Major cattle jailbreak

Around 11:15 pm Tuesday night the son of a neighbor called me to ask if I was missing some cattle.

"Not that I know of...."

From the description it sounded like it could be some of my cattle, though from the description of where the cattle were and where they came out of the trees I couldn't imagine how my cattle got there.  Then again, in the past I have found cattle can do unexpected and crazy things and go places you wouldn't expected them to.

I went outside and searched the middle pasture and only found nine pair of eyes looking back at me. 

A quarter to midnight was not the time to go searching and herding black cattle from up on the ridge down through trees, a place I was not too familiar with. With no moon I was counting on the cattle bedding down for the night.  That was what the nine cattle still in the pasture were doing.

I got three hours of sleep Tuesday night.  It finally got light enough at 5 am so I got up.  First I put the horses in the corral.  Then I doubled checked the pasture and still only found nine cattle.  I did see where the cattle crossed the river and matted the grass down in their crossing.   I drove up to the ridge to search for the cattle.

The dew was heavy and wet.  The grass and grain was tall.  I spent some time walking and scanning with binoculars the area I was told they were at sundown last night.  I only found deer tracks and no cattle hoofprints.  I heard a moo in the distance and I headed back to my car to drive to another road.

From the other road I saw the cattle in a cut alfalfa field.  A large open area with fences only on two sides.  On the corner the fence had been cut to provide an opening to drive through.  I temporarily closed and tied the cut fence shut in case the cattle came that way later.

Only a rundown fence was on partial sections to the south.   Some open areas had a irrigation pipe on wheels.  While it was throwing water, this was not a real barrier to the cattle.  Adding to the danger and urgency was a quarter mile past the fence and pipe was a road.  And cars.  Not a good mix for cattle.

I drove around to get the lay of the land and where and how the houses and fences were located.  Then it was off to get Tammy and try to reach Dan again.

Finally Dan came over and I asked Tammy to delay going in to work on her half day of work and help us, though she was not happy to do so.  With such a large open area the more people to provide coverage when herding, the better.

The cattle were congregated along the north fence near where two horses were in a round metal corral.  The cattle were still in the cut alfalfa field.  While a number of houses in this area had fenced areas, either empty or with horses, there didn't seem to be any gates to access them. Other than the cut field, there were also a large field of weeds, then a very large grain field.

Our best option to was herd the cattle along the fence line to the trees at the top of the ridge far in the distance.   The grain field didn't quite reach the fence so we had a small strip of grass on which to herd the cattle.

Helping and hindering us was a large pivot irrigation system currently spraying water on the grain field.

Helping us: the pivot system paralleled the fence and provided a psychological barrier to the cattle. If they really desired and didn't mind getting wet, they could pass under the system.

Hindering: the cattle were hesitant in going between the system and the fence as water being tossed in the air almost to the fence near the closest end.  I blocked the path away and the cattle then timed the water to avoid it before continuing on along the fence.  Once we got past the beginning the water didn't reach the grass section along the fence.

Because I walked along side the cattle to keep them along the fence I got soaked.  If I thought the dew was bad... add water from the irrigation system.

Past the irrigation system and near the trees was another fence on the east side.  At the corner was a gate - an open gate.  Hallelujah.   I later learned that the cattle came up the ridge though this gate, not where I was led to believe the previous night.

The cattle went through the gate with minimal herding. I closed the gate.  I later called the landowner to tell him I left the gate closed and I learned from him the gate was supposed to be closed.  Apparently the people running the irrigation system left it open when checking on their irrigation pump down by the river.  If the gate had been closed the cattle would not have got up and out on the ridge.

At the gate I left the car keys for Tammy to drive my car home.  She was trailing behind Dan and I by quite a bit by now.

Once through the gate the cattle took a left and went along the ridge for a bit before taking a trail down to the bottom.  The long way down and not the short way they had taken the previous evening up to the top of the ridge.

I knew there was another gate and path back up the ridge ahead and I quickly cut across the side of the ridge to get ahead of the cattle who were down at the bottom.  This gate was closed.  Good, as there was another herd of cattle back up the ridge to the NW and the last I needed was to try to separate two herds in an open field.

Now I needed to herd the cattle across the bottom land to a gate in the neighbor's fence near the river and my property.

First I went over to open that gate.  If the gate was closed the cattle would pass by and go back up the ridge.  At the gate I discovered this was how the cattle escaped in the first place.  The gate - which was four strands of barb wire - was drooping due to age and the heavy grass that grew and died on the wires.  The cattle had easily hopped over the gate and escaped.

Once I opened the gate I headed back to the cattle.  The grass was almost as tall as me - 6 ft - in many areas so I made a basic path as I walked as I avoided the swampy cattail areas. My clothes were now soaked halfway up my chest from the dew.  Now I needed the cattle to find my 'path'.

Dan was still back near the cattle.  He stayed in background to the side as I herded the cattle.  This way we kept them headed to the fence and river.

After a slow steady calm herding we reached the gate.  The cattle stood and looked and looked... and looked. At the gate.  At me.  At the gate, etc.  Please don't follow the path you made when you escaped and headed up the ridge.  Finally one of the cattle went through the gate and the others followed.

Dan and I closed the gate and sighed in relief.  We lifted the wires from the grass, tightened them up to stand higher, and added some dead tree branches in front of the gate until I could fix it.

The cattle congregated at the river.   We left them be to find their way back across. We were already soaked from the irrigation and dew, and this way was shorter, so Dan and I crossed the river.  Back at the house was my car as Tammy already gone to work. It was only 9 am.  The herding took less than two hours and could not have gone better.  I gave Dan a ride back to his truck and then came back to fix the gate.

The cattle were still between the river and fence.  They had moved from the river's edge to lay in the shade of the trees.

I worked on the gate by adding some boards to the gate between the two posts.  I added an extra wire above the gate.  And tied some ribbon strips on the wires to make the gate seem more intimidating.

One of the cattle wandered over to see what I was doing.  The rest were chilling.

I checked the rest of the fence including a 'choke point' fence between the neighbor's fence and a steep river band I had built a few years ago.  All these fences were in good condition.  I seen from the matted grass the cattle had earlier checked the rest of the fences out before finding the drooping gate.

A few hours after I was done and back across the river the cattle came across and joined the rest of the herd. All was well with the world again.  They have not been back across the river since.


Click on the following photo to enlarge it to see the blue X and the red X.  The blue X is where I found the cattle and the red X is where the gate was at the top of the ridge.

Some of the tall grass.

The enhanced gate.

The cattle are chilling while I fix the gate.