Farm Blog

Why does a cow go under a fence? Because the grass is greener on the other side, and when you're doing rotational grazing the grass is always greener on the other side. So just at sunset last night George happened to notice a cow outside of the grazing paddock. The other observation we've come to believe in is that animals never seem to get out when the weather is warm and sunny. Last night was cold and rainy. So when Geo made his announcement everybody bundled up to go out and pile into our pickups to help the cow back in. Cows have what are called flight zones that surround their bodies. Flight zones are areas that when invaded by what they perceive as a predator cause them to move away from the predator. As a prey animal they have the instinct to run rather than fight so moving cattle generally entails understanding the cows flight zones and working with them. A cow that's scared has really big flight zones and can be unpredictable and is just the opposite of a contented cow. A cow that is away from its herd, outside of a fence, and approached by a human is generally a scared cow. That meant that slow and steady with wide turns going in and out of the flight zones was required. After a little bit of running on the cows part she was slowly guided back into the portable electric fence area. Geo, Tom and Dan stood as a human wall to keep her from going West away from the fence opening and all was good again once she was in. Then we wrapped everything up by moving all of the cows into their next paddock to join the wayward cow. Just when we finished it started to rain and with a 30mph wind and temps in the 40's we were happy to be in too.