Out to grass

Today I let the cattle out to the north pasture. Except the two cows who have not had a calf yet.  I'm keeping them in the corral and the backyard where they can eat the grass and I can easily see when they have their calf.

Donna helped me sort the two cows into the loading corral and way from the rest of the cattle.  That then made it easier to let all the cattle out to the north pasture.

But first, I have a few cows who have lost their ear tags over the years.  Panda is so recognizable I didn't bother to put a new ear tag in her ear.  But an all black cow among a number of all black cows needs an ear tag.  She got ear tag 20. I was able to use the old hole in her ear from the previous ear tag.  Then a cow who had not had her calf yet, and was Speckles daughter, got an ear tag too.  She got number 10 - that was Mama's ear tag number when I had her.  The old ear tag hole in her ear was a bit large so I had to punch a new hole for the tag.

Out to grass in the north pasture.

I break the yard access in two.  Back half and front half.  Having cows in the yard can slow things down for me and the pickups, so breaking the yard into two makes it easier.  Here are the temporary corral panels I use to split the yard into two sections.   I also had to put corral panels around part of the patio to protect the things in the patio.  And do some other work to protect the walnut tree, and the flowers next to the house.  Cattle will eat anything they can.

The calves love the new pasture.  They ran around and around checking everything out.  At times a group of calves would run by looking like a flock of birds swirling around.

And it nice to not to have to put out a bale of hay every two days.  And refilling the water trough multiple times a day, and the last thing at night and the first thing in the morning.