It was a rip-snorting, lickity-split, exhausting two hours — steers were on the loose!
Looking out from my vantage point of the kitchen window, I saw what I always dread: Cattle with ADHD running through electric fence and down the road. By the time I could throw on a coat and farm shoes and grab my phone and the keys to my car, those large, ornery varmints had made it through one neighbor’s yard and crossed the road. They next ran through a landlord’s field and yard before crossing another road. They then bolted for a tree line three-quarters of a mile away. Have I mentioned it was a very cold day?
I knew lugging a bucket of grain to tempt them to return would not be enough. I called my husband, Terry, who was 7 miles away picking corn. He had to finish loading grain, take it to the elevator and then return home to help. Grrrr!
I wanted to use our New Holland Rustler UTV, but I couldn’t get to it in the machinery shed. Grrrr! I called on my nearby recruits. Lindy Miller did grab his feed bucket and started tromping toward the tree line. Terry’s cousin Larry Gormong and three of his young grandchildren piled in their farm vehicle and proceeded to follow the cattle trail, often warding off the animals at various attempted passes.
Every time Larry and I drove alongside each other to check in, his exuberant 9-year-old granddaughter, Jena, would put her window down and say, “Isn’t this fun?”
Larry’s reply was always, “Put up that window!”
Terry did eventually show up, grabbed the Rustler, and prodded the cattle back to the home farm and into a pasture. Total trip: 2.5 miles.
Thirty years of discussing appropriate fencing continues. I vote for skyscraper-high, Seal team-strong and Fort Knox-tight fence.
Hayhurst writes from Terre Haute, Ind.