Cattle in fruit tree area

Thursday morning I let the cattle into my fruit tree and garden area. I had all the small fruit trees and bushes protected by fences except one apricot tree. While the cattle happily ate the grass I took down the old fence and put up a new and better one.

Here are photos before-and-after of the old fence and new. The round brown object to the left of the fence in the 'before' picture is how I quickly protect my bushes - drop a roll of small fencing over them.

Here are photos before-and-after of another apricot tree. This fence I did not upgrade. I ended up using some of the previous apricot tree's old snow fence to further protect this tree as the cattle did not respect the fence. Even wrapping the tree with the old snow fence barely protected the apricot tree as later I caught heifer #20 inside the outer fence trying to push the snow fence open and off the tree so she could eat it.

While I worked on the apricot tree fence the sun came out and my coat came off. The cattle, curious beasts that they are, had to check out my tools, camera, and especially my coat. In the photo are the two main trouble makers, #20 and #78. #8 behaved but she did want to rub against my coat after she sniffed it. All pictured are heifers. Females!


The cattle started the day off behaving but by evening some were more interested in mischief than eating. The females, as usual, were the ones who were stubborn and causing trouble. The 'boys' either ate or went head-to-head in playful contests to see who was stronger. At one point a half dozen steers were in a circle each waiting their turn to test their strength on one another.

Some of the heifers got tired of eating grass and were determined to eat leaves from several box elder trees in the area. I chased them away and they would return again and again. I know to watch out for #20 and #78.

In this photo the box elder tree on the left had been 'trimmed' up as far as the cattle could reach. The fenced area in the center left is my rhubarb and strawberry patch.

Unlike cattle of other years, these cattle liked to eat rhubarb, and ate what they could snatch through the fence. One heifer somehow slid one of the black 4' by 8' heavy grates apart and was half into the strawberry patch before I saw her. That had never happened before as those grates are heavy. I seen evidence later where the cattle pushed in the area that only had a fence and ate whatever grass and strawberries they could reach. *sigh*

As Dan tells me about my having cattle in my garden area and front yard, "you're a braver guy than I". I think "braver is his nice way of saying "dumber".

The #20 and #78 heifers also went to a lot of effort to reach a few of my fruit trees. #20 somehow got her head under the fence around one of my pear trees and bent it and some wires up and got her head inside and was working to reach the lower leaves on the pear tree and nipped some before I saw her. *argh!!!* I didn't think I need my "four wooden posts" as this fence sat on the ground. I added some.

My "four wooden posts" were boards I pounded into the ground between the metal posts and then nailed the bottom of the fence to. Most fences I leave off the ground a few feet. High enough for me to crawl inside the fence and for the cattle to get their heads in and eat the grass, but low enough the cattle can't get inside or reach up to eat the tree's leaves. You can see several of the posts in my new fence apricot tree photo above.

#78 at times would go from fenced tree or bush to another one ignoring the tall grass on the ground. Why? Why go though the work when it is easy to eat the grass at your feet?

I caught heifer #20 eating my small box elder tree and chased her out of the area. She stood just outside the gate to the fruit tree and garden area and watched me. She was waiting for me to be distracted then she would come in again and head for the tree. That is how she operates. This time I stood by the tree and looked at her. She looked at me, then looked away. Then would look at me. All the while she wouldn't move and come back through the gate even though everyone else was inside. She knew she was in trouble. After about 5 to 10 minutes she came through the gate carefully and headed elsewhere taking care not to come by me or the tree.

Not all the cattle were a pain. Heifer #3 had a thing for me. She would stand and stare at me. When I wasn't looking she would carefully come up and sniff me. I hated to herd her with the rest as she is so nice. I am not sure what is up with steer #204. He would stand for a long time staring at me. He wouldn't approach me, nor do stuff to get into trouble. He would just stand and watch me.

It rained several times during the day. Yes, I got wet.

In the evening I had to herd the cattle out of the fruit tree and garden area as there was no way I was going to let them stay in there overnight. By now it was after 10 pm and all but one were done eating and were milling about looking for trouble. They didn't want to go and would only take a few steps then stop when I moved onto herding the next one.

I started to 'cattle proof' my front yard as the grass in the garden area will only last a little over a day. Here are photos early in the day and in the evening. Notice the grass is less. These cattle are 'mowing machines'!

A few more cattle photos...

Friday the cattle come into the front yard. How is that going to go?