Daisy and cattle in the yard

Now that Blogger has a fix to their email forwarding problem... let's see if it works for Daisy's blog.

It didn't work for me.... let's try this again.  (Sorry if you got this post twice.)


Back the end of May when I had let the cattle into the yard, the calves again were fascinated by Daisy.

Even last year's heifer was very interested with Daisy.  Daisy had to take a swipe at the heifer's nose to get her to stop sniffing Daisy.

Once the cattle ate the grass down and left the yard, one afternoon Daisy insisted I sit and relax and "smell the roses" with her.

Day of new calf

Yesterday I briefly mentioned Daisy when talking about the new calf.  (http://tallpinesranch.blogspot.com/2018/03/calf-1-20s.html).    Here are photos of Daisy from yesterday.

Here is Daisy looking over at the new calf as she walks over to me after visiting the neighbor's place for the first time since it snowed last year.   Daisy is thinking...  "Oh, no.  Once again we have calves that like to chase cats."

Daisy checking out the new feeder setup for mice.

Since the mother cow was at the far end of the pasture Daisy decided to lay in the warm sun once she checked all around the hay bales for mice.

Calves in the front yard

Today I let the calves out of the corral to roam in the front yard.  A couple calves were getting hay bellies and this way the calves can have green grass and I won't have much to cut for my final lawn mow of the year.

The calves were happy to have green grass.  So far they have behaved.  I did have to set up some corral panels around the bushes in front of the house and protect other trees and bushes.  I didn't put panels around the patio.  Well.... the calves were fascinated by the patio and the stuff in it.  They had to check everything out. Later half the herd decided to take their siesta in the patio.

Later afternoon Clyde was nosing around the patio again and then playing with the shrubs.  So I went and got more of my corral panels and put them around the patio.

I still plan to take most of the calves to the auction on Wednesday.  All this work for just over two days of eating.

Daisy wasn't too thrilled with the calves in the yard.  So far she is putting up with it.  The red heifer calf below didn't get a nose full of claws.  Clyde is the red steer on the right with white on his head.

Daisy, fence, calves

Once the calves got bored looking at the new horses, and had checked out my fence tools, they turned their attention to Daisy.  Daisy knows I build good fences as she then walked through the fence a short distance to be away from the calves.

Daisy and the calves

Monday Daisy accompanied me when I went out to fix the fence wire the bull had broken. 

Naturally since Daisy was in the same pasture as the calves they were interested in her.

Here is a 45 second video of Daisy and a calf:  https://youtu.be/1LwIwraFLDU


Also, from last week when we had a little rain, here are a few photos of Daisy drinking from the rain gutter downspout.

Salt and calves

Yesterday when I let the cattle into the middle pasture I also moved their salt blocks over there too.   Daisy accompanied me even though the grass is much taller than her and she had to push her way though it.

The calves were all excited to explore the new pasture. Daisy laid near the salt blocks.  The calves seem to be always interested in and fascinated by Daisy and here was an opportunity to get close to her.

In the next two photos this calf insisted on getting closer to Daisy.  The second photo shows Daisy's ears folded back.  I didn't get a photo of Daisy hissing at the calf and swiping her paw at him when the calf attempted to touch noses with Daisy.  The calf jumped back and then took off.

Between the tall grass and some calves wanting to run after her, Daisy had quite the time walking back to the north pasture with me.

Morning routine to check on cattle

Many mornings Daisy comes with me when I go out to check on the cattle.  She did again on Sunday morning.  After a few somersaults at my feet she lays and watches the cattle with me.  Notice that she insists on laying against my foot.  She also doesn't mind getting dirty.

Here is a 38 second video of Daisy laying at my feet.  The video ends with a pan up to some of the cows and calves, including calf 13 and his mother on the far left.

https://youtu.be/OJLTqH4zwJc

-

Supervising from a hay bale

This evening while I was working on the corral panels move and the fence fixing - and while Buddy was distracted by the cows - Daisy laid on top of Buddy's hay bale and supervised my work.

Daisy loves when I work outside in the late afternoon and early evening.  She follows me around.  And if I spent a bunch of time in one area she will take some tangents to go exploring only to show back up when I move to the next project.

In the corral

I had a busy Saturday with cattle and hay.  Daisy was right with me.

Leading a calf into the corral

Supervising from the top of the corral fence

Playing tag with Donna

Later Daisy decided to lay in her favorite water trough.  She was pulling herself along the length of the trough when Buddy decided to come over and check out what Donna and I were looking at.

Here is a 12 second video of Buddy and Daisy.

https://youtu.be/NyApRlPm6pY


Later in the afternoon Daisy came with me out to the pastures. (No photos of Daisy being cute as I forgot my camera.)  We walked out to look at the river then went to my southern neighbor's pasture to check the pocket gopher trap (caught another one) and to reset the trap to a new location.  Then it was back to a tree stump I was digging around.  Daisy laid and rested from our long walk, then she sat here and there keeping a lookout.  In between she came down to the bottom of the hole to check out my digging.  She was a tired kitty by the time we got home.

Calf checking and water trough hole

Daisy often comes with me first thing in the morning when I go and check for new baby calves.  No new calves this morning.

Daisy waits for me as I walk around counting the baby calves as I look for new ones.

Are you done yet?!

Yesterday on a nice and warm afternoon I scrubbed the cast iron cattle water trough to clean it.  The scrubbing revealed a small hole.

Several years ago the water trough had several similar small holes.   I had some JB-Weld and was able to fix the holes.  This time I was out of JB-Weld.  I used a different glue mixture.  Now to let it cure for a day.

After we checked for calves Daisy kept me company as I fixed the hole.

In the meantime I am using another water trough.  It is not as nice for Daisy this trough doesn't have a lip where Daisy can stand or sit and drink when the water level is lower.  Even though this trough is slightly taller Daisy can reach the water when the trough is full.

Watching the cows fight

When the two cows fought this morning Daisy climbed up on a railroad tie on the corral fence and watched the fight with me.

http://tallpinesranch.blogspot.com/2015/12/cow-fight.html

Walking the fence

I've been so busy lately I haven't had time to post.  Here are some photos of Daisy from a few months ago. 

As I checked on the cattle's hay, Daisy supervised from the fence.

Helping with hay

Today Daisy helped me get another large hay bale for the cattle.

First I had to get the cattle into the loading corral so I could drag a bale into the corral.   Some cows would go in the loading corral via one gate; other cows would not and would only go in using the other gate. Then I had one red calf that was a problem.  He or she didn't follow the cows in.  Even though the cows were in the loading corral calling for the calf it would not go in the gate when I tried to herd it through the gate.  It ran to the other gate which was now closed.  I then opened that gate and the calf ran back to the other gate.

*sigh*

I was able to close the inner loading corral gate and that prevented the cattle from exiting while I herded the calf around and around and finally into the loading corral runway.

Finally!

The rest of the hay move and prep went smoothly.

The next few photos are Daisy watching me pull the twine off the bale.