Almost 6:30 am. I woke to the sound of one of the cattle loudly mooing. I looked outside and found the herd in the hayfield near the patio. The previous night I had trimmed some box elder trees and the cattle love eating the leaves off the branches. Baby was standing and mooing out towards the field. A few stragglers were still making their way to the herd and I thought Baby was mooing for them to hurry up.
I went back to bed.
The mooing continued.
I got up again. The herd was moving across the hayfield towards the road. I counted the cattle. I *think* there was 20. Or was there 19? Baby would still moo and look off across the field. Towards... nothing?
I came out of the house and Baby was now standing in the middle pasture and mooing and looking off in the distance. The herd was in the hayfield.
Uh-oh.
I've seen this crazy behavior before with two of my heifers over the years. Was Baby was in heat... really bad? Baby is not even a year old.
This is not good. The two heifers who went crazy when in heat both ended up across the river with a bull. This year there is no bull across the river. Supposedly just cow/calf pairs. But still... something bad could happen.
Baby began to trot towards the river and I followed. Occasionally she would stop and moo. I saw she had foam around her mouth. No crazy eye rolling... yet. The herd saw us and came and we all got to the river about the same time.
The neighbor's herd across the river was off in the distance on the side of the ridge. One of the cattle came to the river's edge by the fence. It had a white ear tag. The few of the herd I had seen earlier had red ear tags. Was this animal one of Dan's cattle? I was about to cross the river but first counted my herd. 18. 19. 18. 19. 20. 19. Then I looked for white ear tags and found both of Dan's cattle.
I threw some rocks into the water near where the other animal was standing on the bank and it ran off to join its herd.
Good.
My herd went about drinking from the river.
No one looked about to cross and instead came back and stood on the gravel bar. Baby was still mooing. Then suddenly she walked out in the water and then began to swim for the other bank!
I had to walk across as quick as I could along the underwater ridge. It was out of the way but I knew it was the quickest way for me to cross. I crossed in my clothes. The water came to mid thigh and my splashing had my pants wet to almost my crotch.
The only thing that "saved" me was that Baby is small and the river bank high. She was having trouble climbing up the bank. I got over the barb wire fence without ripping my pants too much. I stood over Baby and shouted at here to go back. She tried to get up the bank more and I pushed her down. She began to walk/swim upstream along the bank to find another place to climb up. There were a few other spots but I stood there so she moved on. At the point upstream where the neighbor's fence begins again was an area with matted grass where cattle had crossed before. Baby really struggled to get up here as she had a little ground on which to place her hind feet. I had to push and push to keep her in the water.
She swam downstream a little bit but seeing that I was following on the bank, and starting to get tired of swimming, decided to swim back across the river to rejoin the herd.
Baby looked like a river otter swimming across the river. I was amazed how well she swam. The current didn't seem to affect her. I never seen any cattle swim that much and well.
The herd was gathered on the bank watching Baby and I and one of them walked in the water to meet Baby.
Back on the other river bank Baby was mad at me. Baby wanted to come back across the river but since I was still there she stood and mooed and glowered at me. Then she took off and swam to the peninsula. Shouting at her to turn around had no affect. I ran around and over the fence again. This spot had a a lower bank and Baby was struggling up the bank when I got there. I pushed and pushed and then pushed her back into the water. She swam back to the herd and got on the river bank.
She mooed and glowered and mooed.
The herd stood and milled around and Baby slipped into their midst. I could still hear her.
Then one of the eight who had crossed to the peninsula then over to the south pasture began walking along the underwater ridge as that was downstream a bit from where I stood. Shouting had no affect. So I ran over there and grabbed some rocks from that gravel bed and threw them in the water next to the steer. He got spooked and turned around. A few more rocks in the water near him and he went back to the river bank.
I took some more rocks and returned to where Baby had tried to cross earlier.
The neighbor's herd was moving along the side of the ridge but did not come to the river. A number of my herd stood and watched the others intently. If my whole herd tried to cross I may not be able to hold all of them back.
When a few walked into the water and I threw rocks in the water near them and they went back to land.
It was a stand off and I stood guard and some of my herd watched the neighbor's herd.
Finally hunger came and some cattle started to drift back into the pasture and eat. More cattle followed. When only a few were left at the river bank I re-crossed the river and then herded them away from the river.
In my wet clothes I slowly herded the cattle back towards the hayfield. Baby began to eat and mostly quit mooing. Some of the steers and heifers would sniff her rear end and then mount her. Baby would stand for as long as she could take their weight. If her crazy behavior didn't clue me in, this was the final bit of evidence.
Then halfway to the hayfield some cattle way north at the potato farm mooed. That got Baby's attention and she stopped eating and began to look and moo. I couldn't make out the cattle but Baby appeared to be able to do so.
Oh, great.
I began to herd the cattle pushing them to move faster than they wanted to go.
We were closer to my walk through gate than the regular gate so I went ahead and opened it. The cattle were interested as this was a new gate to them and most went through the gate. Baby lingered in the gate until another heifer pushed her through it. All but one of the herd went through the gate. The last steer wouldn't go through the gate and would circle around the hayfield corner. He got agitated when I tried to herd him and ran for the regular gate.
Fine with me as long as you go into the hayfield. He did and I closed the gates.
 |
| Only the regular gate will do for this steer |
Keeping the cattle only in the hayfield is more work as I now have to keep at water trough filled with water for them. But that's less work than chasing cattle.
It was now 9 am. I am not done with the day's craziness by any means. But I have been up since 6:30 am and I am very tired. I'll fill you in one the rest of Baby's breakdown tomorrow.
 |
| Soaked clothes |
No comments:
Post a Comment