Ear tagging

My "girls" got their ears pierced today. Now they are mad at me, don't trust me, and do not want to have anything to do with me. I thought females liked to get their ears pierced?

Dan came over after 3 pm. I already had the girls in the corral having fed them bread and other goodies while we waited for Dan. As I carried a French baguette the girls followed me into the loading corral and Dan closed the gate behind them. Then likewise into the loading chute.

I already marked (1, 5, 8, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90) the tags. For some reason I marked two tags with 40. The second tag will be used next year.

I had my doubts we would get all 12 heifers into the narrow end of the loading chute and that final gate shut. I herded them in to the end and couldn't get the gate shut behind the last 3 heifers. While I held the gate against the heifers Dan decided to tag those he could reach. He stood outside the loading chute and reached over the side to do the tagging.

The heifers were fairly (more than what one could expect) calm up to now. But having a hole punched in your ear and a tag attached would excite anyone. Heifers started to go up, around, back and forward. One big heifer got so excited it looked at one point that she was going to stand on all four legs on the backs of the other heifers then jump over the corral's sides. But she went back down to stand on the ground.

The corral's sides bulged out and in and made cracking sounds, but surprisingly held. The same couldn't be said of me as the back heifers backed up and I couldn't hold the gate steady against them. Sensing a lost cause I got out of the way the best I could. One heifer stepped on my foot but fortunately it wasn't a large heifer and she was moving quick so I hardly felt it.

For the most part I avoided "bodily functions". Ya know, when you get anxious and excited sometimes there is a powerful urge to "go". I said "for the most part" as one of my shoes got covered... from the top. The soles of my shoes - naturally - were in the thick of it. Life on the farm. By the way, yesterday Jan gave me a welcome mat with images of cattle on it. Nice. I also took another mat she planned to throw away. Living on a farm - one can't have too many mats to wipe ones shoes on! I still haven't gotten around to cleaning up the fertilizer the cattle left for me on the front lawn.

Dan had only been able to tag a a couple heifers. I herded them back in to the narrow end. This time they were reluctant to go there. The heifer at the front wouldn't go all the way to the front. I had Dan go up to coax her forward. Seeing Dan they all got more excited. I let the back ones slip out then got the gate shut on the rest. Five were out and seven inside. They seven had a little room to move but Dan decided to try to tag the ones he could.

More milling heifers and bulging of the corral's sides. My gate held though I wondered if it would as the gate latch sometimes would pop away from the catch when the corral's side bulged out. Dan got all seven tagged. One (tag 90) pulled away as Dan tagged her and we were unsure if the tag would stay on.

I let the seven out to join the five. Of the five, four did not have tags. I herded them back into the narrow end. I got all but a couple heifers inside and the gate closed. Fortunately it appeared all the untagged ones were inside the gate. Dan tagged the two near the front then the two in the very back near me. He checked number 90 and as it's tag wasn't closed put another tag (40) on its other ear then got the other tag off. He was going to cut tag 90 off but it came out when he grabbed it.

I let the cattle out of the narrow end. Dan then opened the second inner gate. I thought Dan used the extra 40 tag so I looked for both heifers with 40 to see if could tell them apart. As the cattle moved to the next outer section I saw one heifer without a tag. So tag 40 was not the extra tag.

I herded them all back in. This time I got all 12 into the narrow end. Why couldn't we have had this from the beginning. With all 12 in the narrow end the heifers had little room to move. Still, the untagged one was the smart heifer. She would put her head down when Dan tried to tag her. That's how Dan missed her all the other times. But we were on to her now and she couldn't avoid getting a tag.

Done. Finally.

Afterwards the cattle didn't want any part of Dan and I. Even though I opened all the corral gates, and the gate to the NE pasture, they stood at the other end of the loading corral all bunched together and watching us. Only when we moved towards them did they stream out to the pasture.

In the pasture they remained close to one another and would stand watching Dan and I to see what tricks we would pull next. They kept their distance from us - quite a distance. After a bit they started to munch on the grass but were ever alert to Dan and my movements.

When tagging the cattle, one heifer in her excitement snapped her head against Dan's hand. Dan jumped back from the heifer and corral. Dan, a typical guy, told me he was fine and didn't get hurt although he shook his hand to shake the sting out. He had some blood on his hand but that may have been from the one heifer with a partial tag as I seen a little blood on her ear that had the partial tag.

I felt a little sorry for the smallest heifer as it was harder for her to keep her head above the bigger heifers. I noticed the top of her head was covered in manure. Poor girl. I'd wash it off her but naturally she wouldn't let me get close to her.

The blue tags look very nice on the black cattle. The tags stand out nicely. The tags help when counting the cattle as all black on all black sometimes blends together. The cattle all look nice and stylish. While Dan tried to tag only the left ear, two heifers have their right ear tagged. Number 1 and an unknown tag id have right ear tags. I'll have to learn the other number. It would have been nice to have all with left ear tags as I now have to look to make sure one didn't lose a tag.

Later in the evening I pulled the second water tank back to the NE pasture near the well. Maybe this will reduce the chances of me forgetting to turn the water off when filing this tank. Before filling the tank I cleaned and scrubbed the bottom of the tank. As I did the herd came over and stood in a semi-circle to watch me.

Earlier in the day I had "cattle proofed" the fruit tree & garden area and was ready to let the cattle in to eat the grass down so I wouldn't have to mow it. Since the cattle were now near me I tried to lead them through the now open gate. I encouraged them to come join me and walked back and forth through the open gate. But the cattle would have none of that. They were sure I was trying to trick them again. Besides they had seen me pass through many other gates that I wouldn't let them come through. Having enough they snubbed me and all went to the far end of the pasture.

As I mentioned, this afternoon I got odds & ends of fencing, posts, wire and old baling twine and wrapped a number of trees and bushes, plants and the gardens to protect them from the cattle. I remember last year when a few cattle wouldn't behave and made a mess. While I vowed not to let cattle near the garden and trees again, the grass is now tall and thick and I don't want to mow it. Besides I successfully protected the front yard this year.

I guess I will have to find out tomorrow how well I protected this area as the cattle didn't want to get near me tonight. I'm on their "manure" list.