I am busy trying to get my irrigation going - and having problems - so I haven't time to fix these posts. Yesterday, late afternoon, Toby was again standing at the middle/north pastures gate. The rest of the cows were in the south pasture to the far south end. I decided to let Toby into the north pasture and then to the corral. I figured he has bred the cows and heifers and I would let him check Mama and Diamond out to see they don't need his 'loving' right now. Maybe then he would stop his bellowing to them.
When I opened the gate and Toby walked through, the cows way in the south must have seen as they came stampeding across the south and middle pastures to the middle/north pastures gate. They got there and then started to bellow to demand that I re-open the gate so they too could be let into the north pasture.
Before Toby could get to the corral gate he found leftover hay I had cleaned from the haybine last week just outside the corral. I had to wait for him to eat it. By now Mama noticed the ruckus and came into the corral from the NE pasture. Then Diamond came. Once Toby finished eating the leftover hay it was a hassle to get him through the gate and into the corral and not to let Mama, her calf, and Diamond out.
Toby checked Mama and Diamond out, the herd quit bellowing, and things settled down.
This morning I went for a short bicycle ride. When I returned I discovered Diamond, Mama, her calf and Toby were in the yard. I shut the gates to the road and went back and shut the small gate to the hayfield that the cattle somehow missed seeing open. Toby must have scratched on the fence between the toolshed and garage, and being a weak fence (it is on the fence to-do list - just now a higher priority) with boards on the 'wrong' side of the fence and therefore can be pushed out, and Toby pushed several boards off the fence.
Diamond was near the house and I was able to herd her through the gate by the garage. Once she realized what happened I had the gate shut. So she ran to where they had broken through the fence but I had already had nailed the boards back on and placed a few steel posts to brace the fence. Diamond wasn't happy.
Mama's calf was all excited and running like the wind all over the back yard. Mama has calmed down a lot of being over protective of her calf and I was able to herd both of them into the corral. By now Diamond had run around and came into the corral so she could try to get back into the back yard.
Toby was in the back yard, and after Mama and her calf went into the corral, he ambled over to the gate. But he stood there and did not want to go into the corral. Even whapping him lightly on the head with my sorting stick didn't faze him and he turned and walked back into the yard. Then Mama's calf ran like the wind through the partially open corral gate and back into the back yard.
*Argh!*
I ran after the calf, and Mama seeing me run after her calf then came running from the corral towards us - and me! Fortunately I got the calf turned around and she ran back to Mama who then stopped coming after me. I got them, and now also Diamond again, back into the corral and closed the gate.
I decided to let Toby eat for the time being and would try getting him back into the corral later. The grass in the yard is better than the pasture. I hadn't had time to mow it since I had the heifers eat it down, and the grass is green, young, tender and tasty.
I would be fine with these cattle eating the grass back down except that I had de-cattle proofed half the yard. For example, the walnut trees are not protected and the cattle love those leaves and would eat the entire amount of leaves. So I stayed and watched Toby. So did Mama, her calf, and Diamond. They all stood at the corral gate to watch. So I opened the gate to the south corral and put the three in there and shut the gate. Then I could leave the main corral gate open. Toby walked all over the yard. When he wanted to check out the small walnut tree I rapidly waved the sorting stick in the air and then hit the ground in front of him several times. He backed off and went elsewhere. Finally he walked to the corral gate and I encouraged him to keeping walking into the corral.
From there I let him out to the north pasture. He walked over to rest by the corral fence and I wanted him to go through the gate to the middle pasture so he could then go to the south pasture to re-join the herd. He stood there and chewed his cud. First Red saw and she came to the middle/north pastures gate, then rest of the herd came. Once ther herd was there Toby slowly ambled to the gate, and then s-l-o-w-l-y ambled through the gate to re-join the herd.
*sigh* I have irrigation to fix and I didn't need to spend all this time on the cattle. But, that's the way life is sometimes.
Here is Toby in the evening as I was working on fixing the broken fence posts to the south/middle pastures, as I was at an impass until tomorrow on the irrigation fix.
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