Sorry Kid-o, But You Are Off the Team

Yesterday, one of the heifers (as in a girl cow who has not had a baby yet) made a very bad decision that got her kicked off the Open A Bar 2 Ranch team.

Dan the Man and I were sorting the cattle, since we were taking a few of them to greener pastures down on the river near Mitchell. We are summering several of our cattle down there on pasture that we are leasing. We still had four heifers to take down there and those were the girls we were sorting out. These heifers are yearlings, they were a year old in April. Sometimes heifers can be a little ditsy, but I think it's because they have no idea what we want them to do since they are so young. They have never been off our ranch before, except to go to the veterinarian for their bangs vaccination. Bangs vaccinations protect cattle against Brucellosis.

So, we were moving the group of cattle (we were on foot and 4-wheeler) from the pasture to the corral. Not a long distance. All was going fine, the herd was just kind-of moseying along towards the corral. The majority of them went right in, but one heifer #038 decided that she was NOT going to go into the corral. So as fast as she could, she made a break from the herd and headed in the opposite direction. Big mistake on her part.

Dan the Man was on the 4-wheeler and not in the mood for any shenanigans because #1) it was too hot to be chasing heifers and #2) we had too much work to get done. He told me to get everyone in the corral and we would see if the one that took off was one that we actually needed or not. Of course, it was one that we needed.

After we got the three good girls sorted from the group that was staying, Dan the Man went after the little renegade. Usually it is very easy to run a stray back up to the corral because they would rather be with the group, than alone. But this little girl had another agenda. She was not about to go up into the corral. Danny chased her on the 4-wheeler and she eluded his every move. She then proceeded to go through fences in order to get away from him. That only made Danny madder. He probably should have left her alone for a while, but we really didn't have time. She needed to get on that trailer with the other girls so we could get going. Danny continued to pursue her on the 4-wheeler and she continued to run away... through three electric fences and straight over to the neighbors pasture in with their cattle.

Naughty, naughty, naughty! These are exactly the kind of cattle that will "wreck" a nice herd. If you get one that decides to "bolt" while you are gathering, the whole herd might decide to run with them instead of going where you want them to. We had a cow who would do exactly that and we got rid of her because of it.

Now we were faced with the same situation. Dan went over to the neighbor's and explained the circumstances. They both decided that it would be easier to get her out of their herd the next time they had to run their cattle into their corral, so the plan was just to leave her in with the neighbor's herd until then. Dan the Man came back and told me that she just lost her spot on the Open A Bar 2 Ranch team. He took the other heifers down to Mitchell and left her here.

What a shame, she made the cut and was a shoo-in for the team, but then she had to pull this stunt and go herself kicked right off. I guess someone should have told her that Coach Dan doesn't play around. One strike and you're outta here, especially when it's 100 degrees outside and he doesn't have time to give you a second chance.

This morning Dan the Man saw her standing with the neighbor's herd right in the corner of the pasture that borders our pasture. He figured he could coax her out of the neighbor's herd if we ran our herd down there and she could see them. So we went and told the neighbor what we were doing and they came on down to help us. At first it looked as if she was going to be a jerk and try to run away, which she did, but she actually ran up the fence line and went through the four wire fence and ran back in with our cows. As my grandma would say... Ay Yi Yi... while she shook her head back and forth and clicked her tongue!

Here she is, back in with our herd.
Looks like she found a little mud over at the neighbors.
Maybe she just wanted to go over there for a quick mud bath?

So it's with deep regret #038, that I must inform you that you have been kicked off the Open A Bar 2 Ranch team. Sorry kid-o, but we have no room for renegades in our herd.

I don't want to tell her, but now she is destined to become some of Open A Bar 2 Ranch's all-natural beef. That's ranching.

Naughty little girl...