Day In The Life

I've been asked to portray a little more about life here in regards to my recent facebook status that has regarded our cows.
Between my father in law, DH's Brother, and Jeff they have @ 30 feeder cattle (these cows stay in the 'yards' and will be made fat and sent of to market) and then 37 pasture cows, which consists of cow and calves. The cow/calves are what is at our house now. They graze in pasture during the Spring/Summer/Fall and now are busy cleaning up any leftover corn that didn't get picked up when harvesting. The herd is generally moved from field to field and the last move was one that took us, and them, over 5 miles. We move them by foot and vehicle. The dogs will often help too if needed. Generally the moves go very smoothly. The older cows have made these moves many of times so they know the routine. The worst part of the move is the 1/4 mile we're on a busy hwy. It goes quick and most people are more then willing to wait for the 3-5 min that we are on the road. i think mainly they are in aww about the process since many people don't move them this way.

Many people move cows by trailer/truck. We find that to be very stressful to the animal. They are coraled and then forced to walk thru a ramp/shoot in to the trailer. Since they can only get thru the shoot 1 at a time they end up getting bucked, stepped on all b/c someone at the other end is busy beating them to get them to move faster.

The move can take any where from 1 1/2 -3 hours dependent on the weather. To warm (20-30's) and they move slowly getting hot. There can also be to much snow making it harder on them. There always seems to be a leader and a follower, as in the follower is at the way back of the move and often times has to be told to get going. Or as we say yeup...yup...not sure how to spell that.

During the process either DH or my BIL will follow on foot while the others, DH, myself and my FIL block off potential places where they could get in with our vehicles. Like open gates, broken fences, etc. Let me tell you if the leader of the herd gets off track forget it, the entire herd could escape in to a field causing lots of frustrations and yelling:) Once the first couple of cows go by you are good to move on to the next location. That involves often pushing your way thru the herd with your vehicle, honking your horn. Being very careful you don't cross a cow and he kicks your headlight out:) They will get over eventually allowing you to pass them.

So....now this past Sunday they moved them to our place. I wasn't able to help this time b/c the kids were napping. (that's fine by me.) As I type this they are probably about 600 ft from me. Its our deck, then yard and then the field begins. They take the exact same route at least once/hour. Either going to the creek for water, or coming back out to the field. Taking the same path time after time.

Now with them being over here, always comes some fun (haha) I can remember the times I'd walk out of our bedroom when we were downstairs, and literally cows would be staring at me in the window. Or just this past Sunday after they just got them here, I was sitting at the computer and the next thing i know they are right there. I was able to send the dogs out there and they promptly got them back in the field. Needless to say the hot wire fence was not working and they just walked right over it. You can always tell come Spring where the cows pooped b/c that grass is REALLY green:)

I decided to shoot a quick video b/c honestly that will probably put things in to perspective. Sorry for the mess. Remember we are getting our kitchen 'trimmed' out in the next month or two. A quick appearance of the cat 'sally belly' that's supposed to be outside but she's so darn good with the kids that they often play for hours together.

So there you have it. I'm curious what some of you think of this all.

When I get on our other computer I'll post some pictures. There is the most hilarious picture of a cow looking at me, peeing:) Yeah i know i have a weird sense of humor.