Finding shade, feeding issues, our very spoiled stock

We have some pretty large elderberry bushes growing on the north side of the old farm house. They are a favorite afternoon hideaway for the big dogs. The bases of the plants have been dug around until there is a hollow big enough that it will take a full scoop of dirt in the tractor front loader to backfill it. It has recently become a favorite cover for the chickens also so I was not surprised to see about ten of the hens sharing the dog-made cavern with Sam – one of our Great Pyrenees. I should have gotten a picture.

The cattle have been hanging out near the big pond – which is now, sadly, not so big. There are some cedar and willow trees in the dry creek beds that lead to the pond and they tend to stay cooler than the meadows exposed to the full sun. Mama has developed a routine of feeding grain to the herd on Monday and Friday mornings and they have grown accustomed to the practice. They will come into the corral and start bawling on each of those two mornings. They tend to be up much earlier than Mama.

After they jockey for position at the feed boxes and suck up (literally) as much of the special treat as they can they will get a long drink of water and mosey back to the pond area. Mama usually separates out the smaller three to feed them separately so they will have a better chance at eating an equitable portion.

They have figured this out too and the three smaller ones will gravitate to the feed box where they are used to being fed. It is fun to watch – when I get the chance. She has to close them in behind a gate so the greedy larger steers won’t push them away from their portion of grain. We let them out only when all the grain is gone.

Speaking of feeding grain to our stock, as I was working in the apartment I heard Mama scream and shout at one of the animals so I ran out to see what was going on. Misty was in the calf lot with Mama and she was behaving very badly. I could see why Mama was yelling and scared. Misty was bucking and kicking the air – sometimes very near to Mama – trying to knock out of Mama’s hand the bucket of feed Mama had intended to give her. In fact, Mama has a scrape in one forearm where Misty grazed her.

I grabbed a stick and hit her in the first place that came in range. Then I smacked her hindquarters so hard it broke the stick. She came at me again and when I did not back down she bolted for the pasture where we normally keep her.  She only throws an attitude like this when there is feed involved. At other times she is calm and sweet and loves attention any time we make it available to her. But I cannot live in fear for Mama and Victoria when they tend to her so we are going to have to make some arrangement to get her trained or find her a new home. I prefer to train her.

There is an inherent danger to having spoiled animals – especially ones that size.