Momma and Baby's separation hickup

I suspected Baby may reach through the barb wire fence to reach Momma's milk bag.  Wednesday morning when I went to the corral I found just that.  Momma stood next to the barb wire fence so Baby could reach her.   By the time I returned with my camera Baby had climbed most way through the barb wire fence to better get at Momma's milk.    Momma was happy as her bag now wasn't so big.

I had stuff to do so I let the cattle be.  Separating Momma and Baby right now would not be easy.  I let Baby drink her fill.  It set back their separation by a day... but oh well.

Then later in the morning when I checked up on the cattle I found they had torn off one of the boards I used to keep them from climbing into the feeder. This is a board I had nailed on.  I guess I didn't use enough nails.

Then I looked over to the other side of the corral and found one of the 'mean' heifers in the hayfield!  What?!      She had broken the corral fence down enough to somehow get over the fence.  At least Momma did not join her.  In all my years I never had any cattle or horses go though this fence. There is always a first time I guess.

Momma and Baby were on the west and east side of the barn.  I opened the gate and Momma went into the north part of the corral.  Well... at least separating Momma and Baby again was easily accomplished.  While this was not how I initially had Momma and Baby separated I'm ok with Baby and one heifer on the south side of the corral and Momma and the rest of the cattle on the north side.

Now to get the other heifer back into the corral without Baby getting out.  I opened the small gate and waited while I watched Baby, who was watching Momma.  The heifer came to the gate but would not step though the gate and come back into the corral.

So I went outside the corral to herd her inside the corral.

The heifer still wouldn't go through the gate.  First she went one way past the gate until I cut her off.  Then she went back past the gate to the other side until I again cut her off.  This went on a half dozen times until she finally turned and passed through the gate.  She didn't want to return to the corral and knew I would close the gate once she passed though it.

Then I had to fix the fence so Baby couldn't climb through the barb wire part of the fence.  Fortunately I had some old snow fence I wasn't using.

Then I had to fix the broken corral fence.  She did a number on the fence.  She broke several small posts and really bent the top metal pipe.  Since the ground is still frozen I put a board and some t-posts against the fence to hold it up.

Then I wired the chain link fence to the metal pole.  Further down on the undisturbed part of the fence, to be on the safe side, I wired the chain link fence to the wood poles.

Plan for later this year: rebuild this fence.  Was it on the list of fence rebuilds for this year?  No.  Is it now?  Yes.

Now to see if my fixes keep the cattle where they belong and Momma and Baby stay separated.