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Monday, July 11, 2011

Moving the Cows

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I really wish I had a picture of me moving the cows. 

Then again, maybe I'm glad I don't.

When Justin showed me the first week I was out at the Big Farm, he made it look like a piece of cake.  The horses ignored him and his bucket of grain, and the cows followed him slowly but surely as he tempted them with the bucket until they crossed into the new section of pasture.


Today, when I took the bucket of grain up the hill, both of the horses perked up their ears and came running down the hill towards me.

A thousand pound horse running at you is a whole 'nother ballgame than a 50-150 pound alpaca.  You suddenly realize just how small and helpless you are, if the horses accidentally bump you or step on you in their eagerness.


Luckily Oakey and Shelby are nice, good-natured horses, but they were totally obsessed with my bucket, which was actually for the cows.  They pretty much made me a Miss V sandwich all the way back down the hill, across the next pasture and over to the corner where I put down some of the grain for them. 

This is the part where I'm glad I don't actually have a picture, or, even worse, a video.  The whole bob & weave scenario of me ducking out from the middle of these horses, followed by them circling around to cut off my route over and over and over again was not something I had planned on. 

After this slightly unnerving experience, I then had to truck all the way back up the hill again to retrieve the cows.  Mama cow (who is due to birth any day now) is starting to catch on to what the "bucket" means.  I held it out to her and she stuck her nose in, then pushed the bucket down nearly all the way to the ground.  She is one strong mama cow!  I went a few steps and she followed me, and I thought, "Wow, this is great!"

Then she stopped.  So I brought the bucket over to her again.  Repeat scene 4-5 times.

Then suddenly, she decided to frolic across the hill, kicking up her cow-heels and doing a little jig.

If I thought having two well-mannered, halter-broke horses running down the hill on either side of me was unnerving, picture this full-grown mama cow and two almost-full-grown yearlings romping at full speed down the hill beside me.

{Insert thoughts of injury scenarios involving being accidentally trampled by three cows.}

Once mama cow got to the section of electric fence that we had taken down, a light seemed to click on in her brain and she seemed to realize, greener pastures just over there!  And then she hustled right on over to the new section of pasture, a polyculture buffet of greenery goodness just waiting for her to dive in.

The yearlings hesitated at the fence line a few moments, then ambled over as well.


I laid down a line of grain, the remaining bits in my bucket, watching mama cow digging in, then smiled as I walked back over to the fence line where Justin was already putting the electric fence back into position.

I moved the cows. 

Yee-haw!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wee haa. Well done Hunny Bear.

Jess said...

LOL! Awesome.

Victoria Strauser said...

One of my next posts will be about moving them across the farm - a whole different experience!

 
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