08/24/06 Bad cow days

Bad Cow Days I don't know the reason yet, but we had a couple of bad cow days. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be right back to tell you what I mean. We needed to move the cattle from one pasture to another before wheat harvest. We wanted to get the cattle moved since the new pasture has a more reliable water supply and that is one less thing to worry about when wheat harvest hits. The weather had been very hot the days before we were able to move the cattle, but it had cooled down and looked like a good day to get the cattle to the new pasture. Looks, as it turned out, can be deceiving. Instead of wanting to travel in the cooler temperatures it seemed the cows wanted to stay in the old pasture and just enjoy it  we had to drive each cow individually. I have never seen five-month-old calves that wanted to leave the herd so bad, they were worse than month-old calves that can't figure out to stay with the bunch even if momma isn't right in front of them. One calf finally did break back at one of the gates and three more trips by the gate, letting him take his time to work it out was a failure. We eventually lost him in a tangle of brush where only a good cow dog could have gotten him, and we didn't have a good dog. We had to get that calf and two others the next day, and then move them to the new pasture and their mothers. I still don't know if we were just poor cowboys, the moon was wrong, we saddled our horses wrong, or if it was just a bad cow day. I'm Jeff Keane.