Moving Cows

So...as you know we raise beef cows.  One of our management strategies is called "rotational grazing".  What that means is we house our cow/calf pairs in relatively small pastures and move them from pasture to pasture frequently (at the "farm" they move every 2 to 3 days, at our house they move about every week to 10 days).  We do this because it is a more efficient way of utilizing the available grass and avoids the cows selecting certain areas to not graze at all and certain areas to overgraze.   A few mornings ago it was time to move the cows.  Many times when they move they just have to walk through a gate.  But occasionally they have to cross the road and go up our driveway (or across our yard, depending on what they decide to do!).  Now, just so you don't panic, we live on a VERY rural road.  We have a car on average maybe every 30 minutes pass our house.  So this isn't really a dangerous thing.  There are 4 pastures on one side of the road and 3 on our side.  So...here is what moving the cows looked like. 

First, we set vehicles/machinery around strategically to deter them from running through my yard

Then D gets in his truck, drives into the pasture and HOOOONKS his horn.

Here they come! 

So....this is pretty much a problem already, the cows are supposed to be following D, not passing him.

Well...at least they are going where they are supposed to. 

Oh wait, D is still back there trying to convince some calves to come through the gate! 

 And this is why I said it was bad that they passed D.  They are supposed to be going through the gate STRAIGHT across from the driveway.  They normally do but apparently this day some cow in the lead decided they should go down the road instead! 

This was the last picture I got before D yelled at me to get in my car (which required getting R out of the wrap on my back) and go park on the road to block them from missing the gate when he went around the section and brought them back to the correct gate. 

They didn't end up coming back down the road.  D didn't realize there was a gate open down the road into the pasture they were supposed to rotate to in a week.  They all ran in there and headed for the trees and the crick.  So, they just started there instead.  Oh well!  Never a dull moment around here!!!   

Please let me know if you have any questions on different things we do around the farm.