Monday, October 08, 2018

Two calf jailbreak

This afternoon I found two of the calves in the pasture with the herd.   Red's calf and Beulah's calf.   The other two calves were still in the corral.  Red's calf was busy drinking milk from her mother.  It has been over two weeks since they were last with their mothers but it appeared that Red still had milk for her calf.

The calves opened the NE pasture gate.  The first photo show how I had the gate latched.  The cattle and calves worked and worked and got the chain loose and the gate open.   The other two calves were in the corral and missed out.



This photo shows how I usually latch this gate.  I double run the chain through the hook.  Donna has commented that I overdo the latching and make it hard to get the gate open quickly.  The calves jailbreak is the reason I overdo the latching.  This time I hadn't done it as I was in a hurry to get the tractor through the gate and the gate shut.  I thought I would be driving the tractor through the gate soon so I didn't go back and double latch the chain.



I had planned on letting the cows and Toby back into the middle and south pastures today as the north pasture and Calvin's field was eaten down.  First - after locking the other two calves in the south corral - I let the cows and the calves into the corral.  Toby and four cows entered the corral, then the calves.  So I shut the corral gate.  Then I opened the gate to let the cows into the middle pasture.   Beulah, Panda and Diamond all saw that happened so now they wanted out of the corral.  I let them but kept the two calves in the corral.  Then I put these two calves in the south corral with the other two.  It took longer for Toby and Speckles to notice the cows were in the middle pasture.  Eventually they did and left the corral.  Speckles ran to join the herd.  Toby walked but he mooed over and over to the cows 'that he was coming.  Wait for him."

Once I let the calves back out and to the NE pasture Red's and Beulah's calves went to the - now double chained - gate and were disappointed it was closed.



On another note... another day, and a little wind, and most all of the English Walnut trees' leaves are gone.



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