Adventures with my cows

 put my cows out on the 10 acre parcel that I purchased a couple of years ago.  I had it surveyed to determine where the property lines are, and then build a corral (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5), fenced it, 4 strand barbed wire and put in some gates.  Made it ready to run cattle on. 

This is what it looks like now, complete with cows.   These are my $5 calves, all grown up.  They're 20 months old now, and I'll probably slaughter them this fall, after they've fed on the lush grass all summer.  They weigh about 1100lbs each. 

There's 4 strand barbed wire along 3 sides of this parcel, but on the 4th side i used field fence.  The property adjoins on county park land, and I wanted to keep my livestock out of the way of the dogs that are regularly walked along this edge.  The problem is that field fence really doesn't deter a cow at all.  These big holstein steers stretch their necks over the wire and using their throat push the wire right down the T-post.  The fence clips eventually slide down, and then the cow just steps over the fence. 

I didn't know that before, but I sure do now.  Here's the story: 

I checked the cows at 10am, and they were all good, happily eating their grass.  This was their third day out there, and they looked fine.  Apparently, about 4pm, they did this to the fence, climbed out, and then spent the day grazing outside the fence.  When they got tired of that they wandered up the driveway and into a housing subdivision down the street.  Apparently they had a good time eating peoples shrubs and flowers and generally making a nuisance of themselves, so much so that the sheriff was called, and a livestock hauler, and they got hauled off to the place that snohomish county has contracted to take "rescue" animals.  Everson Auction Market, in located in Everson, WA.   Very close to the canadian border. 

So when I went to check on them the next day, all i found for 3  hours of searching were cow tracks.  When I purchased the property I introduced myself to the folks who owned the houses on either side of the driveway, gave them my card, and asked that they call me if they had any questions. 

I finally went and asked one fellow if he'd seen anything, and he said he had, that someone walking the park had used his phone to call the police.  So I called the police too, and they said that the animals had been transported at 7pm the night before. 

Everson, Wa.  is 80 miles north of my farm.  It's an hour and 45 minutes if the traffic is good, and now I've got to go get my stock trailer and spend basically a whole day to get my darned cows back.  And pay $250 to the company that took them there.

I'll write that up tommorow.  It had an unexpected benefit.