It’s Thursday evening on March 30th 2023, and that means it’s time to start a new rotation.
This rotation will be rows of 425′ by 1000′. We will move the cows from west to east 7 times, twice a day, so 1 week will take 2 rows. The field is 2560′ long so we will have 6 rows — 3 weeks of rotation.
Getting things setup was a little hard. We had to move the cows across the row where we kept the bull calves and sheep. We also had to round up the two loose bull calves and put them back where they belong.
I used the whole family for this, as herding is a tricky operation, practically impossible on your own.
First we setup a wire at 1275′. This created a new row, the third row, and we moved the bull calves and sheep in. Since the cows were going to the first row, there would be an entire row between them.
We laid a cross-wire across the third row creating a lane 25′ wide. This would not only create an airlock for the two bull calves we had to catch, but allow us to move the cows past the bulls.
Next, we tried to herd the bull calves on their own. We were just about to the destination when they made a break for it to be next to their moms again. My wife and JJ recommended we just let the herd mix, and separate them in the 25′ lane in the third row. This worked wonderfully.
Once we had them in, some of the younger heifer calves decided to join the bulls. It was pretty easy to sort them all out, though, and send the cows off to the first row.
It took a little over an hour to do all the work, but we got it done without any injuries or hurt feelings, so it was a success in my book.