I ended up spending 15 to 20 minutes scratching his head, his neck on top and under his head, and his shoulders. Since I was standing outside the fence that was as far as I could reach. Whenever I moved more than my arm he would get nervous and back away a step or two, then come back for more scratching.
I had to be careful, as like with a cat or dog, he would sometimes lean into my hand and arm for a harder scratching or a different position, or just because it felt good. A 700 lb animal is not the same as a 10 lb cat.
A few other cattle were curious and came over to sniff my hand to try to figure what was going on. They weren't brave enough to be scratched.
My steer still has his winter fur starting from his front legs on back. His face, legs, and neck didn't have the winter fur but was coarse nonetheless. Several other of my cattle have sleek black smooth fur. I could barely reach his winter fur. What I could reach shed easily when I scratched it. I know it bothers the cattle as this steer and many others have wet spots on their back where they have licked at their winter fur.
His fur was so coarse and thick I had to scratch hard with my fingernails. I think I wore them down a little.
While he enjoyed the scratching, eventually he tired of it and walked off to drink water.
Lyle
I chatted with Lyle this morning. He is on track to be moved out of his house by this Friday, the 15th. He still hasn't gotten a new home yet but is confident in finding one and has rented a storage unit in Great Falls until he finds a place east of the mountains. Today the movers were here to load his stuff.
Gophers
I had bought 5 new gopher traps. Two conibear and two leg hold traps to catch regular gophers. I also bought a new Victor black box trap to catch pocket gophers.
The pocket gopher trap had been redesigned from a round (tunnel) trap to a inverted square "U" shaped trap. No more floor and no more need to put a little dirt on the bottom of the trap to hide the plastic. As the cattle had eaten down the NW pasture grass I found a fresh pocket gopher mound and set my new trap. No more pocket gopher.
The new pocket gopher trap replaces my oldest trap on which the plastic trigger mechanism had broken. (The reason the company told me for the redesign). I had jury rigged a replacement trigger but over time it stopped working effectively.
The regular gopher traps were in addition to my current traps. I am frustrated in what appears to be only keeping pace with the gophers and not in eradicating them. They appeared to have re-spread back into the holes I had cleared last year, plus some new areas. I found a new gopher hole with a huge pile of dirt just inside my hayfield fence. I will not stand for that!
The young have gone off on their own as most of the gophers I am catching are on the smaller side. Also I have trapped a number of gophers from the same hole. How many gophers actually live in a den? Lots, that's all I know!
As I only had three milk cartoons to use as markers I only set three of the new traps today. With the four new traps that makes 11 traps. Still, I think I need more.
As I walked the middle pasture checking my gopher traps all the cattle would walk along the fence between the north and middle pastures. They wanted to be with me.
Strawberries
I picked my strawberries from among all the grass and weeds. I filled an ice cream pail full. My rhubarb is tall and plentiful. If I had time I could make strawberry/rhubarb jam. If I had extra time.
I did take time this morning to make another batch of pumpkin bread.And my garden? I didn't get it planted today. By the time I went out to plant the seeds it was late and the ground felt cool. I didn't want to plant seeds in cool ground. So tomorrow! Hopefully I will finally plant the seeds tomorrow.
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