FEEDING THOSE COWS

Cows gotta eat! And eat, and eat!
These cows are pretty tame – as you can see by the above photos.
After Mike opens up the electric fence to the new area the cows immediately move into it, you don’t have to ask them twice! And they sink their heads into that new lush grass and chow down! The calf was so short he could walk under the fence and Mike has now lifted it a bit so he still can, but it seems he has also learned not to touch it! Apparently it’s good for the calf to go out ahead of the herd and eat the tastiest grass! (My theory is that, since he will turn into a bull, he most likely will always get the tastiest grass!)

The cows are moved daily to new squares of pasture and, believe this, there is NOT much “cow smell”!
My great uncle ran cows and they were usually in the barn when we went and “peeeyewweeee” did they stink. When you drive in the country and come across cows you usually find them huddled into a corral with a hay bale in the middle surrounded by brown “stuff” that ain’t dirt and they smell. Well, that’s not the natural way to do things.
As I said, our cows are moved daily and in a week (or less) you won’t even know they were there – the “poo” is disintegrated and the grass is beginning to grow up again. Unless you are standing right by their area you won’t smell anything! - and what you do smell isn’t bad.
Mike goes into the enclosure on a daily basis, obviously, to move them, but now he goes in some days to feed them alfalfa tablets. He wanted a way to get them to come to him but not use corn – our cows will be cornless their whole lives, except for eating the husks of the corn on the cob we have.
You can see how tame they are, a couple of them finally letting him pat them on the head. Now as soon as they see that bucket they are all over him! He’s even gotten bitten a couple times! Again, this is something I have no intention of trying – cows are BIG. (Once again, the dog agrees with me!)

So now you know as much about cow wrangling as I do!
(Well, not really – since I know all about getting them into the corral and running them through the squeeze chute and artificial insemination – and trust me, you REALLY don’t want to know about that!!!)