When dealing with cattle, your day can change in an instant. Yesterday, as I approached the pasture where the yearlings were supposed to be, they werent there. Oh, oh. True, the day before I had given them a double ration to make it easier in the snow for them to get full bellies. And they are used to being moved to fresh grass every day. If they think they need fresh grass, especially if a step in post pops up in a draw to give them four feet of clearance under the wire, they are totally content to move themselves. I quickly spotted them in the distance on our western border about a mile away. Yes, I had neglected to shut the gate in the water trap, thereby giving them a really huge range if they escaped the electric wire enclosure. Normally I make sure all of the immediate gates are closed, but I hadnt even thought of the water trap gate. At any rate, they were at the far end of the place where they had found the strip that had gone ungrazed when the big snow storm set in. As I approached the cattle, going through in my mind the most efficient way to change the grazing plan, it became evident that some of them had somehow crossed the border fence (not one of our best fences) and had mixed in with the neighbors cattle. That is never what you want to find out. As I got closer, they all appeared to be in with the neighbors cattle. That was a worst case scenario. Much to my surprise, all of the cattle ended up belonging to the neighbor. They were lined up along our fence to graze all the forage they could reach through the fence. At that point we were missing every one of our yearlings. But not for long. It turns out they were all lounging in the sun in an area where I hadnt been able to see them when I entered their pasture. Some problems actually resolve themselves. But the water trap gate is now shut.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Nov 2013 17:31:25 +0000
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