Today it's time to load up one steer from our backyard pasture and the heifer we purchased from our neighbor's pasture. We've been fattening them up with a bit of grain the last month and they've been bonding over the fence as they are both alone in their respective pastures.
We headed out at 8:30 this morning to load up the one on our property. Last week, Dan parked the trailer outside the fence, then he and Abigail made a chute with the cattle gates we have. The idea is to feed him just inside the chute area, close the fence gate behind him and crowd him into the trailer. That's the idea, anyway. This steer is jumpy. Always has been. Probably didn't help that we sold off his friends and left him to his own devices. (of course, if he wouldn't have been so skimpy at the time, he would have already gone) To make a long story, even longer..... He won't go in. We encourage him, we try to bribe him in. Dan is shaking his feed, giving him a taste and trying to lead him in. We are patient. Then, we get impatient and we try to herd him in. He goes nuts, spins around, slips and rolls on his back. We go away and leave the food in there, thinking he might walk in eventually and then Dan will sneak around the house and shut the gate.
We hang out in the garage, out of site. Abigail decides to go feed her fair steer, Seifer. As she leaves with hay for him, I said to her, maybe the Crazy Steer would go in the chute for the hay. She tells me, "No, he wouldn't do it just for hay." Dan and I are freezing.....did I mention it is about 20 degrees out AND windy??? We decide to go inside and wait him out. I feel guilty that Dan and I are inside and warm, but Abs is outside freezing with Seifer. I go to the window to wave her in, and see her putting down tiny piles of hay for Crazy Steer, leading him toward the chute. Slowly, slowly he is following her through the pasture. (She later told me, she never said a word to him the whole time) Because of the position of the chute and deck, Dan and I can only follow her progress through the upper left hand corner of the kitchen window. Abby is in the chute and the steer is almost in. Dan heads out to sneak around the house and hopes to shut the gate behind Crazy. He and I are on the cell phones so I can keep him updated on the steers position. (Abby doesn't even know if we are watching this whole thing or not). The steer backs all the way out. Dan comes back in and says that was when the steer saw him and he doesn't know how he can get it shut.
Abby leads him back in and we just watch from the window. Well, Dan watches and narrates the scene for me. "She's inching past the steer, she's behind him, she's slowly untying the rope for the gate, she's shutting the gate, and she is AWESOME!" Quote from Dan! We then gave her enthusiastic thumbs up through the window; of course, she tried to act nonchalant about it - until the grin broke through!
We went on to load the heifer next door, which took awhile - but, not nearly as long as Crazy Steer. Abigail's part in loading the heifer was, again, crucial.......but, this post is too long to describe that.
My desire in posting all this is to document Dan saying, "She is AWESOME!"
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