Two Buddy Breakouts in one day

Another day of breakouts.  I woke up at 7 am.  I checked outside and found Buddy standing by the patio.  He was looking for the apples.  Yesterday I had moved the apples to inside the garage.

Buddy had popped off a fence board and came into the yard.  The rest of the cattle were still in the hayfield.  Buddy didn't break through where he broke through on Saturday; he broke through the fence where he learned last year he could push and get through the fence.

Buddy knocked only the top board off.  As big as he is it is surprising he could jump over the other boards.

I nailed the board back on the fence.  I added for now another thicker board on the other side of the fence posts to stop Buddy from pushing through here again.

Beulah was still in the corral nursing her calf who had recovered from having something stuck in his throat.

Here is a 38 second video of the calf drinking: https://youtu.be/EAf0O35SNdI

Once the calf finally finished drinking, since the calf has fully recovered, I let the two out of the corral to rejoin the herd in the hayfield.


Now to encourage Buddy to go into the corral.

Where are the apples?

Buddy ignored me and wouldn't move.  He wanted to stand here.  The way my luck has been lately I wasn't going to push him.

I waited a little bit and Buddy came to the corral. He ate some grass near the corral well, then walked over to my English Walnut (I believe) tree.  He started to rub against the tree.  That I didn't like.  I have spent a lot of time protecting that tree from the cattle and getting it to grow.

I grabbed a corral panel and used it to encourage/push Buddy into the corral.  With the panel at least I had something between us in case Buddy decided to resist or charge me.   He moved into the corral.

Then a hot air balloon floated towards us.  The last thing I wanted right now was for the balloon to land in my pasture.

The balloon turned south.

Is it going to land in my south pasture or my neighbor's field?

But then the pilot turned up the gas and the balloon rose and continued south.  I don't know where it landed.  At least it was out of my hair.

By now it was after 8 am.  Even though I had gone to bed earlier than normal last night I was still tired and went back to bed.   I slept until 11 am.  I almost missed the eclipse.  I got up.  A few minutes later as the eclipse began I noticed the temperature dropped a little bit.  It never got dark.  The light just seemed strange or odd while the eclipse was happening.  In the end it was no big deal.


I had 20 sprinkler pipes to drag from the west side of the ranch to the east side.  I planned on dragging half the pipes, then go do a favor for my neighbor Jan.  Since Buddy's Saturday breakout I had left the driveway's gates closed.  Earlier today I had gotten fallen apples from several neighbors.  Since the cattle were taking their afternoon siesta in the shade of the trees at the far corner of the hayfield I opened the driveway gates and left them open.

As I dragged the pipes across the hayfield the cattle started grazing again.  I kept an eye on them.  Buddy went into the south corral to drink from the water trough.  Earlier I had spread a bag of apples along the corral fence for the cattle to find.  Some did.

The cattle drifted over to check out what I was doing with the pipes.  Eventually Buddy came over.  Buddy was with the group and no signs he would go to the fence.  I got two more pipes.  As I drug the pipes Buddy walked over to the fence where he broke through in the morning.  The new board should dissuade him.  He studied the board.  He pushed against it.

Ummm....

The board held.  Then Buddy put his head up higher and pushed against it with his neck and chest.  Then harder.  If the board didn't break Buddy may push the fence over.  I dropped the pipes and walked towards Buddy and yelled for him to stop.

Buddy broke the board.  He had trouble getting through the fence so he put his head down and pushed against the lower boards.  Then he walked through the fence.  By now I was doing the 100 yard dash to the fence.  Buddy was almost through the fence when I jumped the fence and got into the yard by the house.  Other cattle saw what was happening and the two closest cows started to run towards the broken fence.

By the time I reached the front yard Buddy and one cow were through the fence.  I ran to the open driveway gates and unhooked them to close them.  As I moved to the gates Buddy turned and began walking towards the opening.  I swung both gates and after one miss was able to grab both gates.  Then I realized the chain to 'lock' the gates was still on the fence.  I ran to grab the chain and then had to grab both gates again.  I got the chain around the gates just as Buddy reached the gates.

With the gates closed Buddy turned and began to eat grass.

*Whew!!!*

Then I looked over to the broken fence to see that half the herd now had poured through the gates with the remaining cattle standing in the hayfield outside the opening bellowing for the other cattle to move so they could also get through the opening.  I tried to position the broken and fallen boards to somewhat block the opening.  It worked for a few minutes until the cattle pushed the boards aside.  By then I had gone and got a corral panel.  Mama had just come through the opening.  Using the corral panel I pushed Mama back into the hayfield and then put the corral panel outside the opening.  This stopped the rest of the cattle from coming through the opening.

I opened the corral gate and then started to herd the cows and calves in that direction.   I didn't include Buddy.  Usually he will follow the cows.  Lots of yelling and waving my sorting stick and I got everyone but Buddy back into the corral.  Then I got the cattle moved from the north side to the south side and the dividing gate shut.

Now to get Buddy inside the corral.

By now Donna arrived.   She says I am too easy on Buddy.  Buddy was near the corral.  Donna grabbed a broom and waved it and shouted at Buddy and he ran into the corral.  That was quick.

As you can see, Buddy did more damage this afternoon.

(If you look in the background sky in the previous photo you can see yet another hot air balloon.)

I am in the process of cleaning out the hayshed.  I found a couple of boards where I could replace the two worst boards.  I still will leave the corral panel in place for a few days.

So.  I have a  problem.  Buddy will keep breaking the yard fence unless I spent quite a bit of time to reinforce it.  I may have enough temporary corral panels.

I could let the cattle into one of the pastures.  But they still have plenty to eat in the hayfield.  The barley and oats there will not last as long as grass because the barley and oats are going to seed and once they finish the nutrients will be in the seeds and not the plants.  The plants will become like straw. The grass will last past a hard freeze.  So I want the cattle to eat the hayfield down more and want to save the grass for later.  If the cattle eat the grass now I may not have enough grass left to last until snow.

Or Buddy can go to the livestock auction this week.

This week's auction was my earlier plan.   Due to Buddy's large size I had decided to hire Evan to haul Buddy for me.  It would save me time and potential trouble.   That was my plan until Evan told me he had no cattle this week to haul from up my way.  To come up and haul just Buddy down to the auction would not be cost effective for both Evan and I.  So I planned on waiting two more weeks to when Evan could haul Buddy.

My plans have changed.  I am not letting Buddy out of the corral and I am not waiting two more weeks.  I plan on hauling Buddy myself on Wednesday for the auction on Thursday.

So we'll see how this goes.  Wish me good luck.... for once.

I did have a bit of good news today.  I finally trapped the pocket gopher living near my rhubarb plants.  This has been one of the harder gophers to trap.  For weeks now the gopher has been filling the traps with dirt, burying the traps, and/or plugging the tunnels.  I ran out of tunnels just below the ground surface and had follow the second level tunnels a foot deep.  And still the gopher would plug the tunnels or bury the trap in dirt until I finally caught it in a trap tonight. Now to finish off the last few pocket gophers in the pastures.

(Btw - it was dark by the time I drug the last of the sprinkler pipes over to the east side of the ranch.)