OCA News & Views

President • Tom Karr 740-591-9900, tom@karrcontracting.com Vice President • Bill Tom 937-694-5378, btom@uproducers.com Treasurer • Linde Sutherly 937-875-0670, linde@lindeslivestockphotos.com Past President • Aaron Arnett 614-947-9931, aaronarnett16@gmail.com

OCA Directors

Shane Riley Director At-Large Washington C.H. • Term expires 2023 740-572-2044, shane.rileywch@gmail.com Jim Rogers Director At-Large Logan • Term expires 2023 740-591-7311, jrogers@reedbaur.com J.L. Draganic Director At-Large Wakeman • Term expires 2022 440-821-6576, paintcreekcattle@gmail.com Jaymes Maciejewski District 1 New Bavaria • Term expires 2023 309-222-0850, jaymes.maciejewski@gmail.com Andy Lohr District 2 Bucyrus • Term expires 2024 419-569-3613, andylohr61@gmail.com John Ferguson District 3 Chardon • Term expires 2024 440-478-0782, john@fergusonshowcattle.com Mark Goecke District 4 Spencerville • Term expires 2023 419-233-3101, goeckefarms@gmail.com Jason Dagger District 5 Cable• Term expires 2024 937-604-8820, jason.dagger@rwe.com Pam Haley District 6 West Salem • Term expires 2022 419-853-4657, phaley@haley-farms.com Brad Thornburg District 7 Barnesville • Term expires 2023 740-310-9196, thornburgcattle@yahoo.com Linde Sutherly District 8 New Carlisle • Term expires 2024 937-875-0670, linde@lindeslivestockphotos.com Jim Jepsen District 9 Amanda • Term expires 2022 614-560-5919, jepsen.drfarms@gmail.com Sarah Ison District 10 Moscow • Term expires 2023 513-314-5382, sarah.ison01@gmail.com Lindsey Hall District 11 Hillsboro • Term expires 2024 937-763-8115, lindseycgrimes@gmail.com Luke Vollborn • District 12 Bidwell • Term expires 2022 740-441-5740, vollborncattle@yahoo.com

Safety & Sorting

By Tom Karr, OCA President

As summer seems to fly by, it won’t be long until we start to think about weaning calves, sorting keeper heifers and bulls and remembering the last time we banged our head on a chute handle or smashed a finger on a tight cut gate. While most injuries associated with working cattle are minor and sometimes hurt our ego more than the pain (while the rest of your crew get a little pleasure at hearing you squeal about a pinched finger), the possibility of serious injury should never be taken lightly. Six and seven hundred pound calves, as well as 1,300 to 1,400 pound cows, are no match for even the toughest guy on your crew. Safety should be on everyone’s mind as you pay attention to your surroundings and planned escape routes. Take the time to walk your working facilities, check gate latches and look for sharp objects that weren’t there the last time you worked cattle. Things that were broken before have a way of falling to the bottom of our ever growing to-do list, or the “I’ll do that tomorrow list”. I f you have new people helping, point out the head bangers and finger pinchers. Make sure everyone knows the tag numbers of the few “crazy ******” to watch out for coming down the line. Or better yet, when those cows come through, sort them out of the herd for disposition no matter how great their calf is every year. Disposition is an inherited trait and not worth passing on to the best replacement heifer or breeding age bull. My rule for sorting for disposition has been, “I don’t mind a cow being defensive of her newborn calf when I try to tag, weigh and process it, but I want her to get over that attitude in a couple weeks.” You will be pleasantly surprised how quickly your whole herd’s attitude will improve after a three or four years of culling for disposition. I sell most of my breeding age bulls and replacement heifers private treaty at the farm. If I can lay my hand on every bull in a pen of 10 to 15 head and move them around for customers to see, it makes my sales job much easier. Communicate your plan for the day with your crew, especially if you have a new hand that would lack common cow psychology, so everyone knows the flow and each person’s responsibility. Give the person doing the vaccinating room to work to prevent stabbing themselves with a needle. Always reach over, instead of through bars, to vaccinate if possible. Chutes with drop down side-access doors are very handy and safer. Even old hands who have worked cattle through a chute for years will get a cow that lunges or jumps unexpectedly and catches a hand, arm or wrist - and we know that doesn’t heal nearly as fast as when we were younger.