Moving cattle

Yesterday we moved the cows and calves home from the summer pasture, where the grass was just about gone. We also need to be able to load up the kids’ steers for 4H weigh day next weekend, and that’s much more easily done from our corrals than in an open pasture. Our heifers are still on another summer pasture, where they can stay for a while longer.

We had a cattle drive and just moved the animals down the road several miles, from the summer pasture to our farm. Tom drove the lead truck, calling the cattle, Laura rode her old horse Sioux (we hauled Sioux to the summer pasture in the trailer, so she would have to walk only one way, not both ways), the boys were on foot, and I brought up the rear in another truck, keeping an eye on stragglers and the rear view window to keep any traffic from scattering the herd. At times I drove ahead to block neighbors’ driveways, open gates in fields, and to hold traffic at intersections, and gave the boys the occasional lift.

In the end we got it done in a few hours on a beautiful sunny, though very breezy, afternoon. Much faster than using the trailer, which took Tom twice as long earlier this year taking the cattle to the summer pasture in the first place. Fortunately, we didn’t have too many animals to move.

At the summer pasture, through the dirty cracked windshield of Tom’s truck,

On the road,

Passing a neighbor’s farm,

Sioux is as old as she is beloved,

Getting close to home (in fact, you can see our house on the right),

Looking at a bird, or the neighbor’s bull or …

Finally, home again,