Pony, horses, gophers and cattle

The pony was in the north pasture Sunday.  It hung around the north fence to be nearer the horses in the pasture north of mine.  However today when I went in the north pasture in the afternoon the pony was gone and nowhere to be found.  Strange.  It showed up suddenly one day.  Then disappeared just as suddenly.  No broken fence.  No sign of where it came from or went to.

This evening Paul, the animal control official with the Sheriff's department, stopped by.  The person who owns the brand said he does not own any Shetland ponies.  Paul told him someone else then is using his brand.

Paul was a little surprised when I told him the pony disappeared with so signs of how he disappeared.  He told me Shetland ponies can be a pain as they can easily get through fences and go where they please.  They sound to me to be like "ninja horses".


My horses were enjoying the tall grass of the NE pasture today.   However this evening when the fireworks started they got scared.  The next neighbor over had friends over and they shot off loud and fancy fireworks tonight.  The fillies are high strung usually and with the loud fireworks noise, they took off with the older horses then joining them.  They ran around and around the NE pasture at full gallop.  When they ran into the corral as a safe place, and to catch their breath, I closed the gate to the NE pasture.  I'll keep them in the corral overnight.  They will feel safer there and also they can't get going too fast when they run in there.  I don't want them to accidentally run into a barb wire fence.


Today I moved the cattle into the south pasture.  The cattle now understand how my gates work and they easily moved through the gate once I opened it.  Well, all but one.  One of Dan's cattle tried to get around me instead of going through the gate,  but after cutting him off a few times he turned and joined the rest of the cattle.

The cattle were also more comfortable being in a "new" pasture.  The first time I let them in this pasture they would not get anywhere close to me, and eyed me warily.  This time, as I chopped a few Canadian thistle weeds on my way to retrieve the pocket gopher traps in this pasture, a number of cattle followed me or came towards me as they grazed.  A half dozen other cattle made a beeline to one of my pocket gopher trap's milk jug markers.  I got to it in time before they could stomp the heck out of it again.


Speaking of pocket gophers, I put the rest of my traps out in the field today.  The young have been moving out on their own as fresh dirt mounds are popping up here and there.  Tonight I even came across fresh dirt mounds in my fruit tree and garden area so tomorrow I'll have to move a trap back here.  I know it is the youngsters moving out on their own due to the size of the gophers I catch in my trap.

The other day, as I was bicycling to the neighbors inquiring as to the pony's owner, I saw road kill on the road next to the hayfield.  A regular gopher had been run over and killed trying to cross the road to my hayfield.  A regular gopher!  I had finally eliminated all of them last year.  I don't need any new ones moving back in.

I moved the cattle back into the south pasture instead of the hayfield as I had planned because I spoke with a nutritionist from Sweetlix, the company that makes the bloat blocks for cattle.

Jackie told me that the cattle need to be on the bloat blocks the entire time they have access to alfalfa.  I knew that a person puts the cattle on the bloat blocks two to three days before they have access to alfalfa so the cattle get the supplement into their system.  But I thought it kind of inoculated them.   Jackie told me the cattle need to lick on the block daily while exposed to alfalfa.

In the past I had used the blocks as an inoculation, especially as the cattle went through the blocks so fast.  The added molasses must make this taste like candy to them.  And these blocks are not cheap.  They now cost $23.99 each and a block is needed for every five cattle.

The cattle have never bloated, but that may have been because the alfalfa is only 20% to 25% of the hayfield.  And I had the cattle in the hayfield later in the season.  Right now the alfalfa is rich, or another way to put it "hot".  Now that the rain has quit and the sun has come out the grass and alfalfa are growing madly.  The alfalfa (and the goatsbeard weeds) are growing so fast they are leaking fluid at their joints.  The alfalfa has not flowered yet, though today I started to see my first alfalfa flowers.  I decided to wait until the alfalfa has finished flowering before adding the hayfield to the pasture rotation.  Even with the bloat block protection I want to be careful as cattle can die if they get bloated.


I also fixed a few things the horses broke.  One was a an old fence board in the yard that broke when the big horse leaned over the fence to sample the grass on the other side.  The other thing was a corral fence pole.  The cattle has broken it years ago and I nailed a patch to to hold it together.  The patch was coming apart so I found another pole and replaced the broken pole.

I also sprayed two tanks of herbicide on the weeds and clover in my fruit tree and garden area tonight.  Then I dug grass and weeds from around my rhubarb and a few strawberry plants.  The grass and weeds are so bad I am afraid of losing my strawberry plants.  The rhubarb plants' large leaves are helping keep the grass at bay for now.  The strawberry plants are tough and are fighting.  I found plants and to my surprise, ripe strawberries.  I ate a handful of them as I weeded.

That was my 4th of July. I hope you had a good one too.