Evan said he would be here at 1 pm to get the cattle. The cattle took their morning siesta by the patio and water trough. I let them finish their siesta before moving them into the corral. I had to watch them and time it right so I wouldn't cut their siesta short. Around 12:15 pm a few cattle started to get up so Tammy and I got pails of apples and led the cattle into the corral.
Of course Momma was the first to enter the corral (Baby was sleeping elsewhere). I decided to cull momma after all the cattle were in the corral. The cattle knew I had apples in the pail so many of them followed me. Unfortunately momma followed me too. Then Baby woke up and came to the fence. Momma was torn between following me and going to Baby. Tammy got Momma's attention and was able to get momma out of the corral and reunited with Baby. Wonder Boy tried to pick a fight with momma before she left the corral but she pushed him aside. Here are momma and baby after being reunited.
The cattle when I first got them in April. From left to right: Momma, Red, Heckle, Whitey, and Jeckle.
The second photo shows Red a few days before he left for the auction. He has gained some weight.
Before and After:
Pink: Before and After. She lost most of her "yak" hair. If she had a tree to rub against while in the hayfield she would have gotten rid of the rest of her winter coat.
Here is Heckle. I don't have a good photo of her when I first got her as she and Jeckle were too nervous to stand still for a good photo. Heckle and Jeckle got rid of their heavy winter coats, got sleek, grew legs, then filled out.
Before and after photos of my clown face heifer.
Wonder Boy still annoyed the heifers when they were in the corral. Here Whitey is getting ready to push Wonder Boy back.
While in the corral the cattle had apples and hay but they really wanted to eat the leaves of my walnut tree. I had wire attached to the fence to protect the tree. Still they worked their tongues through the wire to reach some of the leaves. I had to get boards to temporarily protect the leaves.
While the cattle were in the corral I had locked out the horses. Here they are watching the action.
In the loading corral. The cattle realized something was up and started bellowing: "I don't want to leave!"
I herded the cattle up the loading ramp. I was careful to not get close to their back legs as the cattle were agitated and I didn't want to get kicked.
Moving into the stock trailer.
Evan has a really long stock trailer. In the past Dan and I filled the trailer with cattle. This time we really filled it. We had to work and work to get the cattle to shuffle closer to one another in the trailer so we could get the last two cattle inside. One was Wonder Boy and the other a big steer of Dan's. Evan was starting to think we would have to leave one of the cattle behind but after some effort we got the last steer inside even if I had to help move his leg inside the trailer's door.
When the cattle were in the corral I fed them a few bales of hay. After the cattle left and I let the horses back in the corral they vacuumed up the last of the hay.
Even though momma was fine outside the hayfield as the cattle were loaded into the stock trailer, she ran south across the hayfield as the stock trailer went south down the road. Later that evening momma walked along the corral fence looking for her friends. She looked sad when she came to the water trough for a drink and looked at me as if wanting me to tell her where her friends were.
Even though Momma and Baby are still here the ranch feels a little empty. Tammy thinks so too. Even though the one heifer had the minor jailbreak a few weeks ago, these cattle were the best behaved cattle I have had.
"Don't make me go. I want to stay at the ranch."
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