A few days ago there was a blog post regarding some star gazing. My friend Doug was interested in that so we planned an outing here. I mowed a section of the back field to make the viewing more comfortable. Some time later I was shocked to see the cows that are here for the summer heading out of their confined field and into open pastures. I thought I must have left the gate improperly secured. I called the farmer, and we both hoped the fencing was secure in the area to which they were heading because it hadn't yet beck checked this summer season.
No such luck. About a day later we got a call from a neighbor I had never met, inquiring if we had cows that were lost because he had some on his lawn. I called Andy, the farmer who owns the cows, and we all met up at the neighbors to hopefully find the cows (in the woods) and head them back to our place.
The area in which we were searching was hilly and covered with rocks and downed tree branches. It was getting dark and it was starting to rain, hard. I drove up north of the neighbor's house, and circled back. For once my instincts were correct, there they were. I slowly walked up to them and tried to nudge them back in the homeward direction. They were having none of it. They hightailed it in the opposite direction, up not down the mountain. They were surprisingly fast and agile!
We chased them all over the mountain that evening. The more we did so, the farther away they got from where they were supposed to be. Andy said that the angus was the ringleader and was the one that was leading them away from our pasture. It got too dark, and we were too wet to continue so we gave up for the night.
First light, and I called Andy to see when we would start again, and what was his plan. He said he planned to go to the edge of our property and call for the cows to come. He thought that Dave (his son) and I could circle back behind them, and we could use this carrot and stick approach. I said that I remembered in the past that he had used buckets of grain to get the cows to follow him. He said that these were all grass fed cows. They didn't even know what grain was. I asked what we were going to do if the black angus continued to lead the cows in the wrong direction. He said he had considered using a tranquilizer gun on that cow. Yikes.
We all met at our place and proceeded with our plan. Dave and I drove up to where we'd seen the cows last and started walking toward our pastures. We heard Andy call once and that was it. We kept walking towards home with no sign of the cows. We crossed into our land, still forest, and headed for the pasture. We finally saw them. They were there in one of our pastures! They were much more docile than they'd been the night before. The rebel ringleader, the black angus, was a tame and docile follower by this point. Dave took the lead and led them back to where they were supposed to be. It was almost as if the day before they were on vacation and didn't want it to end, but today they had seen enough of strange lands and just wanted to go home.
We were all tired but happy to have the cows back where they belonged. Even the cows seemed relieved and ready for a nap.
I couldn't help thinking about life with cows. There aren't too many places left where you can wake up in the morning and find strange cows on your lawn. There's actually something pretty cool about that, within reason. Used to be that there were hundreds of cows in the Ira valley. As far as I can tell these are the only ones that are left, and they are only summer residents. The small independent Vermont dairy farm seems to be on the way out. They just can't compete with the large farms out of the midwest. It's sad to see them go. We'll enjoy them while we can.
No such luck. About a day later we got a call from a neighbor I had never met, inquiring if we had cows that were lost because he had some on his lawn. I called Andy, the farmer who owns the cows, and we all met up at the neighbors to hopefully find the cows (in the woods) and head them back to our place.
The area in which we were searching was hilly and covered with rocks and downed tree branches. It was getting dark and it was starting to rain, hard. I drove up north of the neighbor's house, and circled back. For once my instincts were correct, there they were. I slowly walked up to them and tried to nudge them back in the homeward direction. They were having none of it. They hightailed it in the opposite direction, up not down the mountain. They were surprisingly fast and agile!
We chased them all over the mountain that evening. The more we did so, the farther away they got from where they were supposed to be. Andy said that the angus was the ringleader and was the one that was leading them away from our pasture. It got too dark, and we were too wet to continue so we gave up for the night.
First light, and I called Andy to see when we would start again, and what was his plan. He said he planned to go to the edge of our property and call for the cows to come. He thought that Dave (his son) and I could circle back behind them, and we could use this carrot and stick approach. I said that I remembered in the past that he had used buckets of grain to get the cows to follow him. He said that these were all grass fed cows. They didn't even know what grain was. I asked what we were going to do if the black angus continued to lead the cows in the wrong direction. He said he had considered using a tranquilizer gun on that cow. Yikes.
We all met at our place and proceeded with our plan. Dave and I drove up to where we'd seen the cows last and started walking toward our pastures. We heard Andy call once and that was it. We kept walking towards home with no sign of the cows. We crossed into our land, still forest, and headed for the pasture. We finally saw them. They were there in one of our pastures! They were much more docile than they'd been the night before. The rebel ringleader, the black angus, was a tame and docile follower by this point. Dave took the lead and led them back to where they were supposed to be. It was almost as if the day before they were on vacation and didn't want it to end, but today they had seen enough of strange lands and just wanted to go home.
We were all tired but happy to have the cows back where they belonged. Even the cows seemed relieved and ready for a nap.
I couldn't help thinking about life with cows. There aren't too many places left where you can wake up in the morning and find strange cows on your lawn. There's actually something pretty cool about that, within reason. Used to be that there were hundreds of cows in the Ira valley. As far as I can tell these are the only ones that are left, and they are only summer residents. The small independent Vermont dairy farm seems to be on the way out. They just can't compete with the large farms out of the midwest. It's sad to see them go. We'll enjoy them while we can.
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