Saturday was the day to "work the cows" as we call it. My job is to get the tattoos and ear tags ready and write down the weights. The veterinarian comes to give the cows and calves their vaccinations and their wormer. Our son-in-law came to help my husband, Tom, to get the cows up and into the cattle chute. I don't know exactly how to put this operation into words. It is very stressful. I always pray that God will protect Tom and Ryan, this time, and all of the animals.
Our beautiful Bernese Mountain dog was beside herself. She gets so excited and nervous she can hardly control herself. She ran over and jumped into the stock tank to cool off two or three times. She has not been trained but uses her instincts to herd the cattle. The problem is that she often herds them the wrong way. She chased a poor little calf into a pipe fence two times so Tom was somehow able to get her into the garage. She was doing more harm than good.
We got about half of the cattle worked when I heard Tom on the other side of the barn say, "Oh, no!" The cows had rubbed up against the chain on the gate and pushed it open and out they went running out to the pasture. There was no getting them back up so we finished working the cows and bulls that we still had up. The veterinarian said that he could come back today and we would get them back up and finish working them.
After Church we came home, changed clothes and ate real quick, then Tom went out and got them up again and we had to sort out the ones that we had already worked and send them back out into the pasture. The bred cows are so big and fat that some of them could barely fit through the chute. They are super stubborn and they do not want to go. It was a hot day today and because Ryan couldn't come back today, I helped more with trying to get them down the lane to the chute. We slide pipe bars across the chute once they get so far so that they can't back up again. They poop on the bars and I end up with fresh manure all over my hands and splattered on my arms. It's really gross. I tried to wear gloves but kept having to take them off to write down their ear tag numbers so we would be sure that we had worked them all.
I was so glad when we were done so that I could go in and wash it off! The life of a farmer's wife for me.
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