In Which I Corral a Cow on My Own

During our lengthy cow wrangling on Saturday, Phil put Toots on a lead rope, and I put her baby on a little rope, and we led/tugged the cow and calf to the current sheep fold. They enjoyed waist high ryegrass for a few days.

Today, though, Toots was bawling. Phil was away, and so I extended her pen.

A bit later I came out to make breakfast, only to find Toots wandering near the greenhouse, bawling to her calf to hurry up and join her! I guess I hadn't made the pen quite secure enough.

Happily, Toots really just wanted to reunite with the rest of the herd, so she headed right where she needed to go.

Unhappily, there wasn't a good access point for Toots. I would hoist the electric line high enough that she could walk under, but that was too odd. We tried three times: she would come close, I would hope up the line, she would turn away, I would chase her down and turn her around.

It was aggravating. If there was someone behind her to give gentle pressure, I think she would go in, but there was no one else.

In the end, I changed tactics and made a little corridor for her. Even this had no guarantee of success, but at last she and her baby joined the rest of the herd.