Snow and Excited Cattle

Snowed a little more overnight.  Did not melt today.  Winter may be here to stay.  So much for getting more projects done this year.

The cattle ate the first large hay bale and were standing outside the corral gate this afternoon.  I gave them a couple small hay bales while I hauled out another large hay bale.  This time I used a bale of this year's hay.  I used the bale that I accidentally started to unload before completely wrapping with twine.  The bale held together as I hauled it to the far end of the pasture.

After sundown I let the cattle out of the corral to go to the hay bale.  I didn't plan on leading them and they just milled around outside of the corral.  So I walked partway to the bale and they followed.  Half had passed me on their way to the bale when I began to talk to some of them nearby.  All of them quit walking and turned around to stand and look at me.

They wouldn't go on until I started walking out to lead them.  As I did Buddy got excited/annoyed.  He turned towards me and put his head down and began to jump up and down.

Uh oh.

As Buddy approached I told him to calm down.  He continued.  I was out in the open and immediately began walking quickly to the nearest tree.  Buddy followed.  I got behind the large tree and stood on a small pile of tires at the bottom of the tree.  Buddy pushed a number of the tires around on the other side of the tree for a minute before he settled down.

He moved back into the middle of some cows.  The cows still stood around.  This time I went around the south of the herd to get ahead of them.  They began to follow me again towards the hay bale.  I could see a few cows getting excited and Buddy in the distance again began to get excited.  I ran to the next group of trees in the middle of the pasture and stood behind a large one.  The cows and Buddy ran past.  Now they could see the hay bale at the far end.  They ran over to the bale.

Big Red was one of the last cows to run by.  After she got by me and the tree she turned around and started to come towards me.  I yelled at her to back off.  She whirled around and ran to the hay bale.

I don't know what put a bee in their bonnet.  Maybe me talking to them as they initially walked to the hay bale confused them, then annoyed them.