New roll of hay

Man, the cattle can eat. In two days they ate the large roll of hay Dan brought over. By Saturday night only a small amount of hay lay within the ring. This bale, while large, was probably only around 800 lbs. It was also just grass and had no alfalfa mixed with it.

Time for the second bale.

The cattle have developed a habit of coming over to the gate when I am nearby. They picked this up quickly when I would come and give them a wheelbarrow of pulled weeds or cut grass from around the garden. Well, that's nice, but I needed to open the gate and roll the hay inside the corral.

Hmmm?

"Shoo! Shoo! Move away!"

I opened the gate just enough to roll the hay through. I didn't want any cattle to make a jailbreak as I rolled the hay inside. I could have opened the gate a little more as the hay rolled on the bottom of the end of the gate and stopped. *argh* With the roll of hay on the gate I couldn't move the gate and it was hard now to move the roll. So I went for it and with a mighty effort pushed the roll pass the gate. Fortunately the roll did not break the gate. Now wouldn't that be a mess with a herd of cattle standing nearby?!

Inside the corral I turned the roll and attempted to roll it to the feeder ring. Hay! Hay! The cattle swarmed around me. Behind or on the side of me I didn't mind. The cattle in front of the roll made it hard to push. I was trying to move ahead and they were trying to eat the hay. I pushed and they would take a step back. Another push, another reluctant step. *sigh*

"Shoo! Shoo! Move away!"

I quickly rolled the hay to the ring. When I moved to tip the ring on its side the cattle swarmed the hay.

"Back! Back! Move away!"

I rolled the hay up onto the rest of the previous roll and dropped the ring taking care not to have it hit any cattle as it fell over the roll.

* whew* I got a workout.

The cattle attacked the hay when I left. You'd think they had been starving, but they all wanted the "new" hay, the hay they had been eying outside the gate.

Tonight, a day later, half the hay is gone. I'll be back to feeding the cattle hay bales Monday night.