Turn out day - what a day

jeanthomas · Post by **jeanthomas** » Sun May 04, 2008 8:06 pm

I just thought I would share this with you.

I turned ny cows out today. I had a really bad feeling about this. I usually do this on my own, but this time I decided to wait and get some help. My son and my husband were on hand. Very unusual!! I turned the bull and a barren cow out first and let thm kick up their heels. I then turned out a cow and her 7month old steer, then a 2yr old heifer, all went well. That left my 3yr old heifer and her 11week old heifer. The mum went charging out without her calf. We led the calf out and turned her out with mum. All seemed well. The other cows spotted the calf and came across to say hello. Calf freaked out and dived through fence (3 strands barb wire and sheep net). Now loose in suffolk!

I have not run that fast in a long time. Managed to turn it around on the single track lane (first time no dog walker in sight) and me and Ben managed to wrestle it to the ground. Got it back into our property and my husband suggested we put it back into our field. I felt this was not a good idea but he insisted. So back into field again, straight back out of fence again, nearly. I managed to pull it off fence and wrestle it to the ground. My son put a halter on it and we got it back to a stable. Mum finally missed it many hours later and she is now back in stable with it!!

What a day, we have never lost one in 19 years, until today. What a day. Off to get in the bath, hate cows (today anyway)

Jean

carole · Post by **carole** » Sun May 04, 2008 9:26 pm

Oh heck Jean we let our boys out today (after reinforcing an awful lot of dodgy fencing) they did a couple of laps of the field at Grand National pace and then settled down to feed, however, after your story I'm now going to be sleeping with one eye open waiting for daylight (I've tried looking for black cows in the dark before......it doesn't work that well)

Ian H · Post by **Ian H** » Tue May 06, 2008 9:10 am

Hi all,
I have just turned my four heifers and a steer out, they had a quick look round didn't bother the horses and looked as though they had'nt been off grass, They had been outside all winter though in my outdoor arena which has a woodchip surface i don't know if this made a difference as they hadn't been penned up and could still have a tank around when they wanted to.
Regards Ian Hornsby