Calves and grass

Next week I will let the cattle out to the grass.  For now the calves like it when I pull some grass from the yard and lay it in the corral for them to eat.  If the calves see me in the yard they come over to the fence in case I give them some grass.  The problem is the cows will then come over and push the calves aside and then eat the grass.  Since I have the loading part of the corral closed off to the cattle the grass is growing there.  So a couple of times I have let the calves in there to eat the grass.  A bit of work as the cows want to go in there and I have to stop them from entering.  The cows are not happy that I don't let them also into the loading corral and grass.  But if I do the cows will eat all the grass to nothing and then pull it out by the roots.  Then the loading corral will look like the rest of the corral: no grass and bare ground.

Again today I let the calves go in there.  The calves are catching on that I will let them enter when I hold the gate open.  They will walk around the cows and not flinch by me standing close and holding the gate.  I waited a little extra time for a few calves to finish drinking from the mothers.

A few hours later I checked on the cattle.  The mothers of the calves who had not drunk before going into the loading corral were mooing and wanting their calves as their udders were full.  So I herded the calves out of the loading corral to be with their mothers.

Here is a 14 second video of a few cows mooing at the calves in the loading corral.