A Rainy Day Stand off

in #homesteading6 years ago

Each day comes with it's own little surprises. Today was no exception.

The time came for Stacie D (@freedomtowrite) and I to feed all of the animals. There are 30 cows (bull, steers, cows, heifers) 18 chickens, and 1 horse. It is raining/ freezing rain. There is ice on everything, and it is business as usual.

Atleast that is what we thought....

We fed the cows, and they all seemed more pushy than usual. They were mobbing the food and head butting each other...more than normal.

I walked to the barn to get the next bag of feed for the heifers and I can hear Stacie D say "oh, crap!"

The gate that seperates the two groups had been knocked open, and they were all mixed together. That explains why they were so pushy....

So there we were... cows everywhere, a busted gate, open gates and they were almost done with their feed. We had to close outer gates and repair the center gate before they all headed out.

I got the broken gate fixed while Stacie D managed the other gate. She was letting cows out to pasture one at a time while the bull, steers, and heifers were still distracted. We then managed to get most of the rest out to the other pasture, but that is when we saw it....Olie (the bull) had been showing some love to a heifer. Nothing had happened yet, but he was focused.

So this was the situation. Two pens with a center gate. We needed to seperate the two of them and close the gate in the middle. It didn't seem like that big of a deal.

At first the heifer would move around Olie and play cutesy, and the two would walk around. Then Olie started acting like a weirdo tinder date and she couldn't get away.

Now we have an energetic bull and a nervous heifer. So we kept this up for nearly 3 hours in the freezing rain. The goal was to prevent any magic from happening.

The time had come. I was cold, wet, and we were getting no where. It was time for a little Yeti vs. Bull. So I got the tractor!

With some fancy moves and some clanging of the bucket we managed to get them apart. It was touch and go for a minute when she went walking through the correct gate and Stacie D had to chain it, all while I was keeping Olie away.

Stacie D got it latched and Olie wandered away. He is not aggressive at all....but there wasn't a sweet enough treat in the world to distract him from what was about to happen haha.

Now all the gates are good and cows are all sorted. Life is amazing.

I hope you all are enjoying our adventure as much as we are.

Be well.
~The Yeti

https://discord.gg/hPJs5Rb

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se ve que hace frió no jejeje

It started out with a "But Yeti I love him!" From the heifer...and then definitely ended like...

Then Olie started acting like a weirdo tinder date and she couldn't get away.

Maybe this was after I yelled that he didn't really love her? Hahaha

tenor.gif

What a great story! I'm glad it ended well. I've had a few experiences like that so I know it's very hard to talk sense to a bull. I've never had to wrangle in freezing rain, though.

Glad that worked out.

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It seems to never fail. They can be the mildest of cattle, but when they get loose they go nuts. Haha! I am glad everything worked out in the end.