Double jointed Holstein

When the wind blows strong and the weather changes from hot to cold or cold to hot, the cattle get adventurous.

The cattle owned by the neighbor across the river made their typical bellowing as they came down the ridge to cross the lowlands along the river before returning up the ridge on another trail. My cattle, in the south pasture, cannot see the neighbor's cattle because of the thick brushy trees across the river in that area. Still my cattle were apparently curious enough, or adventurous enough, to cross the river to check out the bellowing.

This isn't the first time the neighbor's cattle have bellowed, but as I mentioned, it seems as if cattle get adventurous when a strong wind blows.

I was in the pasture checking gopher traps. Earlier the one fallen tree that is leaning against a neighboring tree made some loud cracking noises. With the wind moving the neighboring tree around I had discovered the fallen tree had fallen some more, but not all the way to the ground.

Due to the neighbor's cattle's bellowing, or maybe it was some sort of "cattle sixth sense", I decided to walk along the river to see what was up. I found 21 of my cattle crossing the river back to my property.

There are two gravel bars and the majority of the cattle were on one gravel bar in the middle of the river patiently waiting their turn as the herd crossed the deeper part of the river in single file. The shorter cattle moved slowly in the current as the river bed is rocky gravel and slippery. One Holstein, with its long legs, easily crossed the river. These Holsteins remind me of giraffes.

The second gravel bar on my side of the river is small and all 21 cattle crowded together to try to fit on it while they assessed their next move. Not all could fit and most had either their front or rear hooves in the water. The second gravel bar is near my recent fence extension. A few cattle looked and looked and tried to find a way through the fence to the middle pasture but could not get through. Finally one carefully walked along the river to return to the south pasture. Then a few more. Again it was mostly in single file. The last several cattle took one final look around before reluctantly returning to the south pasture.

21 cattle. Where are the other seven? Hopefully they are already in the south pasture.

To give these cattle time to reach the hayfield I finished checking my gopher traps then went home to get something to eat. Later when I seen the herd in the hayfield I went to count them. It was hard to count them in the tall grass so I climbed one of the transmission power line towers to get an overview. 25.. 26.. 27. 25... 26... 27. 25... 26... 27.

I climbed down from the tower and walked among them to count. 25... 26... 27. One is missing. One of the Holsteins.

I checked the south pasture. Nope. I went to the middle pasture and looked across the river as part of the other side was clear of trees to the river. No sign of any cattle. I crossed the river.

The neighbor has a fence on his side of the river. The fence is where the brushy trees end and the open lowlands begin. There is a gap in the fence along a bend where the river is deep and the bank too steep for cattle to cross. This area is without trees. Because of erosion this year from the high water, the end fence post on one side of the fence gap is loose and the wires to the next fence post had sagged. While this is a four strand wire fence, this sagging section looked to have the middle wires loose. Loose enough that the Holstein could have slipped through the fence if it was double jointed.

This spot was right next to the river - too close! - and I didn't want to cross the fence here in case I slipped going through the loose wires and fell into the river. I found another part of the fence and slipped through the wires, then started my search for the Holstein.

I found a trail in the tall grass and followed it south then up to the top of the ridge. At the top was a large round hay bale to supplement the grass. A short walk and I found the neighbor's Hereford cows and small calves.

The cattle didn't know what to make of me and quickly went north along the trail down and then along the side of the ridge. Near the northern end the trail split to go back to the top of the ridge and down to the river. More cattle were down below near the river. They bellowed and began to come up the trail. The original cattle turned and went to the top of the ridge and the rest of the cattle followed.

I climbed to the top of the ridge. The neighbor's neighbor was out collecting small hay bales. Using my binoculars I looked for the Holstein. Nope. Only Herefords. Where is the Holstein?!

I went down to the river and followed the trail across the lowlands to get back to where I crossed the fence. Not too far from that spot I spotted the Holstein among the tall grass and cat tails. It ignored me.

*sigh* Now what do I do? The fence, near the loose end, had a wire-and-post gate and it was fastened tightly shut. Probably never been opened since the fence was built five years ago. I needed help getting the Holstein back home.

I went home to call Dan. No answer on his home phone nor his cell phone. I called his brother and a young woman (daughter?) answered. No idea if Dan was in town or on vacation. She thought he was in town. If we couldn't reach Dan she offered to help me and I accepted. She said she would be over in half hour.

I was in-and-out of the house getting some tools to open the fence and also a pail of treats to entice the Holstein to return home. Dan called using his call phone. He was out of town and wouldn't return until late Monday afternoon. Great. I told him his brother's daughter offered to help and I was waiting for her.

I waited. And waited. After an hour I called again and got no answer. Must be on her way over. No. She never showed up. By now the sun was behind the ridge and it was quickly cooling down. It was too late to retrieve the Holstein. I could have done so, but it was windy and getting cold. The neighbor's property was fenced and the Holstein couldn't go anywhere or get into trouble. Spending the night there would be fine. Besides, let the Holstein spend the night by itself and it would be happy to return in the morning to rejoin my herd. The Herefords apparently didn't want anything to do with the Holstein.

The night was cold as the low temperature was 35 F. The next morning I waited for the sun to warm things up and never started my retrieval mission until 11 am. This time I went counterclockwise and started my search where I last seen the Holstein. I didn't expect to find him in the same location but there he was. He was fine and didn't seem to miss the herd at all.

I went back to open the gate. My herd was in the hayfield so I didn't have worries they would try to come through the gate when my back was turned.

When I returned to the Holstein he had decided to sit down among the tall grass. It was almost like he was trying to hide from me. I slowly walked over and he slowly stood up. He wasn't nervous. I had to slowly approach with a treat in hand as he wasn't too sure about me when I got closer.

He ate the alfalfa cube treat. Then another. He seemed nonchalant about the whole thing. He slowly and completely chewed each alfalfa cube. I then fed him smaller ones to speed the process up. Whenever the neighbor's cattle would bellow up on the ridge the Holstein would stop eating and listen. Then back to chewing.

I began to step back a few steps and hold out a treat to entice the Holstein my way. He thought about it then would step closer to take the treat from my hand. Over and over I repeated this action.

Halfway back to the open gate he decided he wanted to go in another direction. I had to move through the tall grass - almost as tall as me - to head the Holstein off and guide him towards the gate. All without making sudden moves that would cause him to get anxious and bolt.

We were now 3/4 the way to the gate. I was able to again entice him with alfalfa cubes. We were almost the entire way to the gate when he stopped eating the cubes. He stood there and thought and looked around. We are so close. I didn't want to herd him in case he bolted. After a bit he walked to the open gate, stood there a minute, then walked through and found the trail where the cattle earlier knocked down the tall grass as they explored this area.

I quickly shut the gate. The Holstein wandered off - hopefully to go to the river and cross it to rejoin the herd. I worked on finding branches and a few boards on the ground that were driftwood abandoned after the high water receded on this side back into the river. I used these items to block the loose wires at the end of the fence. I hope this will prevent this double jointed Holstein from doing this again.

I checked the rest of the fence. All tight and good. No areas where the Holstein could have crossed. People have told me Holsteins can jump good, but this fence is four strands and a decent height. Besides it is near the tree line and there are really no spots where an animal could get a running start to make a jump.

Since then the wind has died down back to the normal "no wind / light breeze". The cattle have behaved themselves. I hate to admit that as I'm now getting superstitious of them doing something crazy after I complement them on their good behavior.