The cows came home

Well, if you have read my first two blogs on Local Harvest you know that we have moved our Ranch this summer. Our new barn has been built for some time, and the corrals have been built for a month. Everyone around here kept asking what we were going to use that BIG barn for. We kept telling them for the calves and colts. They would look at us with a question and ask if we had any cows. You see we have not had ANY cattle on this farm except for the bulls (and they were only here for 1 month). None of our new Ringold County neighbors had ever seen us with any cattle at our homeplace. The cows have been at the rented pasture this summer.

As I told you on Friday, we moved the cows home this weekend. We did it!! All by ourselves. Beau had to work in town on Saturday, so we just got everything set up. We set up the portable corral at the pasture and fed the cows in the corral. This convinces them that this is a good place to be! ; )

Sunday morning bright and early we loaded up the kids, and the dogs and off we went. Our rented pasture is only 15 miles from the house, so it is a short trip. We arrived at the pasture, and made our plan. I would take the 4-wheeler out and around the pond to move the cows to Beau and he would "call" the cows into the corral. Well, he had more luck than I did. He locked up ~25 while I was still on the other side of the pond.

I made my sweep around the pond with the dogs close behind. The cows weren't happy about being woken up early and were slow to go to the corral. I managed to push in another 25 or so. Then it gets tricky! The last cows are ALWAYS the worst. They don't want to go in and the want to run and chase. We decided to haul a load home and bring the horse.

We are able to haul about 10 calves and 12 cows each trip. Made the trip and arrived back at the pasture with the horse. This time we switched, I was calling and Beau was pushing on Ozzie (the horse). We made a sweep and not one cow came in. We put the 4-wheeler away (I hate those things!) and tried again and cought 5 pairs. We were both severely frustrated and decided to haul some more cows home.

We made another 3 trips (I will tell you a funny story about one of theese trips later this week) and we got LUCKY! The crazy(mean, ornery and taking the rest far, far, away) cow was standing in the gateway. We were VERY sneaky and we finally got her locked up!!!! YEEE HAAA! Unfortunately it was dark and we were done for the night, but they were all locked up at the pasture and at the house.

I LOVE our new facilities @ home. We did not have to worry that the cows were going to go hunting for their calves and get out, we had easy fresh water and it was great! After a long day and another long one to go we could still sleep easy.

If you enjoy these types of stories, leave me a note and I'll keep them coming.
We did select some great beef calves that will be worked and weaned this coming weekend.

Please e-mail me to reserve your beef shares. I think we have 4 whole shares left, so please let me know and I can put your name on a calf. You can see our Local Harvest Listing at http://www.localharvest.org/farms/M24259

I will have that funny story from Sunday and the story of Monday later in the week.
Shanen : ))