My Tunes

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Echo grazes and other stuff.

Yesterday Brad said what he says every year, "Hooray, hooray for the 8th of May, it's outdoor intercourse day"! He's not sure why he says it but I like to think it might have something to do with the fact it's the time of year the bull goes out with the cows. Yesterday, right on cue our neighbour brought a bull out.

Because we have a very small herd we rent a different young pure-bred Charolais bull every year to prevent inbreeding. We always ask for a friendly bull and have lucked out every year except one year when we ended up with the spawn of Satan. Speaking of Satan, one year we had a bull who's ear tag number was 666 and he was one of the nicest bulls ever. In fact a few years later our neighbour grazed about 40 bulls on our 80 acre flat and when I went to the fence to say hello they all moved away expect this one bull who approached me...it was 666 and he remembered me!

When we had a bigger herd we owned three Charolais bulls for the older cows and a black Angus for the heifers because of the lower birth weight.

Brad tries to enjoy a nap at lunch times and this what he has to put up with every time.
Photobucket

Blondie likes to snuggle. Tommy is just a pest and has slept under peoples chins since he was a kitten. Bobby tries to get as much attention as she can.

This is what Bobby is waiting for.
Photobucket

This afternoon I took Echo for another little excursion outside of his corral. This time I was able to get him to graze by getting down and feeding him until he said 'to hell with the rope snake' and dived in.
Photobucket

This is the first time he has grazed for a long time but I have been picking him fresh grass by the tote full all Spring. He got so into grazing that he was a little startled when I went towards him. It's like he wasn't sure if it was okay for me give him a belly rub out there but he realized it was just the same as in the other corrals.

He didn't want to go back in and then begged to go back out again, so we did...several times. The sun was setting by the time I put my foot down and took him in for the night.
Photobucket

1 comment:

Kara said...

That's so great, Arlene! I bet that feels so good to take him out where you weren't sure would ever be possible! And that's a huge deal for him to feel comfortable enough to lower his head and graze with you near him. Kachina is still worried about that sometimes. Sometimes extra time is all it takes! I bet he'll progress even faster now...he'll just get more and more comfortable with you and with everything you do!