Yesterday was a day of driving and adventure, we’ll tell that part in the next post. The previous evening, just getting the cows loaded, is its own post.
Miguel and I, along with Spork had set up a temporary lane in the pasture from the cows back to the barnyard. The plan was to bring #26 and #27 into the barn yard and put them in the corral. Then that next morning I’d be able to load them through our loading chute onto the trailer and take them to the processor in Pinetown, NC. I mistakenly thought we’d separate #26 and #27 out in the paddock and walk just those two into the barn yard. However it was a full moon and the cows were jumpy. I know that sounds odd about it being a full moon, but I can’t attribute it to anything else at this point. The whole herd was flighty and acting stupid. After a quick attempt, we just turned the whole herd into the temporary lane and moved them to the barn. I should mention that #26 and #27 are both 1/2 Ninja Cow so their attitudes are questionable at best already. Add in a full moon and they were nigh uncontrollable.
10 seconds into the lane, #27 runs right into the hot wire and rips the whole side down. Here we go again. Of course all the other cows immediately see the opening and bail out of the lane and onto the open pasture. Fortunately that particular area was just a corner of woven wire fencing so we herded the cows into the barnyard, running, bucking, and acting like fools. All the cows, the entire herd, then went into the corral, except for one calf who just didn’t get in in time. After all the craziness they’d exhibited, I was shocked to see them all in the corral. It’s not that big so I wouldn’t have expected them to file in so orderly. I ran up to close off the access gate and at just that moment my brother calls me with an urgent issue. I’m trying to listen to him, while standing beside the mother of the calf who is outside. As you’d expect, she is calling him, loudly and repeatedly. I can’t hear my brother and I can’t leave the gate. 5 minutes of “What? What?” ensued before I finally got off the phone and we started sorting cows.
Everybody was happy to get back out of the corral and within a minute or two, we were down to #26, #27, and #16. I had Miguel and Spork helping and things were progressing smoothly. Now it was three on three and we can go man to man, uh cow. We got this. Except #16 wouldn’t leave the corral. No matter what I did, no matter how many attempts I made, #16 was determined that something bad would happen if he left the corral. It was then I noted that #16 was also 1/2 Ninja Cow. I gave it another couple of laps and then said forget it. If #16 wants to get on the trailer, then #16 can go.
By being afraid of what we were trying to get #16 to do, he ended up causing what he was afraid of. I think there is a lesson there. Sometimes you cause your own problems.
Next, loading the cows and heading East.