It was for her own good. I like Momma as she is a good cow and a good mother. Maybe too good... she still lets Baby suckle from her. I don't know how much - if any - milk Baby gets. Tammy said she has seen white around Baby's mouth when she suckles Momma. Anyway, since I plan to keep Momma she should be bred. She needs a boyfriend.
Dan knows a couple down the road from me who own a nice red Angus bull. Since Momma is also red the calf more than likely will be red. Black is better, but quality is even more important and the bull is a registered pure-bred quality animal. The bull is a young bull and has not had "kids" yet but he has been tested and his sperm count is good. And he is not a massive bull which is good as Momma is not a big girl.
To have a March/April calf the time is now for Momma to be bred.
Thursday the cattle were near the gate in the middle pasture. They came to the gate when I approached the gate. Momma is usually the first to enter a new pasture when I open a gate and she did so this time. I quickly closed the gate behind her. The other cattle were surprised and jealous that Momma got to go into a new pasture.
I hoped that Momma would make her way to the corral. Nope. She started to go towards the river and away from the corral. I had the horses in the south part of the corral and they all came to the corral fence and watched Momma and me with great interest.
I tried to guide Momma back towards the corral but she would not go east of the gate as that meant leaving the herd on the other side of the fence. I let Momma be as I figured she would end up exploring and would make her way to the corral later.
I waited. But I couldn't wait forever as Dan was going to pull my stock trailer to the pasture with the bull. It was mid afternoon now. Momma was now down near the river. I went and slowly guided Momma back to the gate. She again wouldn't go east of the gate. She would get agitated when I tried to herd her further towards the corral. I had Tammy come out to help. Once Tammy came out of the corral wearing a bright pink t-shirt Momma got very agitated. Before Tammy could get closer Momma ran around me and towards the river.
The closer Tammy got the further Momma ran to the river. Near the river I had to herd Momma back before she went through the fence to join the herd on the other side. The fence down here was only three strands and I needed to get Momma closer to the gate where I had rebuilt that section of fence to be five strands. And I needed to move Momma now as she began to put her head through the fence wires.
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| Three strand fence |
Once Tammy got near the river and in back of Momma we were able to herd Momma back towards the gate, and once there, Momma kept going and entered the corral. I quickly shut the gate before Momma could get back out.
And she wanted out. It was good that I was holding a cattle whip to wave around as Momma wanted to charge me and get around me and back to the closed gate. Finally she entered the loading part of the corral and I got that gate closed.
*whew*
With the loading corral completely rebuilt, it was extremely unlikely Momma could get out of there.
I called Dan and got his answering machine. By the time he called back it was too late to move Momma on Thursday. I had to keep Momma in the loading corral overnight. She was not happy about that as she wanted to be back with the herd, who she could see were congregating at the middle/north pasture gate.
I had kept the horses out of the loading part of the corral so there was enough grass for Momma to eat and I put a container of water in for Momma to drink. I also brought fresh cut watermelon rind which is a favorite food of Momma.
Momma paced and mooed. Formerly Momma had a weak moo but that is past as she now found her voice.
Momma mooed most of the night. I was up to the bathroom at 5 am and Momma was mooing loudly. I felt bad but I knew if I let Momma out I would have an extremely hard time to get her back in the loading corral.
Momma didn't eat any of the watermelon rind, and didn't look to have eaten or drank much.
Dan came over after 10 am Friday morning. After we backed up my stock trailer to the loading corral gate I climbed into the corral to herd Momma down the loading ramp. Momma was at the far end of the loading corral and I was talking and looking towards Dan as I climbed in the loading corral. I turned around to find Momma rushing up to me and only a few feet away.
Whoa!
Momma was hard to herd into the stock trailer. I was glad I completed the loading corral rebuild as I used the intermediate gates to not lose the progress I made in moving Momma through the loading corral. And I had to wave the whip around the times Momma charged me. Finally I got Momma into the stock trailer.
At the new pasture the bull, cows and their calves were resting in the shade of an out building. We drove near them and let Momma out of the stock trailer. She rushed out and the bull and a few cows came over to Momma and followed her as she ran around trying to make sense of her new surroundings.
Momma kept running around trying to learn the new boundaries. Eventually only the bull and a young steer kept following Momma as she ran around.
In the following photo Momma is in front and the bull at the rear.
Within a day they will all settle down and bond as a new unit.
The plan is keep Momma there 45 days or so. Cows cycle into heat on average every 21 days so 45 days should give Momma and the bull at least one chance to "get it on" and hopefully I will have a nice little calf next Spring.
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