Bad Timing And A Poor Choice

I almost titled this story ‘Stupid Cows’, in fact that was how I described the events to my sister in a text. But it was not really stupidity as the driving factor, but more a matter of timing and poor choices.

The main herd across the river is still getting used to the idea of not having all the wide open ranging of the pastures and large fields since the soggy time of the year began and we fenced them out of many of their usual wandering areas. Now they have to go around the fields instead of cutting through the middle. To get a drink of water they either need to travel to the back of the property by the spring or go to the front to the river. When they are near the front, they have a tendency to cross the river to check the old fruit trees to see if there were any apples left even though the last stragglers had fallen or been eaten by birds weeks ago.

A couple of days ago, just before the atmospheric river of rain began, the herd had crossed the river at dusk with the intention of crossing back over at feeding time in the morning. That night the 3 plus inches of rain caused the river to rise and to become a wild, raging river. Most of the herd could have most likely made it across, but the young, smaller nearly weaning age calves would be iffy, and we doubted the three young calves would have any chance of passing without being swept away.

Stupid cows, they are now stuck on the wrong side of the river with two to three more days of intense rain expected.

We are fortunate on this property since we are so close to the beginning of the river system. Once the rain does stop, the river level will drop rapidly and can fluctuate in one day enough to allow for safe passage for the herd. But the rain has to stop first.

Until then, we will be changing directions in our pattern of feeding. First we have to open several gates to get out to the show barn that is located by the house to load the Gator with the amount of hay needed for the feeding. If we were to drive over the bridge to the barn across the river, it may trigger the more senior cows to try to lead the herd crossing. Once loaded, we have to close all those gates before driving down the driveway to cross the county road and more gates to get into the fields that the cows are currently inhabiting.

Feeding has to be done on the soggy ground since there are no bale feeders on this side of the river. The fields are rather small in comparison to the territory the cows are used to and the cow plops are filling up the fields along with big footy prints filled with muddy rain water.

The whole thing is a muddy mess and the more senior cows are a little cranky about their current status of being stuck on the wrong side of the river while we all wait for this weather system to move on and away from the farm.

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