Buddy, heifers and irrigation pipe

One of the black heifers was in heat Wednesday. I'm not sure if it is the same one as Tuesday.  Buddy patrolled the fence and called for the heifers.   When working on my well pump shed I noticed Buddy might be in the middle pasture.  Sure enough he was!  He had just gotten through or over the fence and was in a very fast trot over to the north pasture fence where the heifers were eating.  Uh, oh.  Buddy knows how to get through the north pasture fence section that is three strands of barb wire.  The heifers were at the area where the six strands end and the three strands begin.

I went out there.   By now the entire herd saw something was going on and they all came to the hayfield/middle pasture fence.  While the fence was damaged due to Buddy none of the other cattle crossed over the fence.   With some effort I herded the heifers into the corral.

Buddy watched and realized being in the middle pasture was not where the action was at.  I got to a gate but by now he had returned to where he crossed earlier.  He jumped over the fence.  Actually half over landing on top of the wires.  He then hopped the rest of the way over - clumsily.  I was holding my breath but he doesn't appear to have injured his family jewels.

For most the rest of the day he haunted the outside of the corral while I kept the heifers inside.  I had planned on releasing the heifers to the hayfield with the herd Wednesday night once the 48 hours of licking the bloat blocks had passed.  But looking at the calender I hope to wait till the heifer is out of heat.  I would prefer to give her three more weeks before getting pregnant.  Getting bred now would mean a calf the end of April.  Three weeks later would mean a middle May calf and I am fine with that if it gives her three more weeks of growth.

Once I fixed the fence Buddy broke Donna and I moved the irrigation pipes I plan to buy from her late mother's estate.  Arriving with my pickup I discovered I didn't have the right type of hitch.  I had a receiver hitch with a ball.  The trailer holding the pipes was a different type of hitch.

Donna got her tractor and used it to pull the trailer with the pipes to my pasture.  We had concerns whether the tractor and trailer would be able to turn into my driveway.  We had ruled out turning in the NE pasture gate.  To turn in Donna had to swing out into the other lane once the traffic let up, but she made it.

Donna and I had spent some time looking for connectors, risers and sprinkler heads for most of the pipes.  We found some but others were missing.  We are sure we had seen them all in the outbuildings when we initially checked weeks ago.