Two cattle breakouts

If I had my choice of which three cows I would have in my yard, it wouldn't be Beulah, Maria or Diamond. But, that is who is there.

When I got up early this morning to use the bathroom I checked on the cows.  They were in the yard and doing fine and were behaving.  When I got up hours later I found them in the fruit tree area.

They had broken a fence post that had rotted and was no longer strong.

I chased the cattle back into the yard and then fixed the fence.  I don't know why there were two fence posts for the corner.  I re-worked the fence boards to use the larger stronger post.  Because I felt the cattle would come back to this spot later, I put the broken post in the halfway part of this section of the fence to make the boards stronger in case the cows pushed on them again.

The cows relaxed while I fixed the fence.  And watched me.  Later when I went back in the house to eat breakfast they went over to the fixed fence section to look it over.  They couldn't get through the fence and so they went back to eating grass in their area.

I did various stuff this afternoon into the evening.  I checked and re-checked the cows were behaving.  They were...

Over Winter I had put tarp over the straw hay bales.  Now that I am done feeding hay, and it is warmer and straw is not needed, I wanted to put the straw away.   I put the large straw bale in the hayshed to be with the hay bales.  I put the partial straw bale into the barn.  The less I have to move that straw bale the better.  

Since I don't have Daisy anymore I have a mouse problem.  A lot of mice ran when I lifted the small straw bale.  A lot of mice.  And a lot of baby mice.

I moved the metal feeders.  You can see where this feeder once stood.  The photo doesn't capture it, but there is a "ring" around where the metal feeder once stood.  That "ring" is where the cattle depressed the ground.  Outside of that "ring" is where the depressed ground moved which caused a dirt mound "ring".  I used the tractor's bucket to somewhat smooth the ground out.  I also did the same thing in the south corral.  I forgot to take photos of the after effect.

I noticed where Toby had pushed on the south and main corral fence pushing some of the boards loose on several sections of fence.

Here you can see where earlier I had added a fence post to prevent Toby from pushing the boards off.  As you can see in the previous photo, Toby then moved to the other end of these boards.

I tightened the bolt holding the corral/pasture gate in place.  Otherwise the gate would sag when one opened it.  I then put in the ground a short piece of a railroad tie.  When I have the gate completely open I will set the end of the gate on this railroad tie post to help hold the gate up and then maybe over time the bolt won't turn and the gate sag.  

Again I forgot to take photos of this work.  Why?  Because I heard cattle mooing. It was now 9 pm and I went to check on the cows in the yard again and found they had broken the fence and gotten into the hayfield.  Muscles and Maria's calf were still laying in the yard.  I went and got a temporary corral panel and blocked the broken fence.

The mooing I heard was from the cattle in Ruth's field.  They were standing along my hayfield fence.  I thought my cows were down there.  I called Donna for help and left a message on her phone.  Then I went to get the cows.  But I found the cows near the hayfield gate to the north pasture, not at the south fence at Ruth's field.

You can't see Beulah's calf in the tall grass, but she is there.  I opened the gate and Beulah and her calf ran into the north pasture.  Maria and Diamond wouldn't.  They ran east, back towards where they had broken the fence.

Beulah ran over to the dirt I had just leveled and ran around kicking up and rubbing in it.  I herded Beulah and her calf into the corral.  I then went to the broken fence where Diamond and Maria were standing.  I moved the corral panel and before I could herd Diamond and Maria through the fence Beulah ran through the fence and back into the hayfield.  After a little effort I herded all back into the yard.  I called Donna to let her know I didn't need her help.

I put the corral panel back in place.  Diamond wasn't happy about this.  The cattle in Ruth's field were still mooing and standing at their fence.  Eventually they quit.

Diamond

I put a new fence post in the ground, and then added two newer boards.  They don't match the old boards, but they will work.  To put the new boards on the fence I had to move the corral panel.  Beulah then came over to get through the fence.  Ok.  I've had it.  I herded the three cows and the two calves into the corral and closed that gate.  They can spend the night in there.  They are so fat they will survive on no grass until morning.  Muscles behaves so I left him in the yard to eat more grass.

By the time I was done with the fence it was dark.  So no photo of the fixed fence.

What a day.