Cattle out on grass back in May

Now that it looks like Blogger is finally fixed - or at least a work around works - I am back to blogging.  Here is the last post I had written when Blogger quit forwarding emails.  Lots has happened since then; especially the last few weeks when death and disaster struck.  I am still trying to recover from my failed hay crop so it may be a few weeks before I am caught up with my news.



Thursday, May 24, I let the cattle out on grass.  In the morning I had given them the last of the barley, oat and pea hay.  I still have some large bales left of grass hay, but while I usually wait until June 1 to let the cattle out on the grass, the cattle want the grass and I am tired of feeding them twice a day.  I still have Toby the bull and Mama and her calf in the corral.  I don't want Toby to start making babies until June 1 so the new calves won't be born until March 10 or so at the earliest next year.  Toby and Mama were upset they couldn't go join the rest of the cattle and vocally showed their displeasure.

Also, because I don't want the heifers bred until after the cows have been bred, I am keeping the heifers an extra three weeks in the NE pasture while the cattle (and later Toby) are in the rest of the pastures.

Also on the to-do list was to spray some Ivermectin on the cattle to help them against insects, worms and biting flies.  To do this I ran them through the loading corral ramp where the cattle couldn't get away as I sprayed them.

The first two photos are of the heifers in the loading corral waiting to be sprayed.

After I let the heifers out to the NE pasture I let the cattle into the main corral.  I let them eat the rest of the grass in the loading corral.   Here they are resting in the afternoon.

All the calves were zonked out.  None of the calves woke up when I walked through the corral.  Later when the cattle were let out into the pasture the calves had so much energy.  In their excitement at the room to run they swarmed around the cows like a flock of birds flowing out and then through the herd.  When the calves flowed through the cows, the cows would then start running for a bit.

Panda in the south pasture.

Cattle in the south pasture.

After I let the cattle out of the corral I discovered they broke an old board in the loading corral.  A 9 ft 4 inch board.  I eventually found a replacement board from my stack of boards.

Here is an eight second video of the cattle running to the south pasture gate:  https://youtu.be/dV9ndT7SUKQ

Here is a 1 minute 16 second video of the cattle in the south pasture: https://youtu.be/bAwRLwUwCQg