Next

The cows spent the summer at our neighbors munching down his 8 acres of weeds.  We brought them home last weekend and so instead of giving 9 cattle 3 flakes a day, just so they know who their parents are, we went up to 1 bale of hay a day.  

The sheep had to get used to sharing space with the cattle and figure out how to get around the electric fence now that it's charged.  One of the steers is a real dummy I have decided to name  him Next!  He wandered under the fence the same place the sheep go under and then wandered the property mooing the other cattle would answer him and he wouldn't go to them he just kept mooing like he was lost and no one answered him.  Normally I just open the gate and the cattle that are out just walk right in.  Not Next, he charges the fence on both sides of the gate.  I end up letting out a cow to show Next how to walk through the gate.

Next isn't in this picture.

Next has decided he will not share hay with the sheep so he gets food protective and pushes the lambs away. 

Not here either.

 He isn't a fan of sharing with the other cattle either he wanders from flake of hay to flake of hay any time another cow joins him at his flake.  

Today we moved the cattle to another neighbor's flower field.  Stick Boy and I set up the temporary

electric fencing in the space the neighbor wants cleared.  We made a narrow ally for the cattle to walk from our property to the neighbor's field without eating of the flowers that are currently growing.  I was so confident that this would work I didn't even wait for Darling Husband or College Boy to come home.  Instead Stick Boy and I got the help of 4 neighbor boys 6-10 years old only 2 speak any English.  What can go wrong?  

I get some hay and convince the cattle to follow me from one end of our pasture to the other and part way to the gate to the neighbors.  About half way to the gate the older cows that have been on this trip the last 3 years saw where we wanted them to go and took off running.  The snapping of the electric fence and those brave boys kept the wonderful girls in the ally I exactly how I wanted them to go.  The bull wasn't as sure of this adventure so was a little slower.

The gate all the cattle needed to go through.

  Just as Mooney, the bull, starts to go through the gate Next freaks out and pushes Mooney so he goes to the left of the gate and around the corner.  Next careens along the fence line not even looking at the tree he almost crashes into.  Mooney runs frantically at the fence crashing into it then he joins Next.  They start running up and down the lower fence but never going as far as the gate.  I work my way around the foolish animals and convince them to go toward the gate.

 Just as Mooney starts to look at the gate and start waking that way calmly, Next decides to chase Luca, who until this point had been a good dog and watched the craziness without adding to it.  Now Luca starts barking at the completely confused cattle and they all run the whole length of the bottom of our fence two times before I convince Luca he isn't helping.  I get the boys to stand along one side of the gate and Teen Daughter comes to help me calmly walk Mooney and Next toward the gate. 

 The boys worked perfectly moving just enough to convince the steer and bull to look at the gate where the rest of their herd was happily eating. 

 

Mooney 

Rolo

September and Porter

Introducing

Aprils heifer September

And

Ruby's steer Porter.

The calves were born September first and September second.

In the beginning September was much more energetic and curious while Porter was content to hang out with his mom and the other steers.

When the calves were about 2 weeks old we moved them to clean out a neighbors flower field.

Of course September had to check the fence in several places.

Yes it is shocking.

Electric Fencing

Electric Fencing

The advantage of being a modern farmer is the ability of using electric fencing.  With zip ties, a few posts, a car battery, solar power, 2300 feet of wire, and a willing neighbor; we can save our neighbor from having his pasture mowed and our cattle are happily fed.  

I continued to feed the cattle fodder while they were in this pasture because it was so dry.  Fortunately we were able to stop buying any hay for  8 weeks while they were in our neighbor's pasture.  

I am adding the video below because often people post a video of poor cows that were released from being butchered and the cows are skipping and kicking their feet in joy.  

These cattle are 1 year old to 14 years old and are in a new pasture for the second time this month showing the same joy.  

Just Another Week

It’s never dull here.  Darling Husband was building a fire this morning so I thought I would walk Dakota and feed the cattle at the same time.  This is what greeted me when I got to the cattle.  

I ran to the house, put Dakota in, asked a kid for my camera, then asked Darling Husband to come help me.  He had no idea what he was coming out too- he hadn’t moved from the fire. 

We moved the sheep again today.  They are along the top of the property.  We moved them on Sunday and I realized right away they were not going to last long eating the area we had them in so they have been getting a lot of hay lately.   Teen Son and I had planned on moving the sheep when he got home today.  A neighbor called today to see if his grandkids could come over and give them some grass.  I was embarrassed that they were in such a stripped out area, but I knew the sheep would be happy so had them come over.

Teen Son came home with several other FFA (Future Farmer of America) boys.  So I had 4 teen boys helping move the fencing, nice!  Stick Boy watched the sheep while we moved the fencing.  Then we all herded the sheep into their new area. 

 I read a lot of blogs and enjoy “Life on a Kansas Cattle Ranch”.  Earlier this week she posted a recipe:   http://kansascattleranch.blogspot.com/2013/01/meaty-monday-best-bbq-meatballs-ever.html, we tried it tonight and it was wonderful.  

Moving the Sheep

The cattle are happy in the new pasture.  The first night Onyx got a cut on her ear but we washed it and put antibiotic cream on it and it has healed nicely.  It has been very hot here so I have not done any work with them.  Last night I went out with some water melon rind and Ruby loved it.  

Last weekend we moved the sheep’s daytime area.  While we were moving the fencing we let the sheep run around free.  They found a way into the new cow pasture.  We had not even had the fence up a week and already we need to do more with it.  Can’t tell you how happy I am about that!  While the sheep were in the pasture Hope our youngest calf got out, we have no idea where.  All the cattle and sheep were getting along fine until Hope realized she was on the wrong side of the fence and couldn't see her mom.  She started mooing in a panic, that got Ruby to stop eating, look up, and realize SHEEP WERE WHERE HER BABY SHOULD BE!  As we opened the gate to put Hope back in with the pasture, Ruby herded the sheep out.  Hope ran to her mom and everyone is happy again!  Yay Team! 

The area of our new sheep’s daytime space is a really hard place to mow, it is between the pond and our tenant’s pasture. It has lots of weeds, thistle, and tumble weeds growing on it.  Concussion Boy, Pre Teen Girl, one of her friends, and I moved the 300 feet of temporary fencing in about 90 minutes instead of about 4 hours that it has been taking us.  That includes getting Hope back in the pasture.  The ground was much softer here than it has been other places we have put up the fence and I only needed to use the drill in a few places.  The old permanent fence that the temporary fence is used with is a horrible fence but it has several layers of fencing so I didn’t realize how bad the fence was until the sheep kept getting out and we would fix a hole, then she sheep would get out and we fix another hole,… for the next 3 days.  I still have no idea where Maxwell got out a couple days ago, I came home from work and she was sitting by the gate waiting for me to let her in.   

New Lambs

The fencing is amazing and working wonderfully.  Do we relax?  

Do we enjoy life? Do we take a trip to the beach?  NO!  We do not!  

We decide to buy 3 more Shetland Sheep.  We call to meet with Dianne a local breeder of Heritage Animals that I have been speaking too.  We do not own a trailer yet so while we are sitting discussing who to ask if we can borrow their trailer a friend calls to say he knows someone who a trailer has been abandoned in front of their house and they contacted the police but nothing has been done and they want it GONE.  So we go to pick it up instead of borrowing one – it has no license plate and we do not want to drive it so we finally end up at the breeders without a trailer.  We learn a lot and have a wonderful visit with all the Heritage Animals.  My 3 youngest children pick out 3 lambs.  These will be our first registered sheep. 

The next day we go pick up the lambs and put them in our dog crate.  We have a big dog so all 3 fit easily.  We put the new sheep,

 Marshmallow,

 Maxwell, and Dot

 into the new area enclosed by the electric fence.  

Deer is very bossy to the new sheep she pushes them around when they walk in front of her or eat a weed near her.  Blackwell seems to enjoy them.