Life among the Tall Pines: Out to the grass

Wednesday, June 02, 2021

Out to the grass

Late this afternoon I released the cows, calves and the bull out to the grass. I spent time earlier in the days putting up corral panels to break my yard into two parts so my entire yard and gates are not closed for an extended time while the cattle eat the grass on the lawn. And some fencing to protect my walnut trees and flowers from the cattle. The walnut trees are just starting to put out some leaves. I think our recent cold weather set the trees back this Spring from opening all their leaves. Some leaves looked like they died on the branches as they weren't completely open yet.

Since Diamond has not had her calf yet, and Beulah and Maria just had their calves a few days ago, I let them - and Muscles - out to the backyard to the grass there. First I had to separate them from the rest of the cows and place them in the south corral. Then after the rest of the cattle were let out to pasture, I let the three cows, Muscles and two calves out to the backyard. Surprisingly Muscles laid in the corral and didn't go out to eat grass. He is such a "special needs" calf. I'll see tomorrow how he is doing.

The starting area for the rest of the cattle is over in my neighbor Ruth's pasture. She wants the grass there eaten down so it won't become tall. Tall grass is not a good thing when it gets dry later in the year and the grass turns brown. It can be a fire danger.

To get to Ruth's field I had to herd the cattle through the north pasture to the middle pasture to the south pasture, then to Ruth's pasture via the gate in the SE part of the south pasture. Once the cattle got to the grass they wanted to stand and eat. So I had to encourage them to keep moving. Naturally the calves alternated between eating grass and then running wild to explore.

To help me make the herding easier I had my neighbor Curtis stand here and there so the cattle didn't decide to go that way. Earlier for a few hours I helped Curtis cut logs into boards using his portable sawmill. Curtis helping saved me time, and cut down having me to go round and round to move the cattle in one direction. It was only in the south pasture that I had to go round and around a couple times as the cattle wanted to eat around a large tree and not go to the corner of the pasture.

Once in Ruth's pasture they mainly stood in one part of the pasture to eat grass. Normally cattle initially walk around a field to check the parameters out. These cattle just wanted to eat fresh green grass.

I took an extra water trough over to Ruth's field so the cattle can drink. I have an automatic water control device but I haven't used it in a few years and today I could not find it no matter where I looked (over and over). I found the original unit's box but the unit was not inside it. So I will have to check the water trough more often to fill it back up until I find my water control unit.