Cattle into the middle

Tuesday afternoon I moved the cattle into the middle pasture. And wouldn't you know it, heifer #20 ("Hamburger") was the last one to cross through the gate into the new pasture. Her sometimes cohort in trouble, heifer #78, was the first to cross and you'd think #20 would be quick to follow. Instead she stood outside the gate and watched all the other cattle cross over. Either she has to do stuff on her own terms, else she was suspicious and thought it was a trick by me. Eventually, and only when I moved farther away, she crossed over and joined the others.

The cattle seemed to be fine in the new pasture and are working on a new routine. Since they are in the middle pasture and closed off to the north pasture, they can't get to the barn. They seem to take their morning siesta in the NE corner of the pasture where they can see the barn. Having a salt block under a nearby tree is another incentive.

The grass is still decent in the north pasture as they could have gone another week on it. But I am trying moving the cattle more often this year to see what affect that has on the grass. Previously I had them eat all the grass down before moving them but I found this often corresponded to our dry period and the grazed pastures took longer to recover. I also found that the cattle prefer medium height grass as that is more tender. Tall grass gets tough when it gets dry. Rotating the cattle more often should solve this.

Since I moved the cattle I moved the gopher traps from the middle to the north pasture. Otherwise the cattle molest the traps and marking posts. I haven't decided if this year the gophers spread out, or spread out in force. In some towns I have only caught two to four gophers so I imagine they spread out with plans on later populating the new towns.

I don't know what it is about the gophers trying to move into the NE hayfield. They are hard to trap. It took a long time and lots of effort last year to get rid of them. Again this year it is the same.

Before moving the cattle one heifer broke my water trough's float. This is similar to what stops the water in your toilet. Since I was going to move the cattle the next day, and the cattle had access to water from the river, I didn't refill the water trough so as not to create a pond for mosquitoes to breed. I was in the house when I heard a clatter and banging on the water trough. I came outside expecting to see the cattle push the empty trough around but I saw one of them exiting the water trough. I don't know how the float was broken as last Fall I had bolted boards to the trough to protect the float. The boards were undisturbed. Kids!