Cattle through multiple fences

Yesterday was the last of a large hay bale.  The cattle usually finish the bale before noon.  Then near sunset I will take some hay from the heifer's large hay bale and put it in the wooden feeder in the main corral.  Then let the cows into the corral to eat this hay.  Then keep them in the corral overnight.  Then the next morning put a new large hay bale out in the north pasture.

Yesterday was busy inside the house most of all day.  Clean my woodstove.  Then talked on Skype with my friends in Germany.  I hadn't talked with them for a year so our talk was 3 hours long.  Then I had to talk with insurance agents to help my brother.  His house insurance company was canceling old insurance policies in that state that were in one of their "books" as they called it, and his was one of the insurance policies being canceled.

I finally got outside near sunset to give the cows some hay.  I discovered 2 cows and the bull were in the north pasture.  One cow in the middle pasture.  4 cows in the hayfield.  6 cows in the south pasture.  The cows in the hayfield and south pasture were all the way over near the far fence. 

To get to the other pastures the cows went through and/or over fences.  They went through the 5 strands of barb wire to go from the north to the middle pasture.   Then at the spot where the one cow had gone over the fence to the hayfield weeks ago, at least one did.  Then at the spot where the one cow had gone through the fence to the south pasture weeks ago, the 6 cows did it again breaking the 5 barb wire strands.   Near this spot in the middle pasture one or more of the four cows went over the fence into the hayfield.   I have another large hay bale in the middle pasture as a backup.  None of the cows went there.  They all headed south and to the other pastures.

What is going on?!

I got all the cows from the pastures and into the corral.   I also noticed that the top board in the corral fence between the north pasture and the corral with the heifers was broken.  The lower boards were fine.  The top boards are only there so the cattle don't get the idea of trying to jump over the remaining boards.  

This morning I put out a new large hay bale in the north pasture.  When I opened the corral gate to let the cows and bull out of the corral, they just stood there looking.  Always before they immediately started walking out to go to the hay bale.  I walked to lead them out.  They just stood there. I then got in the tractor and backed up towards the hay bale.  After a bit the cattle walked out and to the hay bale.

I then parked the tractor and got the tools to fix all the broken fence locations.  Shortly after I got to the first spot, the north/middle location, the cattle all walked back to stand outside the corral near the open gate and near the heifers.  Usually when I let the cows out of the corral the heifers will call out for them as the heifers want to join them.  The cows ignore the heifers.  I don't think they cows walked back today because the heifers were calling.   I let them be.  After a while the cows all walked back to the hay bale to eat.  A short time later all but one or two walked back to the corral.

What is going on?  There is nothing out there other than the hay bale.   After a while they all walked back to the hay bale.  This time they all remained there eating hay while I fixed all the rest of the broken or damaged fences.

When there is a large hay bale in the pastures I usually close the gate to the corral. When not eating the cattle will lay under the trees close to the hay bale.   This time I left the corral gate open.  This evening at sunset I checked on the cattle.  All the cows were in the corral.  Ok.  If it makes you feel safe, fine.

Something must have chased the cows that they would go through the fences, and the next day they were leery of going out there again.  Something overnight or during the day?  I didn't get a chance today to go and walk around looking for other tracks. Weeks ago when one cow would jump a fence I walked around the next day.  I did see a few dog or coyote tracks.  Or wolf tracks?  But not many tracks.  Donna says I should get a trail camera to try to see what is going on.   Maybe.   I'll see how the cattle are tomorrow.

North / middle fence

Middle pasture and hayfield fence close to the north pasture fence.  When I was moving snow for the hay feeders I also moved some snow to the fence so the cows wouldn't try to jump over the fence after doing it weeks ago.  The snow didn't stop them.

Middle pasture and hayfield fence at the spot closer to the south fence.

South pasture fence

Corral fence.  The board is too high to try to jump over. What broke the board?

One of the cattle's earlier walks back to stand outside the corral.

Another cow through a fence

What is going on with my cows?   Several days ago no cows through or over a fence.  So I thought I was done with this behavior.  Today I found a cow in the south pasture.  A different cow than the previous one.  And a different pasture.

This was a bigger cow so it didn't make it over the fence.  And this fence doesn't have an additional wire fence.  So the top three barb wires were either broken or pushed down by the cow as it went over and through the fence, and one metal fence post pushed to lean.  I had partially straightened the fence and post when I took the photo.

The cow was standing near where it had gone through the fence.  I opened the south pasture gate so the cow could go and join the rest of the cows.  The rest of the cattle were in the NE part of the middle pasture by the gate to the north pasture.  They weren't near the hay bale I had placed in the middle pasture on Sunday.

Before dark I fixed the fence and tightened and reattached the barb wires to the fence posts.  By the time I was done it was too dark to go walking about to see if I could see other tracks in the snow.  Tracks other than one made by cows.  I'm starting to think something is chasing these cows through and over the fences.  A dog?  A coyote?  Something else.  Maybe even Bigfoot as Donna is fond of Bigfoot.

Fixed corral fence

This morning I got around to fixing the corral fence board the cattle had broken when they were in the loading corral on Wednesday.  This cow is the one that reminded me that I needed to fix the board.

On to the next project.

Replaced a railroad tie

I replaced a railroad tie to fix a gate between me and the neighbor to my south.  When the cattle returned from that field earlier this year they bumped against the railroad tie as they crowded through the gate.  The railroad tie was old and decaying.  It now had a 'wobble'.  I plan on letting the cattle into that pasture soon.  So time to fix the railroad tie and gate.

Since the railroad ties are 8 1/2 ft or longer I initially thought I may just be able to reuse the railroad tie as a shorter fence post.  But I found that was not possible as the tie was now too short. Why the tie had a 'wobble' was that the tie broke off at ground level.  I got another one of my railroad ties from my pile.

Slowing me down was removing the railroad in the ground.  The deeper I went the more solid the tie was.  The tie was 30 inches in the ground.  From 20 to 30 inches deep the tie was solid.  I had to get a crowbar to help me work the tie out of the ground as I didn't want to dig a large hole around the tie.

The bottom of the bad railroad tie

We had a little rain yesterday I had to work around.  And since this project was more work than expected, meant it took me some time yesterday and some time today.   But the tie and gate are now fixed and most likely tomorrow I will let the cattle into the neighbor's field.  Each day I worked on the tie the cattle came and then stood nearby mooing at me to hurry up and let them into the neighbor's field.

Looking into the neighbor's field.

Looking into my field.   The 'new' tie was not as wide.  So I had to do a little work to be able to attach the boards across to the railroad tie.  In the right photo you can see how I added small boards to the railroad tie so the side boards could reach.

Overall look to the neighbor's field from my hayfield.

A side view of the cattle in the south pasture wanting me to let them in the neighbor's field.

Last night this was the sunset as I worked on this project.

Fence fix

I forgot to mention in my previous blog post that when I let the cattle into the yard I also did a little fence work.   Last Fall when I did the rail fence work, I didn't finish it all.  I had a short section that went from the rail fence to the driveway's entrance post.

I didn't have any short rail sections to use.  I had some plans on making something to use, but recently Donna had her property fenced for her daughter's horses.  She had a fence section that was split rails.  That was old and replaced.  Most she gave to a friend to use as firewood.   A half dozen or so rails were still decent and I got those.  And she also had two short sections of split rails.  I got the rails from Donna on Friday.  

After I let the cattle into the yard so they could eat grass - and stop mooing at me - I immediately went and cut up the short split rails and nailed them to this fence section.  Now the rail fence is done and I don't have to worry about the cattle slipping out of the yard.

The yard grass is getting eaten down. Tomorrow it should be down and I will let the cattle into the NE pasture.

Today I saw a rail was partially off the corral fence by the water trough.  I think Hayne or one of the cows didn't want to walk around and into the corral to drink from the water trough.  They put their head through the fence to reach the water trough and pushed the rail partially off the fence.  I re-nailed the rail

Here are some photos of Haynes scratching his back on the large walnut tree.   This walnut tree isn't leafing out.  Last year it didn't leaf out until the beginning of July.  I hope it does again this year.  A few days ago I was talking with my neighbor Jan.  A number of her specialty trees aren't leafing out this year.  She said a friend told her the cherry trees near Flathead Lake were affected and they are predicting a smaller cherry harvest this year.   This past Winter was not as cold as the previous Winter, but we did have a day or two where the overnight low temperatures was minus 32 degrees.

Cattle into yard

This afternoon I let the cattle into the yard to eat the grass.  By yesterday afternoon the cattle had eaten all their hay.   I had stuff to do so I opened the gate to the loading corral to let the cattle eat the grass there. They did.  I later also discovered that they had broken one of the loading corral fence boards.  I had to replace the board today.

Then last evening I let the cows into the south corral to finish eating Haynes' hay, and also let Haynes and the cows be together.  By this morning the hay was eaten, and also the grass that was in the south corral was eaten down.

Before I let the cattle into the yard today I had to first to put stuff around trees, bushes, and other things to protect them.  That took me 3 and 1/2 hours.  While I did so the cattle in the corral would moo at me to let them into the yard and to the grass.  Their mooing got annoying quickly.   Finally I got the stuff protected and let the cattle into the yard.

Of course the first cow to enter the yard was Panda.  She is almost always the first cow to do things.

Here is Haynes coming out with the cows.  Also, I noticed he was paying attention to cow 20 and spent much of the day near her.  She wasn't in standing heat yet, but close.

Part of the yard had very tall grass.  Haynes is so big the grass doesn't look that tall when he is around.

The calves either ran all over checking things out, or laid in the grass to rest.

Eventually the cattle got their bellies full of grass and they took a rest break.

We'll see how long the grass will last in the yard before I let the cattle into the NE pasture.  A couple days maybe.   It can't be much longer as Tuesday I work as an election judge again and will have a long and busy day.

Cattle and the fence and panels

Yesterday and today I spent time fixing fence boards and the extended corral temporary corral panels.

Yesterday I saw Haynes broke a corral fence board.  The wire I had put on the boards to prevent the cattle from trying to poke their heads through the fence boards held the board somewhat together.  I was able to re-nail the board back to one piece.

Today I saw the cows had broken this board in an effort to reach the grass in the hayfield.  I added the small post before taking this photo, then re-nailed the board back together.

I also moved much of the extended corral's temporary corral panels.  No photo as my camera's battery had died.   There were a few areas of the corral panels where grass was just on the other side.  The cattle were abusing the corral panels and also trying to lift the panels and pull the metal t-posts out of the ground.  I moved the panels away from the grass.

Here is an old photo from back when I built the extended corral in April.  The area on the right side is where the cattle were trying to get to the growing grass.  The walk-through panel got bent.

More wooden fence posts

This afternoon I got more wooden fence posts.  The neighbor across the river started to remove his fencing along the river.  I had a talk with him as my cattle have water rights and access to the river and that fence kept them off that property.  For 70 plus years; though this "newer" fence is only 20 years old.  It is a new owner and he doesn't want a fence anymore.   He agreed to keep the rest of the fence while I work on my fencing and river access. (More work for me.)   For the fencing he had removed he asked if I wanted the posts.  Otherwise he planned on hauling them to the landfill.  It would be a shame to throw them away so I took the ones that were decent.

Salt feeder wired. Railroad ties.

Today I wired the salt feeder to the metal posts next to it.   This should hold the feeder in place when Haynes 'plays' with it.  I wired in place the salt feeder in the middle pasture last year, and so far it has held the feeder in place.

The tree the salt feeder sits under.

Then I looked out to the metal feeder in the north pasture.  Of course Haynes moved it again since last night.  Yesterday the feeder was west of and next to a band of trees near the river.  Today the feeder is east of the band of trees. Haynes got the feeder through the band of trees.  Is Haynes now trying to push the feeder to the corral?  He got the feeder hung up when he ended up pushing the feeder into the north and middle pasture fence.

Later I loaded some railroad ties and took them out to the middle and south pasture fence.  My goal is to put a gate in the fence closer to the river.  I also have a walk-though gate near the middle part of the fence.  Last year I left that gate open for a while so the cattle could walk back and forth between the south and middle pastures instead of them walking the river.   Well, Haynes.  This walk-though gate was old and the railroad tie I had used to hold the gate was old and weak.  Haynes push on the gate and tie and made it lean.  I straightened the railroad tie after I closed the gate, but I should replace it.

The ground is frozen now so I won't be putting the railroad ties in the ground now.  But it is nice to prepare and get ready for when I can put the ties in the ground in the Spring.  It is easier for me to get to a project if everything is ready.  Otherwise something can come up and a project gets delayed longer.

The boards are because I like to use two railroad ties and nail boards to them to make them a larger unit. This help stop the ties from leaning due to tension from the barb wire fence.  Two posts are better than one.

Rail fence wired

Today I finally finished adding wire to my newly built rail fence.   The rail fence is good, but the cattle could stick their head through the rails to eat the grass on the other side.  If so, the rails won't last.  So I have been cutting sections from my pile of wire mesh sheets (remesh sheets).  

I had made the fence rails 3 feet wide.  The fence sections are 8 feet wide.  The mesh sheets are 8 feet wide and 20 feet long.  I got 6 fence sections from each sheet.    I had 40 sections of rail fence.

Now this took some time.  But not an overlong time.  If this was Summer with many hours of daylight I could have gotten the job done in a day or two.    But since this is the shortest time of daylight, and I had a few other things to do over the days, this job took me almost three weeks.   A little done here, a little done there.

But I am done.  And this should make my fence last against the cattle's behavior.

Now on to other things.