Give Me a Home Where the Cows Don't Roam

We used to have a vet that believed in the signs.  When we were working cattle she would either give credit or blame to the signs depending on if they were in the head, feet, etc.  I have no idea what the signs have been in this week, but they have definitely been against trees and fences.

It began on Sunday when a tree fell in field #1 and laid a six foot section of barb wire fence down.  Not much, but a big enough hole for several heifers to walk out.  Some of them, and what we thought were all of them, came around to the main gate on their own to get back in. The nine others, well, they took a leisurely stroll through the woods that night.  Monday morning we got a phone call that our calves in field #2 were out, however these were the now found heifers from field #1 which we then locked in our neighbor's empty pasture.

On Tuesday we got a few of the losties from field #1 back home and checked their fence again.  The next morning in field #3 another group of heifers found themselves on the outside of the fence.  They easily walked back in the field when we went to feed them.  On the way back to fix the fence in their field another neighbor flagged us down to tell us that the calves from field #2 were out.  So we changed directions and went to go put them up and saw up another tree.  We then hooked up our trailer and moved a few of those that were cooperative from field #1 and brought them back home.

Today we were on our way again to fix the fence in field #3 when 3 heifers from field #4 climbed over yet another fence that was pushed down by a fallen tree limb.  We put them back in quickly and then went back to our neighbor's with the trailer to get the last of those animals.  Unfortunately we were only able to get one.  While there we got a phone call that the calves from field #4 were back out.  We left the last two animals to return home and fix that fence.

After lunch we found the calves from field #3 and led them back home with the trucks and fed them.  We then  got the tree off that fence and repaired it.

Our plans to go back and get the remaining losties from our neighbor's pasture were thwarted with a constant downpour this afternoon.  That must be part of the signs, too.

If all of this sounds crazy and confusing then you are not alone.  Normally we might have maybe one group of animals that finds a hole in the fence in one month or longer.  Never every day of the week with calves out.  Tomorrow I hoping if life really goes by the signs on the calendar then they will be much more favorable to fences, trees, and farmers.