Sunday Spork and I were running the farm. Step one is always to feed the cows first as this greatly reduces the chance of bloat. The cows are at the neighbors so I loaded up the trailer with food, picked up Spork, and headed over. We’d gotten an early start, the day was crisp and cool, and things were going great. With Sporks help we unloaded the produce quickly and loaded back up to head back to the farm. Only 7 paddocks worth of pigs to feed and we’d have everyone fed for the day. Plus Miguel and Adam had pre-loaded our bins for us so most of our work was done. As we pulled away from the cows I was already planning what I’d be doing the rest of the day after we finished feeding the pigs.
That’s when I saw a cow out. Our neighbors setup is two separate 6 acre pastures. We had moved the cows from the first 6 acres to the second last week. What I saw was a cow trying to get back into the first pasture, walking up and down the fence in the neighbors yard.
“Maybe it’s not my cow.”
Upon closer look, I recognized the ear tag as one of mine. I thought maybe she’d been left in the paddock when we moved everyone else and when she found out she was alone, she’d jumped the fence but couldn’t find her way to the other cows. We followed her into the woods and as she went by Spork I asked him what her number was. #33 he responded. Weird. 33 is a good cow and hasn’t caused any problems. After looking the pasture over, we realized there was no way to get the cow back in as the fencing was completely secure. What to do?
That will be the next post.