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Our new best friend
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Thank God for 4-wheelers! I know many farmers and ranchers have done perfectly fine without 4-wheelers for years, but man are they handy. Especially for two people who are already short on time as it is. I originally didn't want one because I thought we both could use it as a way to exercise. I think I've gotten plenty of exercise this week, especially with stringing 10,000 feet of hi-tensile wire. One word of advice: ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS have a spinning Jenny when unrolling hi-tensile wire unless you are a glutton for punishment. Ask us how we know this one...
And some more cattle pictures:
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Range cubes are handy for making friends with cattle.
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| A little nervous at first. |
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| This cow has it figured out..range cubes = yummy! |
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| Hey # 25 |
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| Our 2 year old bull. Definitely need to put some pounds on. |
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Such a pretty coloration on this cow.
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Jon was taking these pictures last week when I was sick, so I never got to experience how cows react to range cubes. We had a cow that got out yesterday and all it took was me walking to the corner with rattling a bucket of range cubes for them to come running. And I mean running...it's a little intimidating for a big pregnant cow with horns to come running at you. I definitely had an escape plan figured out in case she didn't stop.
As I said, it's moving week. And it's snowing...again...will it ever stop... Hopefully the snow will all be melted by the time we move on Thursday. I will keep my fingers crossed and double crossed.
I've always whistled to call the cows when I am feeding cubes, they associate the whistle with the cubes and they will start to answer back and come to just the whistle.
Every time I move them to a new pasture, I also whistle so that they also associate new grass with the whistle, which makes it easier to move them out of an old pasture or into a set of working pens in the future.
It's a whole lot less stressful to have cattle actually come to you instead of trying to push them where you want them to go (sometimes it can be like pushing a rope)
I wish I could whistle! I've tried to teach myself that ear piercing whistle and I can't do it!
It doesn't need to be any kind of special extra loud whistle, I just whistle like I am whistling at a dog. If you come up with a unique whistle that only you and the cattle know, you can even make it so that only you can call the cattle.
You would be surprised how good cattle's hearing can be. If the wind is right, you should be able to stand on a quarter section and easily whistle loud enough that any cattle on that quarter section will hear you.
Hmm...maybe I will have to keep trying to perfect my whistle. I tried teaching myself the two finger whistle from the internet and I kind of had it. My regular whistle with just pursing my lips is not good.