Not again!!!

written by

Sandra Ressler

posted on

October 8, 2024

You aren't gonna believe this!  Yep, the cows got out again.  And of course, Ken wasn't home.  Oh no...what to do, what to do!

It happened last Friday.  The people who were staying at the Guest House called me to say..."um, I think your cows are not where they're supposed to be."  I thought they meant the small cows (my Dexters) in the pasture by the Guest House, in which case, that should be easy - all I needed to do was get some barley pellets and they'll come running to me. (Except I didn't think there was any way they could get out in the first place.)

But no, it was a group of steers from the other side of the road - decided to go visit the cows at the Guest House.  We have a high-tensile electric fence around the perimeter of our pastures with gates in strategic places, and within that fence we have various other fences (semi-permanent and temporary) that divide the pastures up into smaller sections.  One of the gates was left open since the cows weren't in that section.  Somehow they broke through a fence and got into the section where the gate is, which is right across the road from the Guest House.

To make a long story short, I called them and they followed me. I had a little bit of trouble getting them across the road.  It seemed like they were confused...like "we just came from there, you're supposed to take us to a new pasture".  So they just stood in the middle of the road and looked at me.  Thanks to a couple guys from the Guest House who came out to help - they stood on one side of the group so they didn't go down the road that direction.  I got on the other side and was able to get them all back in and CLOSE THE GATE!  Phew, that could have been a lot worse!!

Here's the gate that was left open.  The house, barn and pasture across the street is our Guest House property.  The steers went along the outside of that fence all the way up over the hill.

gate.jpg


So anyway...of course I had to give Ken a hard time - last time the cows got out, it took 10-15 guys, horses, drones, dogs, etc., and weeks of time, and there's STILL one out there that hasn't been caught.  If you missed it, you can read about it here.  But I (almost) single-handedly got them all back in minutes!!  LOL. Of course, those others were new calves that weren't familiar with how things work on our farm, but the group that I had - they knew the drill by now.

I still maintain that John Denver didn't know what he was talking about... "Well, life on the farm is kinda laid back..."  NOT!!!

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Elm Run Farms

  • 16808 Burkhart Road
    Orrville OH 44667
  • 330-317-7283