Wonder Boy and Little Sparkle

All the cattle, except for momma and baby, are heading to the livestock auction this week.  Dan has two more cattle going and he brought them over to the corral Monday night so they can be loaded with the rest of the cattle on Wednesday.

Dan wanted the two new cattle to stay in the corral and not join the herd until the trip.  He brought hay and grain for them.

The new cattle are: Wonder Boy and Little Sparkle.  Sparkle, a heifer, is not so little anymore though she is smaller than any in the herd.  Wonder Boy is a steer.  He is small but powerfully built.  He reminds us of a short bodybuilder.  He also has an attitude like he has a chip on his shoulder and has something to prove.

They didn't like being in the corral when the herd had free range in the hayfield.  They would moo and moo and it was getting annoying.  I hoped it wouldn't go on all night.  Sometime late they quit.

The next morning I went out to check on them.  They weren't in the corral.  They were with the herd.  It appears they jumped over SW corner of the chain link corral fence as it was bent down a bit.  Some years ago I had two Holstein heifers jump over the chain link fence but they were big with long legs.  Wonder Boy and Little Sparkle are small and short.   After the Holsteins escapes my Aunt Cathy and Aunt Diane helped me place long poles and branches on top of the corral fence and that has discouraged any escapes until now.  It appears Wonder Boy and Little Sparkle went over the chain link fence but under the pole above it.

Yet another fence that needs upgrading. 

There was no way I was going to separate the two from the herd so I let them be.

Wonder Boy can also be called "Randy Boy" as he hung around the heifers most of the day.  He would follow them around sniffing them.  Sometimes when following a heifer he passed by a standing heifer and then he would verve off to go smell the standing heifer.  I think the heifers and the herd got tired of the two newcomers.

Wonder Boy is on the left checking out the lady.

Wonder Boy wasn't the only randy steer.   The Charolais heifer was in heat and a number of steers wanted to satisfy her.

Late afternoon the herd was at the water trough and north side of the pasture when Wonder Boy and Little Sparkle came from the south end of the pasture.   They were bellowing their displeasure at being ditched.

Since Tuesday was the cattle's last full day at the ranch Tammy and I went over to the neighbor's apple tree and picked four five-gallon pails worth of apples for the cattle.  We gave them a pail's worth in the evening.  A few times we thought they were going to break through the fence to reach the apples.  They love apples.