On one of the last hay feeding stops on Tuesday, I noticed the bull was not with the cows. My first thought was, “Sure hope he’s not hurt or dead somewhere.” So, I fed some hay along the lot where I had sorted off and left the calves. My thought was to feed the cows on the S side of the pasture and lock the cows in the S pasture and then go look for the bull. With the cows locked on the S side, then when I found the bull it would be easier to take him to the corrals since he’d go to where the cows were at.
I knew the bull was not in the S pasture because there were no tracks in the snow to indicate any cattle were in the S pasture. So the cowdogs and I headed out to backtrack to where we fed the cows the day before when it was snowing. There were no obvious signs of the bull. Next route was to head to the hill to see if the cows had actually bedded down and spent the night under the cedars and in the woods where they generally lay on the layers of leaves…the leaves make for a great insulating bed to be off the hard, cold ground. We did find that the cows spent the night in the woods, on the leaves and under the cedars.
The cowdogs and I went on to see if we could find the bull in the woods. Alas, we came upon a trail of two tracks…big foot tracks and a set of tracks a bit smaller. I gave the cowdogs the ‘trail, find the cattle’ commands. We had not gone far when the cowdogs stopped and with heads held high, bodies motionless and looking to the S, I knew they found something. I gave them a “Shh, shh”. After a few moments, then I too could see…cows and my bull. But, the cows were not my cows! Two cows in heat and my bull hot on the cows’ snowy trail. When the cows spotted me and the cowdogs they took flight to the N. I figured they were going to head to where they had come through the fence…at least, that is what I was hoping!
Sure enough, the cows went a good ways and down the hill and out of sight they went. My bull in pursuit. I knew the fence had to be down, and it was. The cowdogs and I followed the trail and ended up about 1 mile away at the neighbor’s place. The cows had congregated around a spent hay bale. I put the cowdogs on a “down” and walked on up to a makeshift portable panel pen. I got the 2 cows in heat and the bull sorted off and headed them to the pen. I had already set the panels and secured them so that I could – hopefully – close the opening when they saundered into the ‘trap’. The cowdogs watched patiently, intently and never left their ‘down’. By luck and the grace of God, I got the bull to turn and go in the trap. Now, my hope was that he would stay there ’til I got back.
I went back to my 6 cowdogs, told them, “That’ll do. Good dogs. Go on.” They all came off the ‘down’ and headed back along the snowy trail that brought us to this spot. Like leaders, they took me back to where we had to cross the branch of water to climb the steep, snowy, slick hill to get back to the pickup. Next phase of the mission was to return home to get some fencing supplies. We needed 8 posts, post driver, pliers, barbed wire, tie wire, 4 stretchers, heavy Geier fencing gloves, cell phone, 4-wheeler and the trailer. I left 4 cowdogs at home and only took Ducchess and Hawk for the ‘fencing trip’.
The neighbor’s fence has not been worked on since about 1968-1970. My dad and us kids put the fence in back when we bought the land and cleared a 50′ fenceline path. The posts of the day were red cedars that were split and sharpened so that they could be driven by hand with a post mall…oh, those were the days! My dad was one hardworking fella. He’d swing that heavy post mall with great accuracy and strength…which made me glad because if his accuracy was off, then my hands would get whacked!
It’s been a good fence all these years, but it is in a thick wooded area that does not get any sunlight so the posts and wire have all but rotted away. Patching rotten barbed wire is a trick in itself. While stretching the wires back into place it broke up the line a couple of times. So, I had to stop and patch things up before we could finish the job. An hour or so into the project, the neighbor did come along to help drive the t-posts. I ran short on tie wire so I tied the top and middle wires and left my neighbor with the assignment of coming back to tie the rest…after all, it is his fence.
I loaded up my supplies, my two cowdogs and headed back to the corrals to open the gates to let the calves go back with the cows and opened the gates to let the cows come back in the N pasture. The cowdogs and I roaded on back to the highway and home. We hooked up the trailer, went to the neighbor’s place, loaded up my bull and dropped him back off with the cows on the way home.
Pheewww. So much for doing the stuff that was on my list for the day. It will have to wait because it was nearing 4:30 p.m. and we still had a couple hours of cowdog and puppy chores to do.
What a “Happy Valentine’s Day!”
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