Post by brigitte on Jan 31, 2018 20:21:13 GMT -5
I like reading these stories about other peoples cows with happy endings.
The steer named "A boy named Sue" (after a local politician) wasn't liking me very much this morning, a day after being treated for ringworm fungus. Yesterday he gave that little kick as he walked by me- as if to say...take that!
I was putting a round bale in the ring- a task which requires more than two hands to monitor the gate, open the ring, cut off the plastic before they eat it, and keep an eye on where all eight heads are. Sue (photo of he little miscreant can be found on the warts thread) managed to slip by the tractor unnoticed and get through the gate. He wasn't far when I first noticed him, but with the important task of removing the plastic not finished, I couldnt chase him back in.
I never worry about heifers that slip out, I can easily get a rope halter around them and lead them back
But not Sue...
I tried to get around him and bring him back, but he was off to the races.
I live at the edge of a seven thousand acre state woodland and he wanted all of it. He vanished, after racing through the only neighbors yard, past their two horses
Gone. Just gone.
You don't even know where to start. A thin layer of snow revealed prints into the vast wilderness.
I went back to my milkroom tasks with a heavy heart. I already had visions of a coyote feast on his starving body, and was pretty mad at myself for not paying closer attention to the gate and should have left them inside until the hay was in place.
I went up to the house and got the 30-.06 and called the local constabulatory to notify them. I had visions of Sue making it to the next road and causing a crash. I had written stories about young steers wreaking havoc after escaping into suburbia. None seemed ever to get caught. I would have to harvest him and figure a way to get him back.
This is not suburbia. And his mother was still inside the fence.
This was not one of the mornings when I wanted her to stop calling to him.
I went into the woods with the rifle, knowing I would never get the rope halter anywhere near him.
No steer
I went back to other things....there went $900 worth of baby beef besides.
Then, at 11:30, some five hours after he left, he was back on the outside of the pasture eating frozen grass.
I opened the gate but he opted one more time to defy instructions and found the only three foot opening to the walled garden, and ran through it - not a bad time of the year to run through a frozen quarter acre garden, but how to get him out. An hour later he decided it was time to return to the herd, and calmly walked through the opening, and back down through the gate I had left open (cows wanted only the hay ring).
I never ever want that to happen again. Sue is going in the freezer sooner rather than later. Boys......
The steer named "A boy named Sue" (after a local politician) wasn't liking me very much this morning, a day after being treated for ringworm fungus. Yesterday he gave that little kick as he walked by me- as if to say...take that!
I was putting a round bale in the ring- a task which requires more than two hands to monitor the gate, open the ring, cut off the plastic before they eat it, and keep an eye on where all eight heads are. Sue (photo of he little miscreant can be found on the warts thread) managed to slip by the tractor unnoticed and get through the gate. He wasn't far when I first noticed him, but with the important task of removing the plastic not finished, I couldnt chase him back in.
I never worry about heifers that slip out, I can easily get a rope halter around them and lead them back
But not Sue...
I tried to get around him and bring him back, but he was off to the races.
I live at the edge of a seven thousand acre state woodland and he wanted all of it. He vanished, after racing through the only neighbors yard, past their two horses
Gone. Just gone.
You don't even know where to start. A thin layer of snow revealed prints into the vast wilderness.
I went back to my milkroom tasks with a heavy heart. I already had visions of a coyote feast on his starving body, and was pretty mad at myself for not paying closer attention to the gate and should have left them inside until the hay was in place.
I went up to the house and got the 30-.06 and called the local constabulatory to notify them. I had visions of Sue making it to the next road and causing a crash. I had written stories about young steers wreaking havoc after escaping into suburbia. None seemed ever to get caught. I would have to harvest him and figure a way to get him back.
This is not suburbia. And his mother was still inside the fence.
This was not one of the mornings when I wanted her to stop calling to him.
I went into the woods with the rifle, knowing I would never get the rope halter anywhere near him.
No steer
I went back to other things....there went $900 worth of baby beef besides.
Then, at 11:30, some five hours after he left, he was back on the outside of the pasture eating frozen grass.
I opened the gate but he opted one more time to defy instructions and found the only three foot opening to the walled garden, and ran through it - not a bad time of the year to run through a frozen quarter acre garden, but how to get him out. An hour later he decided it was time to return to the herd, and calmly walked through the opening, and back down through the gate I had left open (cows wanted only the hay ring).
I never ever want that to happen again. Sue is going in the freezer sooner rather than later. Boys......