So how did I find Mudder?
Or does craigslist really work?
People wanted to
know how the search went and the events leading up to Mudders exit from the
farm. James noticed her running from one corner of her more than ample pasture
after he had just fed her grain. He was mowing grass and looked up as she bolted
across pasture and just jumped and cleared the electric fence and was gone that
quick. We went and looked but could find no trace of her. And it wasn’t very
long before she surfaced with reports of her being sighted on St. rt. 800
dancing in the middle of the road stopping traffic. With a little jump in the
air she was shuffled off the road by two
passerby’s who tried to get her in neighbors field , but again she would have
no part of it and took off and one nice guy followed her till she was back over
hill towards our place.
This is a cow,
who sleeps in a 3 foot deep loose bed of hay. Since she was alone and I guess since she could only blame
herself was now barn broke from doing number two in the barn as it was spotless
except for the two feed pans one holding a salt block and the other was her
feed pan where she was fed twice daily. Once in the morning to assure she was
still there from the night before and again at night for the same reason. I would
scratch her head daily and she would stand outside my house and wait patiently
for feed. One would hardly believe this impish girl would lead me on a chase
that would last for four days and forever end my days as a cowboy.
One doesn’t necessarily
have to have a horse to be called a cowboy; in fact I have had a lot more cows
under my care than most cowboys. And can understand most cattle but when it comes
to young heifers, anything could happen and did. She never returned home Friday
after dancing on the road and in fact out slipped us and doubled back for round
2 of dancing in the road, and soon a call was made to me while I was looking
for her and I rushed to get her. Traffic was slowed to a stop when we arrived and
soon went on up the road with the tractor and warning lights on waving at
drivers to slow down. Thankfully it wasn’t dark as she went off on the opposite
side of the road and did a dance in the farmer’s field he had just planted. Where
upon she jumped into the air displaying her vigor and turned and headed for the
road again.
Again I had
stopped the traffic all except one idiot who thought twice before passing
everyone and hitting a huge heifer , he decided to wait and let her off the
road on the side she had originally came from and again the chase was on as she
soon set off up the lane to the house on my neighbor’s property. As a sign of our times we no longer have any fence
lines left in our area and a cow can run for many miles without ever
encountering any fences as they used to in the old days. We managed to chase
her back in the direction of our farm but lost sight of her when she entered
the woods and her black color blended into the forest and we could no longer
see her. Angus cattle are nice but in the dark don’t lend them to being very
visible. It was after dark and had to
use the tractor lights to try and see her, but gave up around 10 that night as
it was useless. That was the last time I saw her and on Saturday morning she
was spotted at a neighbors in the opposite direction and not seen since.
All day Saturday I
searched for her and again on Sunday to no avail. Again Monday I searched for
her as I went to the Magnolia Mill and at one p[point drove past the road she
was being kept on , unaware that she was there and penned in and being cared
for by the farmer whose cattle she now was drawn to. she had showed up at his
place on Sunday morning. This farmer managed
to pen her up and fed her and watered her and began to search for the owner and
after contacting neighbors resorted to checking craigslist under lawn and
garden where I placed an ad for the lost heifer.
In this ad I placed,
I included a picture and information as to where I was in relation to his farm
and a timetable and that I was interested in selling her if I find her. I had
saw ads of a similar nature before and avenues of contacting farmers seem to be
limited with craigslist one of the better. Within two hours he had read the ad
and placed a call to me. I will be forever grateful and I could find relief
knowing she was ok and that no one was hurt. He agreed to purchase her at a
discount to him and a loss to me. But knowing it is over is priceless. Don’t need
the stress.
At this point he
had already turned her in with his other heifers and she seemed to be adjusting
after travelling five miles and crossing several township rods and thousands of
acres of open land. I had already made up my mind to end things as far as my
cowboy career was concerned. Never again am I having animals on the farm and
instead want to plant more trees and repair some of the damage to the farm that
has been done before I die. Change my methods of operation and possibly use the
experience I glean from it to share with the readers of my blog as I go along. The
ability to go somewhere without having to be back for chores is priceless and knowing
the heifer isn’t a hood ornament is also priceless.
I will miss the cattle
but for everyone’s sake and especially mine I feel this is the best decision. Hate
to say it but since it is my decision I just need to embrace it and resolve
myself to making what else I do in terms of agriculture a priority in my life
now since the time I devoted to raising cattle can be of no concern to me. Sometimes
we are stretched out so far as the farmers of old were trying to do it all from
raising crops to raising cattle, you can do a lot of stuff good but when it
came to doing it well or the best, you could hardly afford the time. This has
led to specialized areas of study and management. Now a farmer may actually do
one part, say milk cows and then leave the crop management up to other
specialists. It is hard to respond to all the information one has available in
farming today as it becomes more sophisticated.
Still only one
way to plant a tree and I am not about burning up the world to feed the people
or to gain much more than an understanding of how man impacts nature and
determine if we are all headed to hell in a hand basket. At times I wonder,
then I must remember it was man’s mind that made us get to this point in life,
and it will be our minds to find solutions to cover our asses . We always have.
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