Cattle into NE pasture

The weaning is going well.  Not much mooing now.  Of course when a cow or calf does moo now, most of their voices are hoarse.

This afternoon I let the cows into the NE pasture. Some more green grass before it will be time to put out another large hay bale for them.  After I let the cows into the NE pasture the calves did some mooing.  Not for the weaning, but because the calves wanted to join everyone else in the new pasture.  The calves all lined up along the corral fence to watch the cows in the NE pasture.

Beulah

I also left open the gate into the fruit tree area.  It didn't take long for the cattle to go there.

The pear tree has lots of pears.  I haven't picked them yet.  I was talking with my neighbor Rusty this morning.  He waits until after a freeze before he picks his pears.  He says the freeze softens the pears.  When I pick one of my pears right now they are hard.  It takes days for them to soften slightly.

Of course some of the cows immediately tried to eat some pears.  But I have a high fence to stop them from doing so.

Weaning has started

Late this afternoon the calf weaning has started.  Kari and Donna came over after 5:30 pm to check on No Tail.  She is doing fine and no disinfectant or fly spray was needed.  Her wound is no longer open.  Her eye seems to be still blind but it does look better.

Not the greatest photo of No Tail but it was the best I could get of her.

Yesterday, in preparation for the calves, I placed a large hay bale in the corral.  Here are the calves going to auction along with No Tail.

Herding and separating the calves was fairly easy.  The cattle's large hay bale had been eaten and they were eager to come into the north pasture.  Herding them into the corral went quick.  Then it was time to herd the cows back out of the coral while leaving the calves in the corral.

Then it was time to separate the three heifers I am keeping as replacement heifer from the rest of the calves.  First I had to decide which three heifers to keep.  It was harder to get these three heifers out of the corral one at a time.  The calves move faster than the cows, and the calves all wanted to stay together.  But Kari and I running around and around got it done.

Here are the three heifers I am keeping. Once they were separated from the other calves we let them out of the corral to be with their mothers.

Later this evening the mooing has started.  Not as bad as I expected.  Tomorrow probably will be noisier.

Eye screw, day 3

Today Doctor Kari, and Donna, stopped by to check on No Tail's condition. That meant we had to get No Tail back in the headgate.  It was harder this time as No Tail's calf did not want to leave No Tail's side.  Once I got the calf out of the loading corral, we worked on getting No Tail into the headgate.   No Tail knew what was going on and resisted.  Finally I walked to the house to see if I could find my zapper to encourage No Tail to move forward.  Before I could get out of the corral No Tail decided to try to get through the headgate.  The headgate triggered and held her in place.

Then the attempt to put the harness on her head.  No Tail resisted and moved her head.  I dropped the harness and was knocked backwards.  Donna was right behind me, didn't see me coming, and got knocked down.

Kari worked on inspecting the wound.  Looks good.  It is filling in.  No blood or signs of an infection.  Kari cleaned the area again with the Betadine.  She also rubbed the fly spray/rub on No Tail's head.  Around the wound, around the eye, and elsewhere on the head.  Flies are a problem for the cattle this year.

While Kari did this Donna left.  She had talked about getting an eye patch for No Tail to protect against flies.  But after waiting a bit, we called her and found out she had gone home to lay down as she had gotten nauseous.  So we released No Tail from the headgate.  Her calf immediately started drinking from No Tail.

No Tail looks to be doing good.  No checkup planned until Saturday as Kari is back to working days until then.

Eye screw, day 2

The 'No tail' cow is doing fine today.  The wound looks okay.  Less swollen.  'No tail' has her eye open, not shut.

This morning Dona came over and we got 'No tail's' calf into the corral to be with her.  Not too hard as the calf wanted to be back with his mother.  He was at the fence in the south pasture, away from the rest of the cattle.  I opened gates and he walked to the middle, then the north pasture, then into the corral.  Once they were together the calf immediately started drinking.

So no more mooing by mother and calf to be together.  'No tail' mooed off and on last night and into the morning.

I am leaving the two in the corral.

Eye screw in eyebrow

I now know what happened to the eye screw that went missing on my south and middle pasture gate.  August 31 is when I first saw that the eye screw was missing.

Here is where the eye screw was located.

This is what the eye screw looks like.

I looked and could not find the eye screw. Last Friday I bought a new one at Home Depot and installed it on the railroad tie.  Today I found the eye screw.  I had let the cattle into the middle pasture and walking around the cattle I noticed something on the head of the cow with no tail.  It was the eye screw.  The screw was in the skin of the cow in the eyebrow about the right eye.   What?  How did that happen?!

Donna came over and helped me separate the cow from the rest of the cattle.  Not easy as she didn't want to leave the herd.   After a number of attempts we let 'No tail' and two other cows through the gate into the north pasture.  Then we had to herd 'No tail' into the corral.  'No Tail' and another cow went into the corral.  Then we had to herd the other cow out of the corral.  That done we got 'No tail' into the loading corral.

Earlier I had gone to the ranch store and got Betadine, a disinfectant.  A fly 'spray or wipe' to keep flies away.  And some gauze sponges to apply the disinfectant and the fly spray.  $47.

Donna and I needed Donna's daughter, Kari, to help us.  'Doctor Kari' as I now call her even though she isn't really a doctor.  Kari had to work at the hospital ER today until 9 pm.

While we waited I put out another large hay bale in the south pasture for the cattle.  Donna handled the gates so I didn't have to get in and out of the tractor, and she also kept the cattle from coming through the gate.  Donna's dog Rusty was along and he wanted to ride with me in the tractor.  So he did.  He sat on my lap and looked around as I drove.  He also licked my neck and chin a number of times.

It was dark when Kari showed up.  I had the barn light turned on and we wore head lamps.  Donna and I had 'No tail' in the head gate by the time Kari arrived.  Even so we also needed more to stop 'No Tail's' head from moving when we worked on removing the eye screw.  Kari has a harness she uses on her large horse's head and the harness fit on 'No tail'.  With a rope attached to the harness we wrapped the rope around a fence to hold the head in place.  Still a little movement of the head was possible but for the most part 'No tail' didn't jerk her head.  She was calmer than expected.

Kari worked on removing the eye screw but couldn't get it out.  The skin had swollen and made it hard to remove the screw.  I then worked on removing the eye screw.  The gap in the eye screw is small but I worked on pushing and pulling the skin through as it bunched up.  I finally got the eye screw off.   Thankfully.  Otherwise I would have to take 'No tail' to the vet tomorrow and they would have to cut the skin to get the eye screw off.

Kari applied the betadine to the wound and also the fly spray around the wound.  No real bleeding by now.  The bad news is that it looks like it affected 'No tail's' eye.  The eye looks blank.  No eye movement when passing the hand nearby.  The left eye seems fine and there is eye movement when passing a hand nearby.  I let Kari and Donna do the eye check as the look of the eye now 'creeps' me out.

I am keeping 'No tail' in the corral for now.  Better to keep her away from other cows who may want to fight. Also it will be easier to check on the state of the wound.  As of now it doesn't look infected.  Tomorrow Donna and I will herd 'No tail's' calf into the corral for them to be together.  The calf is with the other calves in the south pasture.

As I now have replacement heifers I had planned on selling Panda as she is the oldest cow.  The last time I planned on selling Panda a few years ago something came up with another cow and that cow was sold and not Panda.  Once again Panda is saved.  I now plan on selling 'No Tail' along with the calves.  While 'No tail' could survive with only one eye working, it is time for her to go.

As you can see in the photos it is unlikely and amazing she got the eye screw stuck in her skin. A freak accident.  She must have rubbed her head on the eye screw and did it in a way her skin got into the small gap.  Not only that, she pulled the screw out of the railroad tie and did not tear her skin loose.  Poor 'No tail'.  We all feel sorry for her.

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.

Cattle into the NE pasture

This afternoon I let the cattle into the NE pasture.  In the morning I did some fixing to protect a young tree and also the caragana trees.  When the cattle were there in June they abused the fence protecting the caragana trees and did a number on some of the caragana trees.   After the cattle moved on to another field I took down some of the damaged fencing.  I never got around to building new fence protection.  This morning I "fixed" the fencing instead of taking more time to rebuild the fencing as it started to rain again when I was done with the 'fix'.  I'll see if the 'fix' works.

Of course Panda was the first cow into the pasture.

In the rush these three calves ran through the wrong gate and ran into the corral, not the pasture.  Then they went to this gate to be with the rest of the cattle.  I had to herd them out of the corral - around and around a few times as they wanted to go only to this closed gate.  Once out of the corral they ran to the open gate to the NE pasture.

The cattle look good and sleek. Most of them lost their Winter fur.  Even Beulah - the brown cow - looks sleek.  Beulah has some Simmental in her and normally has more curly fur.

Cattle out of yard

I knew the cattle wouldn't be in the yard for long this time, but it was a bit shorter than expected.  This morning when I walked out to move the irrigation pipes most of the cattle followed me into the corral.  I got mooing from them like they wanted a new place to go.  They had eaten much of the yard grass but there was still a little left to eat.  I had planned on driving to get groceries later and would have moved the cattle out the yard at that time.  But since you are 'self-deporting' yourselves from the yard now I will close the gate. Less effort for me now than if I waited later.  Two cows were still eating in the yard and I left them be for now.  I moved them later when it was time for me to go uptown.

The cattle of course had tested their limits when they were in the yard overnight.  They had taken off one of the rain gutter downspouts and flattened part of it.  Here is one part of the gutter.

For one of the hazelnuts bushes they had tipped/removed the protection from the bush and ate a lot of the bush.  I had several metal stakes holding the wire cage in place.  I had removed the stakes before I thought of taking the photo.

Here are the other two hazelnut bushes.  These cages held in place.

The wire fence held in place and protected the walnut trees.  Last year the wire fence for the small walnut tree didn't hold and much of that tree was eaten by the cattle.  It is good that this tree is coming back.

The first photo was taken in early July.  I had trimmed part of the tree before putting the wire fence around it.

The larger walnut tree.

My stack of logs to be split later got partially knocked over by the cattle.

In the afternoon after I got back from the grocery store I let the cattle into the part of the corral they hadn't been in since Spring.  The grass had really grown and it was time for a trim.

Cattle into yard again

After letting the cattle into the yard to eat the grass this Spring I thought that this would be the only time.  Nope.  After my lawnmower broke down I still haven't gotten a new lawnmower.  The grass is growing due to the irrigation, even in the part of the yard I had cut.  So I thought I would let the cattle into the yard again.  That meant cattle proofing the yard again.  I did that this morning. Some things I improved.  A few things I skipped.  Mid-afternoon I let the cattle into the yard.

The cattle loved the fresh grass.  And the irrigation made the grass grow thick.  Not long or stringy.  Kind of perfect for the cattle to eat.  They behaved well.  For the most part.  The part I skipped turned out to be a pain.  I didn't put corral panels around the bushes in front of the house.   After catching up on my sleep this afternoon I discovered the cattle pushed against and rubbed on a few of the bushes breaking some branches.  I then put up one corral panel and bungie corded it to one of the bushes.

The cattle should have the yard eaten by the end of tomorrow.  Then off to their next location

Cattle jailbreak into the hayfield

Yesterday the cattle made a jailbreak into the hayfield.  They have plenty of good green grass in the south pasture, but being cattle, they want more.

Yesterday around 6 pm, as I walked out of the house to go do some more work, I looked over towards the cattle.  Some didn't look right.  They looked to be on the hayfield side of the south pasture fence.  Yup.  They were.

The cattle must have just broken through the gate as less than half of the cows and calves were in the hayfield and weren't too far from the gate.  I went out, moved the leaning gate to be now open, and started herding the cattle back to the pasture.  I also had to deal with the rest of the cattle in the south pasture who saw our activity and came running over to join in.   I got all but one cow and two calves back into the south pasture.   The cow ran past the gate and not through.  The two calves split going in each direction away from the gate.  More effort and I got one calf back into the south pasture.

The cow was now down near the NE pasture gate.  I went down but she ran onwards.  Then past the middle pasture gate.  She headed towards the north pasture and hayfield gate.  That gate was open.   But then so were the gates to the NE pasture and the corral gates into the yard.  I didn't want this cow to go into the north pasture.  I got the cow to head back.  At the middle pasture gate, after a few turn arounds I got the cow into the middle pasture.

Now the final calf.  He didn't want to be herded and we ended up all the way to the south, south pasture and hayfield gate.  Before I could open the gate he ran back north.  I finally got him through the middle pasture gate after a few turn arounds where he went past the gate.

The cow and calf - someone else's calf - were fine in the middle pasture. Of course the rest of the cattle saw these two in the middle pasture and they ran to the middle pasture fence and the gate to the middle from south pasture.  They stood and mooed and watched the cow and calf.  Knock it off. Be quiet.

Now time for me to fix the leaning south pasture gate.

The gate on the left side was the problem.

I have the lag bolts - top down and bottom up - so the cattle can't lift the gate off the lag bolts.  The bottom part of the gate is fixed and the top has an adjustable hinge so that a person can have lag bolts be up and down.  Somehow the hinge slipped down enough so with pressure on the gate the gate would pop out of the lag bolt.  I got a wrench and readjusted the hinge to move it up.   I also had some wire and wrapped it around the lag bot and hinge so I shouldn't have the hinge slip in the future years.

All this cattle herding and gate fixing used up time.  The work I planned on finishing yesterday didn't get finished even though I was doing the work up 11 pm until it was too dark to continue working.  Today I got it done finally.

Cattle into neighbor's field

Today I let the cattle into a neighbor's field.  They would like their grass eaten down.  I'm fine with that.  Especially since the cattle had been standing in the corner of the middle pasture and mooing at me across the fence to let them into the south pasture when I started to lay out my irrigation pipes.  The irrigation pipes are stored in the south pasture, and having the cattle in that pasture while I move the pipes from the south pasture out to the hayfield would be a pain.  Now I can lay out the irrigation pipes tomorrow in peace.

Cattle now into fruit tree area

This afternoon I let the cattle into the fruit tree area to eat the grass there.  The NE pasture was fairly eaten down and the cows were starting to let me know they wanted to go elsewhere where there was more grass.

The fruit tree area before I let the cattle in.

Entering the fruit tree area.

In the NE pasture I had added extra fencing and chicken wire to protect the caragana trees, and a few other trees.  You can see the cattle pushed and moved some of the fencing and got to some of the caragana trees.

Here is a Scotch pine tree.  The cattle pushed up the fencing and reached and broke some of the smaller lower branches.