Thursday, January 26, 2012

Naughty Heifers...

Heifers are notoriously curious...and notoriously head strong.

They do what they want to do...how they want to do it...and when they want to do it.  If they want something on the other side of the fence...chances are, they'll find a way to get it.

Sometimes they get this look in their eye...



And curiosity takes over...




One thing I didn't get a picture of, happened last night while we peacefully slept.  If only we had known what they were up to!

Somebody worked the latch open on the door to their pen.

When Jim went out to the barn this morning, the west side of the barn looked like a hurricane had blown through.  They had overturned a trash can full of bale ropes, played in them for a while, spread out what was a neat pile of sawdust, and left heifer patties as evidence of their escape!

We make a habit of closing all the gates in the barn whenever we aren't in it, to minimize damage if animals get loose/out. In the event that they do get out, they are confined to a particular area, where they can't get into things they shouldn't.

Within the last year, we had my Dad make us this small grain bin where we keep calf feed. Rather than stacking the feed bags along the side of the pen like we used to do, we dump it into this bin, and religiously keep that latch fastened...
 

Last night was the first time that the bin actually "earned it's keep"!  Jim had just dumped 100 lbs of calf grower into it last night. Had those heifers gotten into it, they would've been very, very sick this morning!

Thankfully, no harm was done.  One thing I would like to know, though...is why weren't they sleeping?  Who in the world gets up in the middle of the night, just to wreak havoc in the barn?


9 comments:

  1. heifers are curious that's for sure!
    Our Gertie was out wandering with the whole fold leaving her momma behind yesterday,she even tried to eat out of the tombstone feeder,quite cute coming from a half pint,she's good at jumping through and knocking down rails.
    Glad your girls didn't get into the grain!!!

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  2. Hey Alica, thanks for stopping over.
    Just wanted to say that with the Highlands we never worry about the horns,if you ever have to you better ship that cow as a cull,its just not in the breed to be nasty, they are such a docile calm breed,if they are nasty you don't want them producing offspring.
    We have only had to ship one that we brought in,she stayed for 2 months...she caused trouble for the whole fold, she was just to pushy to stay here.

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  3. Hooray for the grain bin! :)
    Hmmm...sounds like heifers are related to GOATS!! LOL!!

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  4. haha! Heifers Gone Wild! I wouldn't call scrambled bale ropes with accents of patty pies--no harm done. Who's gonna clean up this mess? Bet those ladies all rolled their eyes and looked off to the horizon with that question.

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  5. Leenie...well...ummm...guess who got to clean it up?! I guess not getting sick qualifies as "no harm done" :)

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  6. Well, when the master is away (or in the house asleep), the livestock will play!

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  7. Don't ever ride a green broke colt that has never seen cattle near heifers. The chaos that ensues is not fun for the rider. Dang heifers is right.

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  8. So I guess this is where the saying "she's a heifer!" came from : )

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