-6°C to delivery within 24 hours.

Packaging

Make a good job of preparing the chiller bin with plenty of ice cubes. Seal it well and mark it "Urgent" and "Fragile". Remember your contact information!

Personal hygiene at lambing time - get the basics right for the whole family

Personal hygiene is especially important at lambing time for both humans and sheep. Public health officers report that New Zealand has the highest number of campylobacter cases per head of population in the world, and rural people are most affected because of the large number of animals around.

Campylobacter is one of a group of 'tummy bugs' that statistics show increases in severity in spring in rural areas, with south Canterbury having the highest incidence.

The campylobacter bacterium lives in the gut of domestic and wild animals and humans are infected by contamination from animal faeces showing up as diarrhoea, stomach cramps, vomiting, aches and feeling unwell.

Lambing, docking, dagging, crutching and shearing are all times of close contact with animals and hence high risk, as well as handling cattle for routine treatments like lice and worm control. Handling newborn lambs is a great source of possible infection and especially after lambing a ewe. Hands and arms should be well washed after these events.

It's a good idea to wear overalls with long sleeves when working with stock, and clothing contaminated with faeces needs to be washed after use. You see many farm overalls so well covered in dung that they can stand up on their own!

Because of the way campylobacter is picked up, anyone working with stock should avoid being splashed by urine or faeces, and everyone in the family should automatically wash their hands after working with livestock and certainly before touching or preparing food.

Modern chainsaws are lethal.

It's very simple - you either take chainsaw safety seriously or you are an accident waiting to happen. Yet it's surprising how many people who own, and happily use a chainsaw, don't seem to understand this. Don't be one of them.

The situation seems to be different (ie worse) in New Zealand as trees grow so fast, and after about ten years, what came home in small plastic bags from the nursery need to leave on large trailers. Very soon in their lives, trees need to be pruned and reshaped, and this requires some serious cutting with a chainsaw – or so you think.

So the first basic question is - do you really need a chainsaw to take care of your tree needs, or is there an easier and safer way? Far too many people buy a big saw because it's part of the macho image.

A 14 inch chainsaw will do all the work you need on a small farm and you only need anything bigger if you have something like large macrocarpas to fell and for this it would be wise to get professional help.

You can't compromise on safety gear, but people do all the time. Check how many people you know with a saw who have a complete set of safety gear. They all seem to argue that it's too expensive and that they are such careful operators that they don't need it. How is it then that the professionals need it? They must not be careful operators. Try telling them that!

It never seems to occur to these idiots what the personal cost is of an eye, your front teeth or a limb; or 6 weeks to 6 months of work on lowered pay. And then what they cannot see is the cost their stupid accident will be to the taxpayer through hospital space that could be used by someone in greater need.

The chain of modern high-revving chainsaw travels are over 100kph and will cut through a human limb in about half a second and the chain leaves a nice wide groove full of fresh mince! The biggest danger is from kickbacks caused by inexperience when the tip of the saw blade is used. Always cut with the part of the blade right next to the engine and never the tip.

A combined helmet, visor and ear protection, along with safety trousers or chaps, safety boots and gloves are the basic equipment and no substitutes will do. It's also a good practice for anyone working on a farm, especially with dangerous gear like chainsaws to wear a bright coloured jacket or overalls, so they are easy to see.

Here's a checklist to study before you start your saw:

• Which was is the tree leaning?
• Are there heavier branches on one side so it will fall that way?
• Is there a clear path for the tree to fall and not get hung up on other trees?
• Are there any power lines in the way?
• Are there any fences that will be damaged by its fall?
• Which way is the wind or breeze blowing?
• Be aware that after you start cutting, there will be some nosey –parkers arrive from nowhere and you may not see or hear them.

Chainsaws are an expensive bit of gear to buy and to maintain, and poor maintenance can be costly. Modern chainsaws run at very high revs so note these points below:

• Don't use old fuel. If you haven't used the fuel you mixed up last time, and it's a few weeks ago, put it in the car to use it up. Don't put it through the saw. Mix up some fresh fuel.
• If you've had fuel in the saw and you have not used it for a while, empty it out and refill with a fresh mix.
• Shake the fuel container before you refuel the saw.
• Get the ratio of oil to petrol right according to the manufacturer's recommendations. See the table.
• Use good quality oil to mix with the petrol.
• Use good quality chain bar oil – and never old car engine oil.
• Keep a spare spark plug – the correct one for the saw.
• Don't clean the spark plug with sandpaper as the fine grit particles can get back into the cylinder and do damage.
• When you remove the spark plug, blow any dust away from around it before you take it out. Dust down the cylinder hole can do damage.
• The air filter is the lungs of the engine – clean it regularly.
• Keep the vents on the saw casing free from dust – use an old tooth brush.
• Keep the chain at the correct tightness – check the instruction book.
• Keep the chain teeth sharp. A blunt saw is a dangerous saw as you push it to make it cut.
• Sharpening the chain correctly is vitally important to make sure it cuts evenly and does not go off line or grab. Study the handbook but if you have problems, take it in to your local dealer who will show you the correct method or will do it for you.
• Always try to work with a buddy, especially when felling trees
• Have some basic first aid training and check your farm first aid cabinet.
• Carry a mobile phone with you when you go.

Tree felling is dangerous

Chopping down trees for firewood on small farms is always good fun, but it can also be a very dangerous exercise for lifestyle farmers with little or no experience. The problem is that like driving a car, few people will admit to their lack of experience with chainsaws. If you want proof of this, note how many people you know who own a chainsaw but have very limited safety gear, and worse still, argue that they don't need it as they are very careful operators!

What is so easy to forget is when things go wrong with a half-cut tree, or even with just a branch about to fall off it, major mayhem can result with serious consequences for the people involved, for fences, buildings and especially power lines. The latter can be very expensive indeed.

So there are some very basic things to do before you even start your saw. First decide which way the tree is leaning and which way it will fall. If there are heavier branches on one side this will certainly affect its direction of fall. The question is how tall is the tree to make sure there is enough space for it to fall into. Most people are get this wrong by a large margin which leads to very great surprises and often expensive damage of both their own and their neighbour's property.

The best way to ensure the direction of a tree's fall is to fix a rope to it and put this under tension while cutting. This is a very good idea but the first problem is to be able to get the rope high enough up a large tree to apply any decent leverage. You see some very dangerous attempts to do this from long ladders and from raised tractor buckets.

Most amateur tree fellers don't understand the physics of using wedges in the cut of a tree to start and move it, and how critical it is to cut leaving a hinge to hold the tree before it falls. This is why felling large trees should always be left to professionals.

One of the most dangerous situations is when the direction of fall is wrong and the tree gets "hung up" with other trees. Here the problem is that you never know when it's going to finish its journey to the ground – it could be minutes, days or weeks and somebody could get killed. Freeing such a tree is even more dangerous than it's initial felling.

The effects of wind on the direction of fall of a tree can be very unpredictable and even a light breeze can change a tree's direction at a critical moment, especially if the tree is in leaf. This can either jam the saw blade or slew the tree's line of fall. Removing a jammed saw if you haven't got another saw to cut and free it is very tricky operation.

Human nosey parkers are also a hazard when tree felling as the noise of a chainsaw always seems to draw them to see the action or maybe get some free wood. Once you have all your safety gear on with earmuffs and visor, and saw at full revs, it can be very alarming to find people have arrived to see what's going on and are standing in a high-risk area where the tree can kickback after falling.

The legal implications of trees going wrong can be horrendous, especially if property is damaged and power supplies damaged or cut. You will certainly get a large bill from the power company and your insurance company may not pay out. Your neighbour could be sending you a bill accompanied by a lawyer's letter for damages too.

Large trees should be only cut down by qualified arborists who are fully insured. The costs may appear to be high compared to your friendly neighbour's offer, but think about what can go wrong and who is going to pay if things don't work out the way they were intended.

Thieves love farm bikes

Four-wheeler ATVs are top of thieves shopping lists this spring, and it seems that the market cannot be satisfied. I saw a lovely little two-wheel-drive ATV recently in very good order that had been bought "from a mate" for $300. Even though it's low powered, you have to wonder about its history.

People leaving suburbia for the attractions of a rural lifestyle are very disappointed to find that rural thieves are as active as the ones they left in town. Crime prevention consultants say that rural criminals are often the same ones who cause mayhem in town. Consultants point out that rural thieves are after all the usual house contents, but have the added easy pickings of farm equipment, machinery and livestock.

Stolen farm bikes have a wide market from beach and bush recreation, to servicing dope plantations in the bush. But the kids ATVs and small two-wheelers are also very attractive to thieves. Police say bikes are top of the burglar lists in July and August and into spring. This could be because they themselves e.g. dope growers are starting to get busy, but more likely is the fact that the receivers of these stolen goods are rural folk who are also busy on the land.

One issue is that for most farm jobs these days, employers expect staff to supply their own bikes. As this is an expensive capital item for a young person on wages, there's clearly a demand for cheaper machines, so something offered for sale with no questions asked fits the bill perfectly.

Staff providing their own farm bike has become part of employment culture and is based on the fact that people treat their own bikes better than the one belonging to the boss. This is true, but there's a change apparent in recent advertisements for employees, due to the severe staff shortage on farms. More potential employers are highlighting "farm bike supplied" as a special feature of the job. This is a welcome trend.

The old Kiwi rural culture of not locking doors, gates, sheds and now bikes has got to change, according to police. People living on lifestyle blocks need to be especially vigilant and be "nosey-parkers" checking anything out of the ordinary on their properties or those of their neighbours.

Lifestyle farmers make it easy for rural thieves. Houses are built two paddocks apart and surrounded by trees, so Rural neighbourhood support groups need to be more proactive, to keep an eye on each other's properties.

Note down registration numbers of strange cars with occupants supposedly looking for a named person or lost dog. Police advise to ask for identification from anyone on your property, and if your neighbours are at work, let them know they had callers during the day.

Added to this, a specialist security companies can now offer a wide choice of security alarms available for rural buildings, vehicles and gateways. The gateway alarms can alert owners when visitors arrive, and the message can be relayed to the back of a hill country farm. It's also even possible to video the arrival of your guests– whether they are invited or not, and this information can be stored on your home PC for later analysis.

Bulls can be Killers

The time of year when bulls are turned out after the Artificial Insemination (AI) programme is finished can be very dangerous for farm staff, especially now where on large dairy farms bulls are leased from special bull suppliers just for the mating period. Bulls are a major farm hazard and should be listed as such on the farm safety policy.

ACC statistics in New Zealand tell a sad story as every year bulls kill at least 3 people, and hundreds of near misses are never listed. Many deaths over the years have been women on farms.Humans are not good at evaluating bulls' temperaments. Where a group of experienced farm managers were asked to rank a group of bulls (that they'd never met before) in order of temperament, they all came up with a different order. This just shows that the human-animal relationship is very complex.

Complacency is the real killer as it's the unexpected that catches you out. It's so easy to forget that a tonne of beef on the hoof can go from zero to 30kph in a few seconds, and when it has caught you, a few swipes of its head even without horns can do fatal damage. Then when a bull gets you down you'll feel his full weight on your chest and that's the end of your air supply.

Recent tragedies of handlers being crushed in yards have confirmed this to be common event. Being crushed by a bull moving past you trying to escape from a narrow race causes serious injuries. Other cases are where a bull hits the gate which then swings back on the handler and where the bull lifts the gate off its hinges to fall the handler. There's also the direct frontal charge in a confined place.

It's very important to check that any yards or handling facilities are bull proof before accidents happen. Sadly the small cost of reversing the top hinges on a gate or drilling a hole for a bolt to go through is not done until after a death or permanent injury. Also, don't assume that a head bail that will hold cows will stand the power of a mature bull.

On small blocks the hazards are often greater as the bull has often been hand reared from a calf and is almost a family pet, until the day he decides to play and kill you with his antics.

Special care is needed with strange bulls leased or borrowed from neighbours to mate a few cows as once the job is over the bull can be a problem. You should never handle strange bulls on your own.

The most dangerous time with bulls is when separating them from his harem or a cow that he has just mated. The bull always thinks he needs one more go –even if the cow and the handler thinks he's had enough.

A bull's 'flight or fight' distance is 5-6 metres – but be watchful as he may not have read the textbook. Textbook advice recommends approaching a bull with a stick in each hand and arms extended to increase your apparent size. But again the bull may not believe you. Never trust a bull, and especially one that the owner assures you has always been "as good as gold"!