Slow Meander Down The Rabbit Run

The path we call the Rabbit Run is about 200 yards long and spans the width of the Gator plus a little bit. It begins at the barnyard and cuts right through the neck of the biggest hay field on the place. The cows normally rush down the Rabbit Run to the gate at the far end as fast as Mike can get down there to open it. But on this day nothing moved quickly, the herd was simply not in a mood to be moved.

It started when I was rounding them up in the little field in the Northwest corner of the property. Mike had taken the Gator across the bridge to fill the back with hay and to call the cows over to the gate that leads into the barnyard.

Heading them toward the river to cross means that the dogs and I had to get around behind them, the herd usually heads down the embankment by the irrigation line. This time, they followed the fence along the county road to get down out of the field. They passed the crossing and the bridge area and was headed toward far end of the second small field. Getting back around the leaders of the group, I again began turning the herd toward the crossing. Several considered going back to the first field and down to the woods rather than crossing. I had to make several defensive lineman moves through the swamp and over drainage ditches to direct the herd toward the river. I could hear Mike across the river, he was yelling and whistling, but not calling the cows. He was distracted by the twenty some elk helping themselves to our far hayfield past the Rabbit Run and on the other side of the river.

The cattle, not hearing the normal calling of ‘come boss,’ ignored the hoots and whistles coming from the barnyard but I was finally able to convince them to cross the river. By the time I went around to the bridge and crossed the herd had piled up by the gate into the big hayfield, it was not the gate that led to the Rabbit Run. I walk between the herd and the electric fence so they would walk around the barn and yard to the back so they could enter through the proper gate. Mike was now situated with the Gator at the correct gate and began calling the cows around the grazing barnyard. Once the cows saw the gate open they filed right into the barn area. With them all inside we opened the Rabbit Run, but the herd was expecting that they would be fed in the barn and they had all stuck their heads into the manger while they waited for lunch.

We had to walk each one out of the barn where they saw the gate to the Rabbit Run open and they moved on down the path. The grass had grown nearly six inches since the last time they took this path and so they ate as they walked toward the gate Mike had opened at the far end of the Run.

Once we had the cows locked out of the Rabbit Run, it was time for the mad dash up the county road to chase off the elk that were still in the 16 acre hay field. Seemed like no critters wanted to move the direction we wanted that day.

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