It seemed to be the same six who got into the middle pasture last week.I checked the fence line and found the fence needed work in the low area near the river that flooded when the water was high this spring. As I had never closed the south and middle pasture from each other before I hadn't maintained the fence, nor had the cattle "stress checked" it. Now that the river has receeded into its banks and this area has dried out for the most part, access to this section of the fence here is now relatively easy.
I added a couple extra steel posts and moved a couple other ones. After I had re-attached the barb wire to the posts the cattle came to the river to drink. They were surprised to see me as I could see them on the higher ground stop suddenly when they saw me.
While the cattle have a low easy access to water for most of the south pasture they decided to drink on the other side of the fence from me. The six "jail birds" (all Dan's cattle!) came to the river first. One Holstein drank right next to the fence. After he drank he turned and started to cross to the middle pasture before I stopped him.
After the water level dropped a shelf or bench of ground has been exposed past the end of the fence. This is how the cattle have been getting into the middle pasture! After the cattle left I added another steel post at the end of the exposed ground, and extended the fence. Now if the cattle want to get into the middle pasture they will have to walk in the river and so far they have not done that.
While the cattle were drinking from the river and checking me out, I worked on other part of the fence moving or attaching strands of barb wire. Some cattle wanted to check out what I was doing and wanted to sniff my hands. So I had to be careful when working. Many of the cattle have no fear of me.
The cattle look good. Mine look very nice except for "the runt". I had two smaller heifers when I got them and now I can only pick out one smaller one. She is growing in height and is getting longer legs, but she hasn't filled out yet. She also has half of her winter fur coat. Of the rest of my cattle, only a few have a light reddish tinge to their coat signifying a touch of the old fur, and that one parent may have been a red Angus. I don't know why this one heifer is lagging the others. Younger? She takes after her mother? Don't know. One of Dan's cattle seems to be similar: winter coat, no great weight gain.
Since I fixed the fence no more jail breaks into the middle pasture.
I see that my cattle's jail break made the "Law roundup" section of the local newspaper. Someone had called the Sheriff's office to report my loose cattle. My neighbor across the river and I are the only people in the area that I know who have cattle. The neighbor has a herd of Hereford cattle. I only have two Herefords, with the majority being black. Why the person who noticed the cattle didn't contact me before calling the Sheriff's office is a mystery. The Sheriff's office never contacted me.
Today I found one of the wooden stands that hold two of the bloat blocker blocks was flipped over. I set it upright. I found that the two blocks were a quarter of their size. I checked the other two blocks and found they were half their size. Wow. The bloat blocks certainly don't last as long as salt blocks. I read on the label that one block per five head was recommended. Dan and I were a block and a half short as we only have four blocks for 28 head. Still that doesn't account for the rapid use of the blocks in only seven days. At $18 a block, one certainly doesn't want the blocks to be used up as if they were candy.
Tomorrow I let the cattle into the hayfield as it has now been a week since they started on the bloat blocker blocks. Then it will be a test of the hayfield fences.
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