Herding cattle across the highway

[robbyr]

About a mile and a half from me on a state highway I致e seen a rancher several times move cattle from one side of the highway to the other. It痴 not straight across. They move them a couple hundred yards. There will be guys on four wheelers or atvs on each end with road flags communicating by cell phone. I致e come upon this a few times before they got started and once as they were finishing. They must wait til there痴 a break in traffic then get the flaggers out to stop any that comes along. I致e never had to wait and don稚 have a problem with it. Just curious if it痴 legal for a rancher to do this. As far as I can tell it痴 him and his employees and nobody from sheriffs department.

 

[Creamer]

Did that all the time growing up - never thought anything of it. Sometimes we herded them right down the road but never on a paved highway as they didn't like walking on it so we kept them in the ditch.

 

[MossRoad]

When I was a kid there was a dairy farm just north of here about 2 miles that had the barns and dairy on one side of the road and their pastures on the other. They milked twice a day, so counting the return trip to the pasture, they crossed 4 times a day. We'd just stop and watch. Of course, the thing I remember most, being a young boy, was all the cow poop on the road! :laughing:

 

[goeduck]

My wife’s dad was a true cowboy. He had cattle drives right through downtown, from mountain to river and back seasonally. If I were held up on the highway by a cattle drive, I would sit back and enjoy a bit of Americana and hope I had a full cup of coffee to enjoy the experience. Enjoy life!

 

[deserteagle71]

Happens all the time in most of the western states. As Goeduck says, enjoy it...it's a part of Americana.






If you see a sign proclaiming "Open Range", that means that livestock have the right of way; generally there are no fences at all in the area. Should you run into and kill a cow or horse in an Open Range area, YOU are liable for damages; you'll have to pay the owner of the cow or horse what he deems it was worth. It's the law!


I can think of at least two deaths this past summer in my area from someone running into a mustang (4-legged kind) that was on the road in the middle of the night yet the roads remain unfenced. This is the sign for free-roaming mustangs:


The Interstate Highways are the only ones you can generally depend on being free from livestock. Needless to say, we are VERY careful when driving the secondary roads at night. Kind of hard to see a black cow or horse!

 

[Wagtail]

It's quite common here on the Tasman Highway around Pyengana, a 100kph zone.

Usually it's just crossing the 2 lane road but sometimes it's a cattle drive of 5km along the 'long paddock' (the roadside) from Pyengana to the high paddocks.

Along the Midland Highway, they've built stock tunnels to alleviate this problem.

 

[rhunt]

A funny story I have to tell: My wife and I where driving on Rt 94 going out of Newton NJ towards Blairstown one early morning and came upon a trail of manure that covered our lane for about a quarter of a mile. My comment to her was: "The farmer probably said, **** city slickers, I'll fix them" and popped the lever and unloaded the spreader right there on the highway. We laughed so hard my wife pee'd her pants. Got to love country humor. Bob

 

[disney]

So if you drive a small red car, and a bull charges it, is the rancher responsible for the damage?

 

[LouNY]

It is still done around here both dairy cows and beef use the roads or cross them,
View attachment IMG_20171208_154849922.jpg

 

[oosik]

All the ranchers, in this area, use the county roads to move cattle from one grazing area to another. Some times the trip lasts upwards of three hours.

Very common occurrence in this neck of the woods. If you see steaming piles - you could be in for a surprise around the next corner.

Just remembered - I did, once, see cattle being moved ACROSS the interstate( I-90 ). That WAS with the help of the State Police. Lot of cows - looked like 500 or more - probably took more than an hour - there were "cow breaks" every 15 minutes to allow for traffic flow.

I bet there were a lot of upset city folks - delays, hot wx, and a lot of cow poo to drive thru.