Why didn’t I think of that?

    There have been a few inventions in the cattle business that made me say to myself, “Self, you big dummy, why didn’t you invent that?” I knew immediately that a gun you could shoot to vaccinate your cattle would be a winner. Now when you’re a little slow on the headgate and a crazy cow charges through, escaping the needle, instead of retrieving the witch on horseback, all you do is load your gun or crossbow and shoot her, making sure it’s the vet gun and not the 30-30.
    Another appealing invention is the Safety Zone Calf Catcher you attach to your ATV to catch a calf and then process it safely while the mother looks. I just don’t think it would work on any ranch I’ve ever leased because they were so rocky and steep you couldn’t climb them with an ATV. So I’m appealing to the inventor to make a mini-safety-corral you can attach to a horse.
    A most recent invention I find intriguing should be popular with every rancher. It’s called the VaxMate® and it’s a cold box that keeps your vaccines between 35.6 and 45 degrees Fahrenheit and it sounds an alarm if conditions change. There are three places to hold your syringes, keeping them cold and out of harm’s way. You can even get a Sharps® device attached like you see in your doctor’s office to get rid of spent needles safely. I hate to think about how much medicine has been rendered useless because it was baking in a stainless steel syringe in the hot sun.
    These all sound like great inventions and I’m not getting paid by anyone to say so.
    I’ve had some great ideas myself. My first invention was “boxed beef” and I’m not talking about ribeyes in cardboard boxes. You’ve probably heard the government is trying to clamp down on the hours truckers drive so that cattle going from California to Nebraska might be left sitting while the driver takes a mandatory snooze.
 

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