To the pasture

Thursday I let the cattle leave the corral and go into the pasture.  They were taking their late morning siesta and didn't move when I opened the gate. A few stood up when I walked through the corral but then they quickly laid back down.   As I hadn't taken down the small walk-through gate next to the old gate now that I installed the 16' gate, I worked on removing the walk-through gate.  Several times I went back to the tool shed for another tool.  Each time the cattle continued their siesta and never made a move to the gate.

Dan brought over his cattle Thursday just after noon.  As I working on the gate he came with his first load of cattle.  My cattle stood up and watched as Dan drove through the corral and to the north/middle pasture gate.  We unloaded Dan's cattle into the middle pasture and they took off out of the stock trailer and quickly an around the pasture's perimeter fences.  My cattle watched from the corral.  They hadn't gotten the idea of going through the gate to join Dan's cattle.  I had to herd them out of the corral and even then they didn't want to go through the gate.

Finally they did.  Immediately when they got to the tall green grass they stopped to eat.  I had to herd them towards the north/middle pasture gate.  Even then they didn't want to move.

 
"Boss Lady" certainly didn't like to be herded and several times ran from me and the herd.  When they herd wouldn't follow her as they were too buy eating grass, "Boss Lady" would run back to the herd when I approached her again.

So I slowly stood by the herd and every so often would take a few steps closer or touch one of the heifers and she would move.

Finally the herd went through the gate.  They went to join Dan's cattle but took their time as my cattle were too busy stuffing their mouths with green grass.


Now that the cattle were in the middle pasture I had to fill in the last two tree stumps that I had burned. I had to especially fill in the the tree stump hole from when my uncles, aunts and I burned the large stump as that hole was about five feet deep.

Naturally with ten acres in which to roam, where did the cattle go? Yup.   The cattle were fascinated by the dirt, hole, and nearby wood.

By the way, the cattle with the blue ear tags are my cattle.  Dan, Curt, Larry and I had tagged their ears on Monday.

It took a bit for the cattle to jell as a herd.  Dan's two loads of cattle had been kept in separate corrals so they were not one herd.  Then add in my cattle.  Dan's cattle walked and walked around the pasture and checked out the perimeter and anything else of interest.   Around and around they walked.  My cattle sometimes joined them, other of mine stood and ate.

"Boss Lady" is :number 80".  I don't think she will like not being top dog anymore.  She sure gave Dan's cattle the stink eye.

When they did not jell into a single herd it made counting them difficult.  Three cattle went off on their own and eventually laid down for a siesta.  Once I had filled in the hole I walked around the pasture looking for the missing three.  By the time I found them, the herd had found them which made counting a: two-time double-check count.

I have eight heifers and Dan was to bring ten cattle.  He brought eleven cattle. This is not the first time he had brought one extra animal.  In the future I may have to subtract one from the total I say he can pasture.

While Dan has a few smallish animals, most of his cattle are already big.

The neighbor's two cattle in the pasture north of the ranch sure want to join my herd.  Whenever my herd is on the closer side of the pasture the other two cattle would call out for them.

Here the cattle are checking out the smaller of the tree stump holes I had filled in.

Here is the larger tree stump hole I filled in: before and after.

It was not easy to shovel and rake the dirt back into the hole.  We had gotten .45 inch of rain on Wednesday and the dirt was wet.  It was heavy to move and would stick on my shovel and rake and would required extra movements to dislodge the dirt.