Cows Get out of the Barn for the Spring

Red and Doggie the Angus Cross Steer on their first day out for spring.

We finally let our two Angus-cross steer out of the barn for the spring. We had hoped to get them out a few weeks ago, but we had two concerns. One was mud. We have had a ton of rain in March and now also in the beginning of April, so parts of the pasture have just seemed too squishy to add these two guys to the environment. The other was our four month old Scottish Highland calf, Monty. He made it through a rough beginning and through four months of winter, and we just were concerned about what would happen to him. Our friends who have farmed much longer than us said that the calf will be fine, but we kept putting off the mingling of the herds, hoping that Monty would have a better go of it if he was a bit larger.

The two guys pictured above are Doggie and Red. They are Angus-cross steer, who are about a year and a half old now. They are sometimes called Baldies. They are identified by their white face and black or red body. They are a cross between an Angus bull and a Hereford cow. If the bull is Black Angus you get a Black Baldy. If the bull is Red Angus you get a Red Baldy.

These two guys are really well mannered steer. Doggie, the black one, loves to have his ears scratched, hence his name. He really acts like a big dog. He will come when you call him, and he always wants to be scratched. Red is a bit more standoffish. He won't bother you, but he doesn't like to be scratched or petted. He does like to lick you and chew on your coat or hand if you let him.

Well these guy were in the barn for four months. They ate our loose hay, made the old-fashioned way, and good for jumping into. And we gave them some all-grain feed, fresh ground from our local mill. It has corn, oats, soybean, vitamins, minerals, and molasses. They love this stuff. We gave each of them two scoops, standard scoop size, in the morning and two more in the late afternoon. They did quite well and were looking pretty sleek. We have had some wet weather, and their loose pen was starting to get a bit sloppy, and so were they, so we decided to get them out. It is time anyhow. The grass has begun to grow.

We really were concerned about how big a disruption/danger these two guys were going to be for Monty our four month old Scottish Higland calf. He has been out all winter with his mom and dad. They could go in and out of the barn as they pleased. They are very hardy, and Monty has done well growing up in the cold on our mountain this winter. We figured he would be all right, and so far he is okay. It was a bit wild though when they all met up in the top field this past weekend. Monty ended up going head to head with both of them; he lost since they weigh about a thousand pounds more than he does, but he did not get hurt. There were some close calls in the general melee, but he is pretty nimble, and obviously he is a pretty tough little bugger.

Monty and Doggie after things settled down.

Today all five of them are peacefully grazing, but this weekend it was a bit interesting. We may buy a few cows at an auction this weekend. We will keep them away from the others till we make sure they are healthy, and then we will get to do this again, although I am hoping that it will be calmer with two new heifers or cows than it was for the steer, Doggie and Red.

Here are some of the videos I took this weekend on the day we let Doggie and Red out to be with the Highlands. The first video is Monty on the day before we let the Angus out. He had gotten separated from Annabelle and the Dun Bull. We think he ran into the electric fence and got a good shock when they were going up the chute into the top field; because he was down below, and they were up above, and the one wire was knocked out of the insulators. Also you can notice in the video how wary he was about going back into that chute before he made it up to his mom and dad. The other videos show some of the socialization going on as things got mixed up a bit.

Multiple videos: