Eating out of a bathtub

I put hay for Baby and the heifer into an old bathtub as I don't have a feeder on their side of the barn.

The problem with the bathtub is much of the hay ends up outside the bathtub and on the ground.  Baby and - especially - the heifer like to eat from the bottom of the bathtub and as a result end up pushing lots of the hay out of the tub as they move their head around.  Then they step or go to the bathroom on it ruining the hay.  If I planned to keep the cattle separated for a long time I would build them their own feeder.


Here are Momma and the two steers on the other side of the corral.

After had I re-separated the cattle the other day the steers were even more skittish than usual.   One steer has a habit of standing at the feeder along its side.  Once this steer gets a mouth of hay it turns its head so it is not over the feeder.  When it gets a large clump of hay invariably the extra hay falls to the ground and mud and is wasted.  One day I walked around and over to see how much hay was falling and one steer got freaked out that I was doing something different and so close to him that he about ran over the other cattle to get away from me. It took 24 hours for the two steers to be comfortable enough to approach the feeder when I was filing it. 

Nervous Nellies

Here is the size of Momma's udder before the cattle opened the gate and Baby had access to Momma's milk.  I've noticed April 4 that after almost a month away from Baby Momma's udder still looks to have milk.