Should Have Looked East

Mike has a tone that he uses to call the cows. If he is not making that tone, the cows do not respond to those other noises he makes like whistling,  hollering at elk, calling the dogs or swearing a blue streak when the wrench slips and he smashes his finger. The cows can be near or clear across the river, the field and far into the woods, when they hear Mike’s “come Boss” sounding tone they begin answering him with their own bellows eventually bringing the whole herd to where Mike is.

The Gator makes a sound that they also respond to. When we are into the time of year when we feed twice a day, usually October through March, the Gator signals time for a meal and the cows come as soon as they hear the motor rev. But this time of year the herd ignores the Gator and only responds to Mike’s tone.

The herd was thrilled with all the green grass that has grown in this harvested hayfield over the last two weeks as they were busy attending to the far, far field.

The herd scattered out slightly  once they got into the field but they would not be moved from all the good eating even though we were planning on moving them to the 6 acre field for the day. The cows won the battle of us trying to walk behind, cajole, swing arms and holler to get them to move into the smaller field that was just as green as this one. Even Mike moving ahead of them and singing out his particular tone didn’t persuade a single cow to call back with a response. Oh well, perhaps tomorrow they will be in the mood to move…