Hay bale set out for the cattle

An odd year.  This afternoon I put out one of last year's hay bales for the cattle.  The grass in the pastures is getting short.   Usually the grass lasts until late October or November.  I still have grass in the hayfield but I don't want to let the cattle into the hayfield until days or a week after we have a good freeze.  That way the alfalfa shouldn't cause the cattle to bloat.

Normally I feed hay to the cattle in the north and middle pastures.   I rotate back and forth as the cattle wouldn't be in the pasture getting the hay bale as I unload the bale.  Since it is nowhere near Winter I decided to put the feeder and bales in the south and middle pastures.  A different area to spread the hay leftovers and manure.   That meant moving the feeder from the north pasture to the south pasture.  I was able to do that as the cattle were elsewhere in the middle pasture.  Then when it came to moving the hay bale the cattle were now at the middle/north pasture gate blocking my way.

Fortunately I have two middle/north pasture gates, and I drove the tractor to the west end gate while the cattle remained at the east end gate.

Here is the hay bale in the south pasture. With all the calves around I have more animals than can eat at the feeder at the same time, which is what the cattle want to do when they initially get hay in a feeder.  So I also took some of the hay from the bale and made 10 small piles around the feeder.

When it came to move the salt block to the south pasture I found the salt feeder in the south pasture like this.  No salt block in the feeder and the cattle decided to abuse the feeder.  The two metal posts are there so the feeder doesn't get tipped over.  That didn't stop it from getting lifted up and over.  And one of the legs broken.  I had to fix the feeder and put it back between the metal posts before putting a salt block in it.

The other problem was the south/middle pasture gate.  The past few weeks I have left the south/middle pasture gate open so the cattle can move between the two pastures.  The railroad tie has an eye bolt that I can put the gate's chain through to hold the gate in place.  This eye hook is a little loose but held in place.  Well... the cattle apparently don't ever want me to hook the gate closed in the future.  The eye hook is now missing. The cattle pulled the hook out of the railroad tie.  I looked all around on the ground and I can't find the eye hook.  The eye hook is large enough the cattle shouldn't have swallowed it.  But where did the hook go?

I got an extra chain and added it to the gate's chain so the gate's chain would be long enough to wrap around the railroad tie.  This will work for now.  Either I find the eye hook, or more likely, have to buy a new one.

All this took time. I have other things to do. I am trying to get all the pastures sprayed to kill the weeds.  Not as much sprayed today.