Annual cattle in front yard

It is getting close to letting the cattle out to pasture.  First a few things to do.

At 1 pm Donna came over to help me with the cattle.  I let them into the loading corral part of the corral.  I had kept them out of there so far this year so they gladly went in there to eat green grass and weeds.

Donna handled the gate and in ones, two, or threes we got the cows into the loading ramp part of the corral.  Once in the ramp I was able to spray their back with a pour on solution of Privermectin, which contains ivermectin.  This is a parasiticide that kills roundworms, lungworms, grubs, lice, mites and horn flies.

I also put cow #7's ear tag back on.  Last Summer she snagged it on some dead tree branches and pulled the tag out of her ear.  I had to put the tag in her other ear.  I also put a second tag on one of the two black cows whose tag number faded/washed off last year.  Maybe the number will stick this year.  If not I can tell the two cows apart because now one has an ear tag in each ear.

Once the cows were done I let them into the front yard.  The past few days between rain showers I "wrapped" the front yard to protect the shrubs, bushes and flowers. I also wrapped the pump house to protect my new shingles and other areas the cows can't eat but in the past have caused mischief when bored.  Because all my corral panels are being used in part of the north pasture I had to protect stuff with field fence and other wire fencing.  My heart isn't into this as much this year.  I have so much permanent work to do that this temporary works seems to be pointless, even if for a good cause.

We then let the steer/bull calves out to join their mothers.  Because it is too late (or would be a lot of work) to number the ear tags to match the calves to their mothers, this year I decided to ear tag just the heifer calves.  I bought orange calf ear tags for this purpose.  I did the heifer calves because there were less of them and also so I can quickly tell the heifers from the steers this Summer.

Donna has a better eye than I do when it comes to telling the steers from the heifers.  One steer had already lost his balls so I had to double and triple check before I was satisfied it was a steer and not a heifer and we should let it out of the loading corral.

Because the main head gate is too big for the calves I used the calf table.  The table has a head gate at one end where I could hold the calf's head still so I could tag its ear.

Hmmmm... I bought orange tags because they would stand out on a black heifer.  But some of my heifers are red and the tag blends in.


Then everyone was out in the front yard.

Buddy was concerned when Donna and I were working the cattle as some the cattle made noise.  Once the cows and calves were in the yard he was worked up and was at the east corral fence watching and moaning.    The east corral fence is not as tall as the other corral fences and he is able to get his head on the top board to look out. Especially this year and Buddy seems even bigger and taller than last year.

I ended up bracing one post (as it is not a railroad tie) to prevent Buddy from pushing it too far over.  Eventually Buddy settled down and laid in the corral and watched.

Once the cattle ate their fill they laid down and chewed their cud while their calves slept.  Everyone was happy.

In the evening I went over and visited Curtis.  He and another neighbor were using Curtis's newly bought used portable sawmill.  They were making boards from some very large diameter logs Curtis had bought.  I stayed for some Papa Murphy's pizza they had gotten and baked.

When I got back home I herded the cattle back into the corral for the night.  I am taking no chances for the cows and calves to get up to mischief overnight.  They weren't too keen on going back into the corral; especially the calves.

Once the cattle were back into the corral I noticed Buddy had broken a couple logs in the east corral fence.  He had not gotten out of the corral though he could have with a little more effort.  Even though all the cattle were in the main corral (I counted) Buddy thought a few more were still in the yard and he put his head up on the last good log section of the east corral fence and looked out into the yard and moaned.  Eventually the cattle made their way back to the new large hay bale I had placed in the pasture this afternoon.  Buddy finally went to the back part of the corral to watch them.

Tomorrow I have more fence to fix before letting the cattle out of the corral to eat more front yard grass.

The broken logs were the top log on the right section and the second from top log on the left section.