My girls have company

Be careful what you wish for! I think my "girls" are learning this.

I had the impression my girls were getting a little bored with their routine as whenever I went in the pasture they would come to me and follow me around. Well, their world has turned upside down as they have company to share their pasture.

Thursday night Dan brought 9 of his cattle, a mix of steers and heifers. My girls were in the corral when Dan arrived and after seeing him they trotted out to the pasture. Wonder if they remember that he was the guy who grabbed their ear and punched a hole in it and fastened a tag?

After Dan unloaded his cattle in the north pasture mine came back to see who these new cattle were. After a little mingling around the stock trailer and pickup Dan's cattle wanted to explore their new home. My cattle joined them - whether as friends showing them the place, or tagging along to keep track of these new strangers, I don't know.

In the evening I walked to the river to see how the new cattle were adjusting, and handling the river. They seemed to have common sense with the river. They also didn't mind getting wet as a number of Dan's cattle walked in the small low area of my property underwater. While less than 10 feet across they walked all the way to the fence. On a few smaller cattle the water almost reached their belly. *sigh* You don't have to walk in the middle of the water to drink it!

This morning Dan brought another 7 cattle, including 2 Holsteins. Dan's cattle are a mixed lot as he has Holsteins, black Angus, Herefords, black baldies, and one Angus/Holstein cross. It is kind of nice to see more colors than just basic black in cattle.

Dan brought the cattle before I got up - which wasn't early. Dan left all the cattle in the corral until a potential buyer came later this morning to look at the Herefords. The cattle were all pretty calm and as we talked most sat down and chewed their cud. I noticed my cattle were the last to sit as they kept their distance and some seemed to be giving Dan the evil eye.

After the buyer and his wife left I opened the corral to let the cattle go into the pasture. I took Dan to the river and showed him where my heifer almost fell in. It gave Dan the willies, especially with how high the river is and how fast it is moving. Dan agreed that if the heifer had fallen in it was most likely a goner.

When we returned to the corral half of the cattle were in the corral section south of the barn and needed to come east around the barn to go out the west gate. Three of my heifers were in this section and the rest were Dan's cattle. The rest of my cattle along with a few of Dan's cattle hung around the barn then left through the gate giving Dan wide berth.

The rest of the cattle watched and wondered how these were able to get out the gate. As the other cattle made their way to mid pasture the ones left in the corral started calling out to them. I eventually went into the corral and they all came to me and followed me around the barn. I stepped aside and when they saw the open gate they took off to join the others.

I don't think my cattle aren't too happy with all these newcomers. Even after Dan left, my heifers tended to stay near each other in the herd, except for one or two who started hanging out with some of Dan's cattle. Not that the other cattle shun the Holsteins, but the Holsteins tended to stick together.

Maybe my cattle are annoyed as it is no longer a "girls only" club. There are now boys sharing their pasture. At least these boys are all fixed so none of my girls will get into "trouble".

The new cattle probably disturbed my cattle's routine as the new cattle are still in the constantly roam and check things out mode. I think my cattle are caught between the remain-with-the-herd instinct and wanting to do things how they did them before. They look at me accusingly as, why did I let this riff-raff in?

Early this evening I saw one heifer was in the middle pasture across the fence from the herd. What?! *sigh* I walked out and found it was one of my hiefers. Can you guess which one? If you read my earlier post about the river excitement you have a 50/50 chance of guessing which heifer. No, not the one who almost fell into the river. Heifer 30 who gazed at the property across the river. The one who I thought might be trouble in the future.

I shooed the herd away from the gate and then herded my heifer back into the north pasture. I checked the fence and found a broken wire near their favorite siesta tree midway and along the fence in the north pasture. *sigh* Guess she wasn't content to take a siesta and fooled around and broke the wire. The grass is young, green, and tall in the north pasture, but you know "The grass is always greener...". Else she had enough of these newcomers and wanted her "space" away from them. None of the rest of the herd followed her through the fence.

After I got tools and wire and fixed the fence the herd came back to see what I was up to. Near this spot was a hole from a tree stump I had burnt this spring. I notice that the cattle enjoy wallowing in the three burnt out tree stumps holes in the north pasture. I took the shovel and filled the dirt back into this hole - all to an audience of 28 who lined up along the fence to watch me.

Numbers 30 and 40 stood by where the wire had been broken and watched me intently. Even after the herd lost interest and drifted off number 30 was the last to leave. Yup, she will be trouble later. I'm going to have to come up with a name for her.

With 28 my counting has gotten harder. More cattle to hide behind each other, else move around disrupting my counting causing me to start over. *sigh* That's life as a cattle baron.