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October 25, 2005

Cows. Are. Dumb.

Wow....to bookend all the combining we've been doing, Mo and I have been working with cows. October 25th and Nov 3 (for Mo - I sat that one out with a sprained ankle) were spent chasing, kicking, wrestling, yelling, and staring down 1000+lb cows and their calves. It's quite a workout. Basically we take horses and/or 4-wheelers and go tearing out into the middle of the herd, trying to seperate a couple hundred cows and their calves and herd them into a corral. At that point we try to break them off into smaller groups and wade into their midst on foot and try to seperate the calves from their mothers as it is time for them to be weaned. This often turns into a game of chicken where we try to make ourselves seem bigger and louder then we really are...usually we win but sometimes it means getting out of the way in a real hurry before getting run over. At that point we chase the calves down a chute into the back of a cattle truck....often the most frustrating part of the whole procedure as it is a real battle to get them to load up. More than a few times Mo (who was trying to chase them along from behind) would have to scale the fence lining the chute to jump out of the way of calves that were backing up. A couple of times she didn't make it, and we both got our share of kicks in the butt and shins from rowdy calves...I always kicked back. Anyway...dumb critters, but it makes you feel a lot less bad about eating them. And enjoying it :-)

Posted by David at October 25, 2005 12:37 AM