By Chris McClure, Contributing Editor
As reputations go, that of “bull hauler” may be one of the most colorful. I’ve met a number of them that could only be described as characters.
I have to respect that they provide a crucial service to the cattle industry. They sometimes live on pills and junk food for weeks on end during the fall run or other periods of high bovine mobility. They drive far too many miles without sleep or a decent meal in order to get their hooved charges to a distant destination in the shortest time possible. It takes a special kind of insanity to want to do that for a living.
One of my favorite bull haulers lives in northeast Texas and has a few cattle of his own. He is always on time to pick up and gets his cargo to its destination in the least possible amount of time. He never backs down from a challenge, though, which has been known to get him into trouble.
We were shipping some calves out of a ranch near Kemp, Texas, which is not too far from Dallas, and I called my favorite trucker who I will henceforth refer to as “F.T.” to do the hauling. Those steers were headed up to Buffalo Feeders to begin the process of turning into a highly nutritious finished product that would be desirable to consumers. I have to admit these calves carried considerable risk because they were weaned right off the cow with no backgrounding. They were up and down in size and a couple of light ones got on the load simply to make up some numbers. It was one of those “but the price is right” kind of scenarios.
F.T. had agreed to meet me at the shipping pens at some agreed hour in order to load. I sent him a map pin to the location then told him where to turn and really didn’t think much about it until I received a call from him that he might be a little late. I, of course, asked what was going on, and he said he had a little trouble negotiating a turn and needed a tractor to get back on the road. Since he was only a few miles from the pens, I drove over to check on his situation.
It seems F.T. thought he could negotiate an extremely acute turn by a little backing and filling. In the process, he had managed to jackknife the truck and had the left drive wheels about three feet off the ground, and the right back wheels on the trailer were in roughly the same state. It was not a pretty picture to behold but, at the time, struck me as funny – except for the part that I had cattle in the pen waiting to load.
I think F.T. was a bit embarrassed by the situation but, of course, it was my fault that I hadn’t told him he couldn’t come into the ranch the way he had chosen. I reminded him that I had suggested a different route and didn’t even know about the one he had picked. We were able to locate a four-wheel-drive tractor and waited somewhat impatiently for it to arrive while discussing the various ways in which to extricate him from his predicament.
F.T. decided the only option that wouldn’t further damage his pride and joy was to continue forward, and so the four-wheel behemoth of a tractor was directed to go around the section and come in from the nose end of the truck. The first log chain was insufficient to accomplish the task. We were fortunate that no one was in the way of the rebounding links that were parted under the strain. A larger chain was employed and, with the added traction of drive wheels finally connecting with the pavement, that bull hauling rig got back under way.
Of course, the delay further incited impatience to have those young, bawling babies on the road through the sprawling Dallas Metroplex as they headed toward the red hills of Oklahoma. I was just thankful that F.T. listened to me as I again suggested a different route as he left the ranch loaded.
There have been other incidents that could be described as belonging to this same category. Falling through a cattle grate with a loaded truck might rank pretty high. Getting stuck on a country bridge with a narrow opening and a sharp curve going in falls into the same set of stories – especially since the driver was probably missing the larger part of his brain cells due to an ongoing exchange with various chemical stimulants. He walked a bit like he drove – somewhat erratically.
I know that many in the business have even more colorful stories they could relate. It is only to be expected when dealing with crazy cattle and truck drivers who are hellbent to haul as many head as possible over as many loaded miles as possible over the shortest time possible. Maybe some of the craziness is stimulated by how we pay for hauling. I don’t know that there is a better way, but it can be mighty hard on people, equipment and critters.
It is a critical component of our business.
