OT/WHAT A DAY!

I got up this morning feeling great. I caght all the calves yesterday,both sides of the road,was done by 2:30 in the afternoon. Never caght them all in one day before. So this morning,it was drizzling rain,so I wasn't in any hurry to get out and do chores,the cows and calves were still bellering,so everything seemed OK. I was taking my time drinking my coffee and a car slowed down out front. That always makes me panic,because it usually means cattle doing something they shouldn't. SURE ENOUGH. There was a calf in the road. I ran out and the south pasture was full of them. Three of them went across the road,21 were out with the cows on the south side. They had knocked a board off the bottom of the feed bunk,and a bunch of them had jumped out. I had a gate up so they couldn't just walk away. There was a small rust hole in the tin on the back side of the next barn and there were cows in there bellering I'm sure. They grubbed that rust hole out until it was big anough for the calves to squeeze through. I feel like I've been through a meat grinder catching those pains in the neck again,in the mud and rain this time. Anybody wanna buy a nice herd of cows? I'm getting too old for this crap!

rrlund,

I feel your pain! During last summer's drought I couldn't keep my herd on my side of one particular fence. My pastures were eaten clean and the neighbor wasn't running any stock in his field. My cows pushed through that fence so many times I eventually installed a gate in the fence line so I wouldn't have to keep cutting the fence to herd them back into my pasture. To make matters worse, they would always walk to the end of the neighbor's field during the night, so I'd have to walk about 3/4 mile to get to them and bring them home.

I was about ready to quit. Thankfully, the drought broke and I finished a major rework of the fence line. No problems this year, but I sure was frustrated last year.

Good luck with your herd.

Tom in TN

I learned my lesson a long time ago that to wean calves you need a bullet proof fence to keep them apart.Years ago I brought the cows and calves home,sorted and took the cows back to the pasture.Sure enough,the cows came back home every time.From that point on,I wean calves with the cows on opposite side of a fence they can not penetrate and listen to them for three days.Never had a problem since.I have enough hay for about forty more cows this winter,what do you have? GRJ

I've never had one get out of the freezer yet!!;^)

Think Hot wire. I swear by it for weaning. One hot at 28" and a ground barb wire at 10" worked great this year.