Leaving the corral

Friday, after they got de-worming spray and ear tags, and after I fixed the pasture fences, I let the cattle out of the corral.

The past Winter and Spring the deer had broken the top fence wire in a number of places around the middle pasture.  In addition to the odd nail popping out of the wooden posts over the past year I found a half dozen metal posts had missing wires for holding the barb wire.  It is hard to explain why they are missing.  I check the fences each Spring for missing nails and such. 

Here the top wire has the wire holder.  The bottom wire is missing one.

Once I got the fence fixed it was time to release the cattle.

They were expecting to be fed another bale of hay so they just stood near the feeder for the longest time after I opened the gate and stepped away.

Finally a few came to where I was calling them.

Here is a 1:30 video of them leaving the corral:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q5ue5zYt2o&feature=youtu.be

As you can see they had muddy legs and hooves. It definitely was time to get them out of the corral before they got hoof rot.

I wanted the cattle in the middle pasture. Instead of herding them when all they wanted to do was eat green grass I let them be.  In their explorations they would eventually get to the middle pasture. I went down to the river where I spent some time repairing a fence overlooking a high river bank.

Later I heard a noise and it was the cattle when they discovered the river.  The cattle were in the middle pasture. Great!  I always enjoy watching cattle when they see a river for the first time.  They always are so surprised they stop and stare at the river trying to make sense of it.

This time instead of watching them I took off to close the gate.  The gate is at the other end of the pasture and I ran for it.  The cattle didn't remain at the river.  Instead they took off on their exploration of their new home and were running towards the east side of the pasture and gate.  I ran as fast as I could but that is still much slower than what cattle can run.  Even with a head start I would lose the race.  But the gods were smiling as the cattle turned to the SE corner of the pasture and not the NE corner where the gate was located.  I was able to close the gate then catch my breath.

Mission accomplished.