Farm Fresh Blog

Today we rustled up the former show girls (and Bully) and moved them to another pasture. Even show cows go wild pretty quickly and so using a dog to move them is just easier for us.  It's easy to get complacent when moving cattle, but a recent tragedy woke us all up.  Some good friends of ours were moving cattle when she tripped and fell under the cows. One of them ran over her and used her back as a springboard.

Fortunately her husband is in the medical field and immediately recognized the signs of serious injury.  She was lifeflighted to the nearest hospital where she stayed for a very long time. We almost lost her - because of something they'd done for years without incident.

It was a wake-up call for all us around here who work cows. They are still wild animals and accidents do happen.  So I couldn't help but think of Cheryl as Other Half and Cowboy went to pen the cows.

The Job: Pen the cows. Run them through the chute. Load them in the trailer. Move them to thick, green pasture down the road.

   Dispatch Cowboy.

Holler directions as he gathers cattle. He ignores most directions but appears to understand the job anyway.

  Gather the cows.

Bring them down the alleyway.

Hold them while they settle down.

 Push them into pen.

 Close the gate.

No muss. No fuss. One man. One dog. Three minutes.

Push cattle onto trailer. Drive them down the road. Open door and dump them out.

Happy cows. Happy humans. Happy puppy.

 Thank you, Cowdog!

Yet another service provided by Barbed Wire Border Collies, Inc. Thank you, thank you very much . . .