As to fat cattle for market, after they are trained, they should not go
a yard except by rail or steamboat. As to trucking store cattle, this
must be regulated entirely by the season of the year and the weight of
the cattle, &c. I have always had a reluctance to truck store cattle if
I could possibly avoid it, not only for the expense, but for the risk
incurred from dirty and infected trucks. I would recommend, if the
cattle have a distance to travel in March, April, and May, and until
they have been fourteen days at grass, that they should be trucked. But
I have often been astonished at the recklessness of farmers buying
cattle in a fair, going straight to the nearest station, and turning
them into any dirty truck they can get--(when are trucks other than
dirty?) The danger is great; despite the utmost circumspection, even
the most careful may sometimes be caught. If those who act so escape,
it is not owing to their good management. I would recommend my friends,
when they go to a fair for the purpose of purchasing cattle, to take a
confidential servant of their own along with them, or else make it a
part of the bargain that the owner keeps the cattle for a certain time,
till the buyer can get the trucks properly cleaned--which I find no
difficulty in getting done--so that before they allow their cattle to
be trucked they may be satisfied the trucks are thoroughly cleaned.
They should be washed over with chloride of lime, or, what is still
better, given a fresh coat of paint. Three to four shillings will paint
a truck; that is a small matter--say sixpence a-head; but care must be
taken that the paint is dry before the cattle are put into the truck,
else the beasts will be poisoned. If this is neglected, there is great
risk of bringing home foot-and-mouth disease, or even the lung disease.
Some say that it was impossible to attend to such an operation--that
business called them home, and that people would not take home their
cattle. I have never found any difficulty in my own experience; but I
must allow that some sellers are too distant to send the cattle home.
In such an emergency the beasts should be laid past upon a little hay
or straw for a day in the neighbourhood; there is always a field to be
had, or the market green. What is a day, or a man or two, and a night's
hay, if your beasts come safe? Disease has been carried in this way to
hundreds of steadings, and the results have been most disastrous. The
day's rest will be a great advantage to the cattle after the fatigue of
standing in the market. The main object with store cattle should be to
keep them sound on their feet and free from disease. If their transit
is to be by rail, the quality of their food for a day or two is of
minor importance; they will soon recover.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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