Cattle to Pasture!

As luck would have it my dad decided TODAY of all days was the day to move cattle to their pastures. Great I haven't even decided who is going into what breeding group yet, whose related to who, who is getting A.I.'ed and who still has to calve. Also of mention was that I didn't have wormer to give them and I wasn't going BACK into town 12 miles one way just to get it. They'll have to wait until we get them back in the fall. So be it. I was fortunate enough however to have gotten more ear tags for the cows who had lost theirs over the winter months. A whopping 15 cows out of 36 (almost half!) had no ear tag. GRRRR. What on earth do they stick their heads into to get those nice huge tears in their ears anyway? They only have two ears and after they tear the second one I'm going to have to be creative in how I tag them. I digress.

So as we are serparating cows (blacks from the reds, spotted from the solids,etc) my dad is in a 'hurry' to get them out and come to find out that nearly everything that is needed to move them isn't actually set up yet. UGH. Now I'm not the most handy with a hammer or a screwdriver (mechanically and carpentry challenged here!) I cannot do a lot of the set up. Of course being my dad he is late, rushing, and everything is a temporary job. His favorite quote he uses is "that's fine FOR NOW" or "that'll do FOR NOW". I'm going to have that engraved on his tombstone when he dies. Again getting off topic!

Rather than rant or rave on here, I'lll just say that several cows got 'away' from us while loading. Even in the spot I said I KNOW that some are going to get out there....they did last year. And also in the area of the plank fence that was 'for now' fixed and therefore easily breakable. Also the 4-wheeler came in handy and I even had to wade out into one of our stock ponds to get a stubborn 3 yr old cow out of the muck. Oh did I mention that I'm completely SOAKED to the bone from sweat and rain and that its a near white out in the pasture because its raining so hard?

Its times like these that I wish I didn't have cattle. Cattle can be plain stupid, they are hard on equipment (feeders, fences, buildings etc) and also on the land (pastures, ponds, winter pens etc). They eat a lot, are noisy, crap a lot and take up more space. BUT on the plus side, they do pay for all my other 'hobbies' and I do know that if I persist, that they will indeed pay for themselves at some point as well and I won't have to keep depleting my cow numbers to pay for pigeon feed, sheep and their supplies, the goats and the dogs and also MY needs (I do recall buying groceries in March I think.....)

It is indeed a great feeling to know that they are now in their pastures and I don't have to feed them ever again until October sometime when we bring those nearly feral suckers back home. I might enlighten you all to know that we had a herd bull that refused to take the traditional 2 mile walk back to the home farm. He refused to even follow his girls home and so he sat there until the day before opening deer hunting (rifle). Guess which bull is staying at home this year with his girls :) the funniest thing was the day after he got home he was coming up and trying to knock the grain or water pails out of your hand as he wanted what was in there! SIGH.

Animals can be so odd sometimes. I wish they could talk so I knew what they were thinking.............