January 28, 2021 calf?

Yesterday I mentioned cow 60 seemed to be in heat, and then I put her into the south corral.  This morning I found the corral fence broken.

It appears Toby the bull pushed off two boards and broke part of the longer board he couldn't push off the fence.  I had built the corral fence to keep cattle in the corral.  I never thought I would need to keep cattle out of the corral.

Guess where cow 60 was?  Out of the south corral.   Either she was mounting cow 110, or cow 110 was mounting cow 60.  Beulah got into the act and she was trying to mount the bull.  All these females were going crazy.   The bull must have impregnated cow 60 as he no longer had interest in cow 60.  If cow 60 was impregnated then her calf will be born either on January 28 or January 29, depending on which guide I check.   I am not happy.  March and early April this year had January temperatures and snow and it was a hassle for calving.  I was hopeful next year March and April would go back to normal.  Now the end of January I may have a calve born.   Usually when an older cow has a calf they don't come into heat until 45 to 55 days later.  Cow 60 came into heat 34 days later.

So I had work to do this morning.

As you can see in the previous photo not only did cow 60 get out of the corral, but calf 70 (and another calf) came into the south corral.  Also Mama and another cow came into the south corral.

Mama in the south corral

Also two yearling steers and the yearling heifer got out of the south corral.

So I had get the correct cattle out of the south corral and the correct cattle back into the south corral.  And did they want to cooperate?  Some did, some did not.  The calves and yearlings especially were a pain.  Normally they want to go through a gate when you don't want them to.  Today when I wanted them to go through a gate, they ran away from the gate.  I tried to get one calf and his mother out of the south corral.  Usually the calf prefers to be near the mother and it is easier to herd them together.  Not this time.  The calf would run everywhere else in the south corral but nowhere near his mother.  Donna was getting annoyed with me as I was talking to the cattle and calves telling them what to do and what not to do.  Donna told me the cattle and calves don't understand me and it was pointless to tell them what to do.  Well... I had to give the cattle and calves a piece of my mind and tell them what to do or not to do as I was tired of chasing them around and around.  I had lots to do that morning and I was getting annoyed.

Also on the agenda:

1.  Feed hay to the cows and bull.
2.  Put a new large hay bale into the south corral to feed those cattle.

Eventually all the cattle were fed and sorted.   This time I put the bull into the south corral and let cow 60 and her calf be in the other part of the corral.

Then I fixed the corral fence.

Fixed corral fence

I had an extra section of wire mesh and I nailed to one of the corral fence sections.  I had fixed the fence last September and nailed wire mesh to some of the corral fence sections.  I seen the bull remembered the fence section he had broken last September as he tried to push off those boards.  The wire mesh helped as only one board was partially loose.

On the to-do list, get more of my wire mesh and nail it to the other four corral fence sections.

By the time I fixed the fence most the cows and calves were starting to relax.  I stitched several photos to make a panoramic photo.  The stitching made Mama in the center look odd as she was walking when I took several of the photos with her in them.

Cow 60 is no longer in heat. That, and the fact Toby now has all the hay he can eat, led Toby to eat, lay and relax.  Since cow 60 no longer wanted sex Toby went back to his normal behavior.

What a morning.