Cattle at the neighbor's

No, not a jailbreak this time.   Kyle asked if I could put my cattle on his five or so acres to eat the grass down.  The grass is tall and he is worried that once the grass dries it will be a fire danger.  Since July started the rain has stopped and the temperature has soared.  Our high temperatures have been in the upper 80s to 90 degrees and things are starting to dry out.

Moving the cattle was a matter of coordination.  Thursday was the only day I could move them.  Saturday was hay day and I needed the cattle out of the south pasture to allow me to leave the gate open for Wyatt to deliver the hay.  Friday I was going hiking most of the day.

To get the cattle to Kyle's field I had to go through the hayfield.  I was in the process of rebuilding part of the hayfield fence along the road and I had to wait to move the cattle until I was done with the rebuild - else (and what did happen as the rebuild drug on) had enough fence up to stop the cattle from easily getting out.

Thursday evening I had enough of the fence up.  Then I had to check Kyle's fence.  Two sides of his fence were bad with one of these sides pretty bad.  I spent some time adding old wire of mine to parts of his fence and pounding staples to hold loose wire to fence posts.

It was evening by the time I could move the cattle. In the past when I let the cattle into the hayfield they either headed to the two power line towers else hung a left to go towards the house and barn.  Eventually they would circle the field to check their boundary but I didn't want to wait that long as it could be a while.  I asked my neighbor Dave to be a second person in the field while I herded the cattle to the right when they entered the hayfield.   All he had to do was stand, occasionally wave his arms when the cattle approached him, and walk as the 29 cattle moved and spread out.  I did the herding.

Initially the cattle just wanted to stand and eat the tall grass when they entered the hayfield but in less than 15 minutes I got the cattle through the gate to Kyle's field. The bull went right along with the other cattle and was no problem, which is fortunate as I forgot to bring my sorting stick.  Good thing no cow was in heat at that moment.

I moved a water trough to the field and filled it with water and moved the salt blocks over there too.

Sunday I finally got time to set up the float control on the garden hose to allow automatic water refills and now don't have to refill the water trough several times a day.  The trough holds a lot of water but with 90 degree temperatures the cattle drink lots of water.

Before I hooked up the float control.

Sunday morning Dan's red Angus cow was in heat and Buddy the Bull was interested.  More than just interested, he was possessive.  If any other cattle got near her he pushed them away.  He rammed one of my little steers into the fence pretty hard.  Note to self: Buddy may be gentle, but don't ever get between him and his girl.

Don't even think of getting near my girl.

The next three photos are of three different attempts to mount her.  She was not yet in 'standing heat' so she would move each time.

Notice one of my little steers (the black one) got run over when she was trying to get away from Buddy.  Yes, he is poking her.

It's a lot of work for the bull when the girl keeps running away.


Even the red Angus's calf couldn't get near its momma while Buddy was 'interested'.

Excitement is over for now.  This group is heading back to join the others in the shade of the trees.