Success!
November 27th, 2013 · No Comments · Posted in farming, Weather
We managed to move our Jersey heifer off the back pasture and into the permanent paddock yesterday. It wasn’t exactly the smooth transition I had hoped for.
The first part–getting Emily to wear her rope halter–went well enough. About an hour before sunrise, while she had her head in her feed bucket, I looped one end of the halter over her ears. The rest I dropped into the bucket. The next time she came up for air, the smaller loop on the halter had found its way around her nose. Perfect! All I had to do was cinch it tight. I think the process was less frightening for Emily while it was still dark.
She finished her grain and I left her behind the temporary fencing that way–dragging the rope lead along the ground–while I walked back to the house and woke the rest of my crew. Here’s the plan we came up with: my wife would lead the five sheep off the pasture first, luring them with a bucket of grain. I would follow with Emily, holding her lead and enticing her forward with a second bucket of grain. Daughter would follow, picking up any stragglers and giving Emily a tap on the butt with a bamboo stick if needed.
We reasoned that Emily would gladly follow the sheep the same way she does when we rotate the temporary fencing on pasture.
The first part went just fine. We opened the electric netting and the sheep gladly followed my wife down the hill. But Emily quickly lost sight of them because she just dug in her heels and refused to move. That’s right. For the next 15 minutes, I literally dragged Emily along, pulling with all my might while daughter occasionally swung the bamboo stick.
“C’mon, Emily!”
A couple of times we broke into a trot and covered a good portion of the 200 yards separating the upper pasture from the permanent paddock. Otherwise, it was me dragging Emily, the cow sometimes slipping and falling on the frozen ground, dusted with snow overnight.
Finally, we arrived at the open paddock gate. The sheep were already at the far end of the enclosure, happily munching on the grain my wife had poured into a trough for them. With a last shove, we got Emily inside as well. She looked around, a bit stunned, the rope lead hanging from her face and dragging on the ground once more. I was utterly exhausted.
I prefer having Emily in the permanent paddock at this point because of the fluky weather we’re having: alternating snow, rain, wind, bitter cold. We don’t need our heifer catching pneumonia. We built a large three-sided shelter in the paddock, giving the animals a place where they can get out of the wind and rain. I spread straw over the areas of bare ground inside the shelter, then unbundled two bales of hay for Emily and the sheep.
They sniffed the hay, but didn’t seem much interested. Instead, they spent the rest of the day wandering around the paddock, nibbling the short grass and chewing their cud. I suppose they’ll clue in eventually that hay is their best option at this point. Next week is supposed to be warmer, and I’ll re-evaluate whether to return the sheep to pasture. Emily won’t be going anywhere until she’s learned how to follow her lead. I have no interest in repeating yesterday’s tug-of-war.
One thing that’s working just fine: the electric heater I bought for the water trough in the paddock has kept the H2O free of ice even with temperatures in the single digits. The Teflon-coated device just sits at the bottom of a 15-gallon plastic bucket, silently making my life so much easier.
Sometimes modern technology ain’t such a bad thing.
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