Since the snow melted, the herd has been pretty much confined to one pasture while the other fields are still growing. This is great for the other fields because they get a chance to grow and become lush and wonderful without interruption. This is great for the cows too because they get to ease into a pasture diet by eating the grass as it grows up. This minimizes a lot of digestive and metabolic risks that can come from shocking their system by abruptly putting them into lush pasture grass.
On the other hand, the pasture that they have been eating since April looks really sad. As soon as a tiny grass shoot decides to make a run for it and reach for the sky, somebody eats it.
Our big project for the moment has been replacing all of the fencing around the facility. We want it to be all a uniform type of fence (instead of a potluck of fencing materials like it is now) and we want it to look nice and be easy to maintain. And obviously keep the cows where they are supposed to be.
We spent most of April ripping out old fencing. barbed wire, page wire, temporary wire, rotten fence posts, and such.
May we started by putting in corner posts. We used a hydraulic post hole digger and really set them down deep with concrete. Last weekend Ben measured and cut the corner bracing and tightened them so that they are solid and ready for a nice tight fence. This past weekend, we strung a line along one side of the pasture and paced out fence post spacing, and began pounding posts.
While all this is going on, the cows are watching and pouting. You see, in the cows' minds, the pickup truck = food. A bucket of any kind = food. Ben pretty much always = food. Therefore Ben on the fourwheeler (which is almost a truck) with a bucket of tools MUST = food. Though this is not the case, you can't explain that to the herd. They cry as he drives down the field on the other side of the fence with the fourwheeler. They think this is all very unfair.
In the meantime, we decided to put out some temporary posts and give the girls some new grass. A bribe, if you will. Basically we wanted to move them from their big pasture with sad grass into a smaller paddock with delicious grass. This will give their pasture a chance to rest and grow and will help them stop pouting about how mean it is that the food people (Ben) are driving the food truck (fourwheeler loaded with fence posts) and food buckets (fencing tools and equipment) around and not feeding them.
They moved to their new paddock yesterday, and they are SOOO happy. They sunbathed and grazed and grazed and sunbathed and to change it up a little, they did some grazing in the shade too. Meanwhile, Ben and I are still pounding posts to make their whole pasture a bigger better and safer place for everybody to be in.
On the other hand, the pasture that they have been eating since April looks really sad. As soon as a tiny grass shoot decides to make a run for it and reach for the sky, somebody eats it.
Our big project for the moment has been replacing all of the fencing around the facility. We want it to be all a uniform type of fence (instead of a potluck of fencing materials like it is now) and we want it to look nice and be easy to maintain. And obviously keep the cows where they are supposed to be.
We spent most of April ripping out old fencing. barbed wire, page wire, temporary wire, rotten fence posts, and such.
May we started by putting in corner posts. We used a hydraulic post hole digger and really set them down deep with concrete. Last weekend Ben measured and cut the corner bracing and tightened them so that they are solid and ready for a nice tight fence. This past weekend, we strung a line along one side of the pasture and paced out fence post spacing, and began pounding posts.
While all this is going on, the cows are watching and pouting. You see, in the cows' minds, the pickup truck = food. A bucket of any kind = food. Ben pretty much always = food. Therefore Ben on the fourwheeler (which is almost a truck) with a bucket of tools MUST = food. Though this is not the case, you can't explain that to the herd. They cry as he drives down the field on the other side of the fence with the fourwheeler. They think this is all very unfair.
In the meantime, we decided to put out some temporary posts and give the girls some new grass. A bribe, if you will. Basically we wanted to move them from their big pasture with sad grass into a smaller paddock with delicious grass. This will give their pasture a chance to rest and grow and will help them stop pouting about how mean it is that the food people (Ben) are driving the food truck (fourwheeler loaded with fence posts) and food buckets (fencing tools and equipment) around and not feeding them.
They moved to their new paddock yesterday, and they are SOOO happy. They sunbathed and grazed and grazed and sunbathed and to change it up a little, they did some grazing in the shade too. Meanwhile, Ben and I are still pounding posts to make their whole pasture a bigger better and safer place for everybody to be in.