Gathering To Move

With the Rabbit Run (our causeway through the hay field) up and electrified with the help of a small solar powered battery pack, we began to round up the main herd. The herd had been scattered out quite a bit. Some were still lingering back at the spring, some were in a small field at the other far end of the place and most of the calves with a few babysitting cows were across the road from the bull pen.

One of the calves had found a breach. A couple of the wires along the road had broken during the winter time and we had not noticed but the hole was big enough for a calf to wriggle through, which he did. We had just begun the process of rounding the whole herd together when we heard honking along the road and a neighbor had stopped in the yard to tell us that a calf was out. The calf had crossed the county road and was standing in the ditch, nose to nose (their electrified fence between them) with one of the yearling bulls in the bull pen.

We got the errant critter back into the pasture with the other calves and his mother before combining the batch with the rest of the herd. The fence is to be fixed after we get the main herd moved across the Rabbit Run and out of harms way.

Once the herd was mostly together, we opened up the small pasture barnyard. The cows were eager to get in since the grass has been growing in there undisturbed since we moved #8 with her twins ByGosh and ByGolly to join the main herd. All the calves followed the cows.

Closing the gate to the pasture barnyard, we then opened the gate to allow access to the Rabbit Run. The cows and calves meandered their way across the hay field and down to the river where they crossed for access to the pastures around the far, far hay field (We finished closing off that field the day before with temporary fencing to keep the cows out until after hay season).

When we took hay up the road that evening and took a head count, one cow was missing from the herd. Tomorrow’s story will follow up on the missing cow.