When the Cows Come Home

[ERNIEB]

When I worked at the rock quarry, we were often some distance apart, and surrounded by loud machinery. Communication was by hand signs, not the standard Amsilan, but it worked. One sign used was to hold up both index fingers on top of the head pointing upward, like horns on a cow. It meant that someone did, or was doing something that was not very smart.
Having said that. My cows are always getting into my neighbors place. We have a very old barb wire fence between us. If I don't go after them, they eventually come home on their own. But do they come back thru the hole they have made in the fence? No, they come to the fence near the house and stand there, looking over at me like "well, how are we suppose to get back home?" I put in a gate there, so it would be easy to let them back in. It seemed like the smart thing to do. But then they got me to put in a gate, so they don't have to walk all the way to the back where they got out at./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Ernie

 

[CVHoss]

The 400+ acres that I deer hunt on is all farm land. There's a field road that I pull my truck about a hundred yards into where I then unload my 4 wheeler for the trip to my stand. On the north side of this field road, the land belongs to someone else and he raises cattle on it. In all the times I had been going out there over a three year period, the cattle never paid me any attention. One day, I decided I was going to hang an automatic feeder by my stand before season to get the deer conditioned to coming my way. Unloaded the 4 wheeler like always and strapped the feeder to the back rack. Everything was normal UNTIL I picked up the two feed sacks of cracked corn. When those cattle heard the paper feed sacks rustling, I thought they were going to come straight through the fence. The came running from 1/4 mile away and by the time I got the sacks strapped on to the 4 wheeler, I had a couple hundred cattle bellowing at me. The whole heard ran along the fence following me until they could go no further. I found it very amusing how they had become conditioned to the sound of a paper feed sack.

Hoss

 

[RobS]

Hoss, reminds me of this story...An MIT student spent an entire summer going to the Harvard football field every day wearing a black and white striped shirt, walking up and down the field for ten or fifteen minutes throwing birdseed all over the field, blowing a whistle and then walking off the field. At the end of the summer, it came time for the first Harvard home football game, the referee walked onto the field and blew the whistle, and the game had to be delayed for a half hour to wait for the birds to get off of the field.

/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[TWINKLE_TOES]

Ernie,
Thats funny./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif On the surface it seems your time would be better spent fixing the fence to keep them in rather than building a gate to get them back in once they got out. Those that have cattle understand the logic in your approach. I have the same arrangement with my cattle.
Works good. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
Al

 

[Hillbilly]

My neighbor bought his 1st round baler a few years back,and done a little round baling on his neighbors place that he farmed.
Well he baled several round bales and left.His son and he came back later on to admire the round bales.Well they had all dissapeared except for a few and one went rolling by while his son and he watched.It appears his cattle had gotten into the field through a neglected fence and started rubbing against the round bales and had rolled all of them except 2 or 3 to the deep hollows.
The next 2 days he spent his time recovering his round bales from the hollows./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[ERNIEB]

Al, Oh I fix the fence. I fix it alot. When my neighbors red Limosine bull "Barney" decides he wants to come over for a visit, he comes over. And of course makes a hole that my cows can use to get out. The neighbor and I both agree that replacing the fence will be difficult and expensive. We also agree that we can live with it as is. I guess we will have to do it someday. I can't complain, I've gotten some pretty red calves/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Ernie

 

[Hillbilly]

You do not have a good red calve until you get a RED Angus./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Jag]

Loved, all the stories... But when you started Rob, I was thinking about a John Deere tractor I saw when I was a little kid that was left in a field. Do not remember what model it was, I was too little to know about models then, but should have been about a 4020 size. This BIG bull had for some reason decided he did not care for the green tractor that was left in his field, and turned it over and then proceeded to do a Mexican hat dance on it. I have seen several tractors that had been rolled down hills and turned over several times and not had the much skinned sheet metal...

As for cows getting into habits, back years ago the horse feed we where getting came in a pale blue bag. I pulled up my pickup into the lot to fix some fence and was working. Not paying much attention when the old horse walked over to the truck and reached into the window and bite a hunk of seat off that was about the same color as the feed bags.

 

[MDNick]

I grew up taking hogs and steers in 4-H. In December is branding and weigh in, had a bad snowstorm so they rescheduled to the same Saturday in January that we were going to be out of town looking at a college. A 'friend' of ours was going to haul it for us. Just guessing (Friend is very high strung) but he came in hooten and hollerin', scared my steer so much he just walked through his pen gate (galvanized steel) and took off. I guess they chased him for 3 hours. The steer would stop, they'd get close to his lead rope, and he'd take off again. Finally cornered right back in the barn. No idea how.
We were primarily hog farmers. A pen of pigs would get out periodically and do unheard of damage to anything green. A pen got out once and my brother went to tell mom:

Brother: Mommy, the piggies are out!
Mom: Out where?
Brother: Out by the tree!
Mom: What tree?
Brother: The one by the piggies!

We have been laughing about that for years, my brother is 31.

My brother and I got home once from school, there was mom in the middle of about 35 200 pounders. Not much she could do by herself, took the 3 of us to get them rounded up. Life must be boring in town. Most excitement in the community was when Olie Miller had a boar jump out of his truck at 55 mph in front of the local gas station. Gas Station proprietor calls to tell us we have a boar out. Nope, but will come down and corner him. 15 mins later here comes Olie, looking for his hog. Rural living at it's best.

Nick

Farmer kid usetabe, Farmer Wannabe

 

[Bird]

<font color=blue>Being a big seafood fan, I was excited to be invited to have some Rocky Mountain oysters that evening. Heard a lot of laughter behind my back later as I walked away from the dinner table (without eating).</font color=blue>

Harv, the Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo has mountain oysters on their appetizer menu and in fine print adds if you think this is seafood, you'd better order the shrimp cocktail instead. (I'm not sure that was the exact wording, but at least words to that effect). At any rate, my youngest daughter and grandson didn't know what that was, so I ordered it and they found (as I already knew) that it's some fine eating./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif