Cattle into the north pasture

This evening I let the cattle into the north pasture as part of their pasture rotation.  Earlier several cows mooed at me to tell me they were ready for their pasture rotation.  Yup.  "Diva" is their middle name.

First I had to do some work.  Back in August of 2015 the willow tree between the house and garage blew over.  I took many of the branches and stuck them in the ground along the river bank.  Some grew into trees.  Then the beavers started eating the willow trees.  I had to put wire and small fences around the trees still alive in order to save them.  It was touch and go for a few years as I had to figure out how to do it right and make it secure against the beavers.  And I think I finally did last year.  Though I see that I need to make one barrier higher as it appears the beavers are eating that tree from the top.

Once the trees started to grow taller then I had to come up with another barrier to protect the trees from the cattle.  Cattle LOVE willow leaves and branches.  I redid the fence in that area.  Then I had to add field fence to the fence to stop the cows from putting their head through the fence to reach the trees.  This Spring I had to straighten and pull up the fencing as last Fall the cattle pushed the fence down when they could to reach the willow trees.  Half of some trees were short where the cattle could reach, and the far half of the trees were taller where the cattle could not reach.

I had some extra pieces of the wire sections I had cut to use on some of the corral fencing and the fencing I rebuild last year.  I took three sections and some 8 foot tall steel posts and put them up to protect the trees.  Now to see if I finally figured out a way to protect these willow trees from the animals.

Here are a few photos of some of the willow trees.  Due to the beavers gnawing on them previous years the trees now look more like bushes at this stage.

Before

After

Before

After

Here is a 39 second video of the cattle entering the north pasture.  https://youtu.be/bd6WggdxKVg

They are looking good. Even Mama - the last brown cow to enter - looks sleek and not her normal thin look. And the last calf to enter is called "Lightning Picasso" Gee... I wonder how he got that name.

Once they were in the north pasture, Beulah, Maria, Diamond, and their calves all came to their gate to greet the cattle in the north pasture.  Diamond still has not had her calf, so they won't be joined together as one group until Diamond has her calf.

Toby doing his test to see if Maria needs his "loving".

Today I also took the boards out of the wooden feeder and flipped the feeder on its side so the legs can completely dry.