Cattle and dogs

Late Monday afternoon I heard a commotion out in the hayfield.  The cattle were running across the hayfield and mooing. The rest of the cattle noticed and went running to join them.  They ran towards the south pasture fence.

Bees?  Wasps?  Hornets?   What got into the cattle?

Then the cattle stood at the south pasture fence.  I got my binoculars and through the milling cattle I could see a dog.  It was on the other side of the fence.  I figured the cattle could handle the dog when all of a sudden they went running away from the fence out into middle of the hayfield.  I grabbed my sorting stick and went out there.

Even with the commotion every so often Buddy was trying to mount the heifer.

With agitated cattle and Buddy excited I slipped across the south pasture fence as soon as I could.

I discovered two dogs.  They were laying just inside the hayfield/south pasture fence at the gate.  They were panting heavily.  As I approached the dogs started to come to me.  They thought I was coming to join them in chasing the cattle.

"Oh Hell No!"

As I approached the dogs the herd also came back.  I yelled at the dogs to leave and they looked confused.  Then one dog and the herd charged each other.  Mama had her head down and was trying to push one of the dogs and several other cows were trying to get into the act.

The cows seemed to be saying, "Chase my calf will you?!  Oh Hell No!" 

The other dog started into the fight.  I stood on the pasture side of the gate and tried to swing my sorting stick to drive the dogs off.  With me in the pasture the dogs couldn't escape the cattle through the fence like they did before when they were harassing the cattle.  Finally they ran down the fence line towards the fence with the neighbor.

The cattle are smart.  They saw where the dogs were heading and instead of chasing them the herd ran to the gate with the neighbor's field.  The dogs stopped at my fence with the neighbor's field.  But as I approached they slipped through the fence and headed south to the next neighbor's field.  The cattle were in hot pursuit and bellowing loudly at the dogs.

The next neighbor had several dogs in their dog pen and those dogs got excited and were running around and barking.  I think the neighbors may have helped/encouraged the two dogs to go through their fence to escape the cattle as the cattle soon settled down.

As I walked back to the house the cattle came back into the hayfield and towards the house.  I made sure to walk fast enough to reach the fence before they did in case they were still worked up.  But with the dogs gone they soon chilled out at the water trough.