Moved the calves

[Dave]

Gathered up the calves out of the upstream field. While they were in the pens we sorted off and treated 4 with pink eye. There was one bull calf we were finally able to spot. He is now a steer. There was a heifer out of one of my old cows with horns. She is now hornless. B said she looks less like a longhorn. She still looks like a longhorn cross to me. The cow wasn't a longhorn. Oh well what did old Forest say about a box of chocolates? The same applies to purchased bred cows. And there was one old cow with twin calves we sorted off and put into a different field. One wet cow in a field with 183 freshly weaned calves. She was really popular. The calves all went out the driveway, across the bridge, and to the field on the other side of the river. B said that if he had a bridge on his place a cow would never cross it. These calves marched over the bridge no problem.

 

[farmerjan]

Have you decided to keep them or sell this fall?

 

[Dave]

Most will get sold. Some late small ones like those twins on that old cow will probably spend the winter. The 183 we put out front about 100 are F-1 Wagyu. They leave the middle of October.

 

[wbvs58]

I find bridges are one way things. They find there way over them alright by themselves but when you try to get them back over it they just won't go.

Ken

 

[Larzbarz]

There is a township road that dead-ends in one of my family's pastures. There used to be an old wooden bridge over a creek on that road. Back before we bought a gooseneck trailer and all the grain farmers ripped out all of the road fences, we would walk the pairs down the road to the home place each fall. So our cows knew to cross the bridge. A neighbor along this township road also had cattle. He was lax about fence maintenance so his cattle would graze the ditches, but they would never cross the bridge, so he let it be.

One day there was a storm and a tree fell on our fence. The old lead cow took her whole group of cows out of the new hole in the fence and down the road to home. In doing so, the neighbor's cattle were swept up and had their eyes opened to the possibility of crossing the bridge.

All the cattle made it to the homeplace and got shut up. The neighbor was notified and hauled his cattle home. Going forward, however, he became rather disgruntled that all of a sudden he had to maintain his fences and couldn't graze the public right of way.

 

[Dave]

The wife was worried about cows coming across the bridge. Cows will come wandering down the road for the next 2 months. I told her the neighbor's horse do but the cows don't. The other day 7 pairs came down the driveway, crossed the bridge, and did a lap around the house. They went back across the bridge with me and the pup hot on their tail. I had change my statement to most of the time they wont cross the bridge.

 

[gcreekrch]

The wife was worried about cows coming across the bridge. Cows will come wandering down the road for the next 2 months. I told her the neighbor's horse do but the cows don't. The other day 7 pairs came down the driveway, crossed the bridge, and did a lap around the house. They went back across the bridge with me and the pup hot on their tail. I had change my statement to most of the time they wont cross the bridge.

Wise words!