Thursday, September 28, 2023

Cattle into the hayfield

The pastures are eaten down a lot so it's time to let the cows and Haynes into the hayfield.

First off, I gave the cows and Haynes a bloat block (and took away their salt blocks for now) on Monday after I separated the cows from the calves and when I let Haynes and the cows eat the yard down.  The bloat block lasted one day.  Only one day!  I needed a second bloat block, but last Saturday I found CHS was out of bloat blocks as some woman bought their last 11 bloat blocks a few days earlier and CHS wouldn't get any more bloat bloats until this Thursday.   Tuesday afternoon, as the bloat block was almost gone, I tried Murdoch's Ranch store.  Last year they told me they didn't carry bloat blocks, which was odd as they carry salt blocks.  I decided to ask them again.  Murdoch's does carry bloat blocks.  The one store thought they had 2 blocks left, but after they checked, they had none.  I called the other store.  They had one bloat block.  I told them to hold it for me and I would be there in 20 minutes to get it.  When I got home the previous bloat block was all gone.  Today, Wednesday, when I let the cattle into the hayfield at noon I saw the second bloat block was 2/3 here.  So the cattle are slowing down in their licking of bloat blocks.  The two bloat blocks should be enough to protect the cattle from getting bloated due to overeating alfalfa.   It has in the past.

I did see the salt feeder was tipped over and moved away from the two green posts to hold it from being tipped over.  Haynes... Haynes... Haynes.  Stop doing this.   Another feeder to repair.  I have the bloat block in a plastic bag as I planned on carrying it to the feeder in the middle pasture.


The cattle were happy to go into the hayfield.  Some ran in.


Once in the hayfield they stopped moving and began eating.



Here are two videos of the cows and then Haynes coming into the hayfield.  Haynes just walked.

https://youtu.be/PnrZPR7qFdQ

https://youtu.be/Qd7e3urSTuk

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