This was first posted August 18, 2009.
I chose this post because we just did this… moving the cows into their new pasture. While in 2009, it had rained and rained, this year we can’t hardly beg a drop of rain. I just thought it’d be interesting for you to see how the weather can vary and how it looks. I’ll be posting photos of this year’s “Kicking Across” tomorrow.
All six of us rode horses today, Victoria meeting us on top, coming from her side of the mountain. We kicked our cows across the road to new pasture.
Our cows have been in our leased pasture since our big trail drive weeks ago. Since we put 100 pairs in ANOTHER leased pasture the grass could last this long. Not counting that it has rained and rained and even snowed on the mountain this summer.
Our pasture sits just shy of 8000’…The higher mountains to the north already sport a light covering of snow…resembling that loosely knitted afghan your grandmother gave you….plenty of holes but enough to cover and make a difference.
The grass in the new pasture is still GREASY, GREEN and THICK. Unfortunately, the deadly, dastardly larkspur is thick as well. We have kept the cows out of this pasture as long as we could… but we’ve run out of grass, and we MUST put them in here.
I wasn’t thinking this morning…and grabbed my big camera, so the photos for today come from our lunch break…and when we retagged a few calves…meaning the pickup was close enough, I didn’t have to lug the spendy camera around!
Lunch breaks mean naps for my family…
I’ve never been a big one for naps unless I woke up at 4:30 am…so I usually read a library book…or wander with my camera…or commune with my dogs…
Eartags make it wonderfully easy to pair up (or mother up) the calves and their moms. They have the same number. Our cows know (supposedly) when they travel to a new place, they can’t leave the bunch unless their calves are with them…
Us ignorant humans need eartags to place the correct solid black calf with the appropriate solid black momma.
It used to be easier when those baldy faces looked JUST like their mom’s baldy face. It’s best to keep eartags in them… so whenever we’re around a corral and lost eartags… we replace ’em.
OBVIOUSLY I wanted you to focus on the “antique” head catch… not the eartag-less calf.
Sure enough… no tag.
MUCH BETTER!
Toria and Johnny open the headcatch, but back the calf back INTO the chute and back into the corral where the gates let us send them back the correct way… forward would have been the wrong way this time. Make sense???
Look at that grass. Wow. Green. Tall. In August. Let’s hope the cows eat that grass and leave the larkspur alone.
Find me here!
