Calf Table and Pasture Work

• Marlboro Man and his team helped brother Tim work with pasture calves using a calf table, a small chute used for thirty-plus years with over 100,000 calves
• The calf goes in the table, guided by one person and held in place by another while a third administers shots, brands, and castrates the calf
• Process takes about 30 seconds to minimize stress on the animals; kids bring the calves down the chute to be put in
• Key people: Marlboro Man, Tim, Cowboy Tim, Josh, Lance, Alex, Caleb, Pa-Pa
• Hazards of the job: manure (numbing effect), toes being stepped on (painful), getting run over from behind (risk of injury)
• Manure and manure smells affect everyone, calves often poop during the process
• Calves can weigh several hundred pounds and can step on or trample workers during the process
• Workers try to minimize wait time by having the next calf ready for the table as soon as the previous one exits
• Calves are usually handlers' children or grandchildren, as they are small enough to handle the calves and push them into the chute
• Workers push calves from different positions to get them into position for the next person in the process
• Occupational hazards include manure, getting toes stepped on, and getting run over from behind.

Learn about the calf table, a useful tool for working with calves in pastures. This text describes a morning spent helping a brother work two pastures of calves using the calf table.