If parents are away, the cows will play

The craziest things happen on the farm when Dad and Mom are away. Recently, I had one of those days.

It all started when my parents asked me if I could work at their place instead of mine for a day or two while they went to a grazing conference. My main duty was to feed the dog twice a day. The grass-fed beef cattle had been given plenty of hay to last them until my parents’ return, and the chickens had been stocked on feed and water.

The fateful day was warm, sunny and beautiful. Even though the cattle were supposed to be fine, I wanted to at least lay eyes on them once to ensure nothing was obviously off. I decided to take a walk to boost my mood and get some steps in around 2:45 p.m. When I walked out behind the barn to check on the waterer, disaster struck.

The little heifers in the pen by the waterer panicked when they saw me and jumped out of their fence, breaking one of the wires, and, in the blink of the eye, they were on the opposite side of a 7-acre field.

It was the weirdest thing. The only reason I can think of why they spooked was that I was in a cream-colored coat, and the British White Park beef heifers — which are a mostly white — thought I was a scary cow.

As I looked at them at the far end of the field, I panicked. How was I going to chase in heifers by myself that were so scared of me they had broken out to get away?

I called my sister, who works in the area, hoping she might be available. When I called, she and her husband were on the road to go on vacation. After getting advice from her and another sister, I got started, with a hopeless feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I worked to get the fence up and create a funnel to get them back in. I was in the midst of trying to get the heifers through the first of two fence gaps between them and where they were supposed to be when the bull made an appearance. The bull had been bellering at them from his pen with the main group of beef cattle when, suddenly, he decided to come much closer. With a bull trucking his way to an area close to where I was and only one or two poly-wire fences between me and his destination, I ran back to the yard, scared. I have written one too many stories on bull attacks to not be terrified of a semi-agitated bull.

Getting back to the yard, I had the dramatic feeling like I was in one of those nightmares where nothing works and things just get worse. It was at this time I broke down and called Dad and Mom. When my parents are on vacation, the rule is that you pretty much don’t call them. I felt like a wuss, but I didn’t know what else to do; two of their heifers were in the wrong spot, I didn’t know if I could get them back in and the bull seemed upset — and, possibly, he had broken out of his pen. (Luckily, he actually hadn’t, his pen just extended farther than I thought.) Happily, for the end of this story, my parents didn’t pick up.

Then, I called one of my and my dad’s good friends who farms a few minutes away and left a text for him to call me back. Then, I called a neighbor to see if anyone was home from work who could help me. With the bull acting the way he was, I was afraid to be out there by myself. Luckily, the bull lost interest and drifted back to the main herd, and I began taking more steps to figure out the damage and get the cattle back in. Eventually, my friend and one of my neighbors came and helped me get them in a pen with access to food and water and the fences checked.

Hands down, it was not my favorite day. However, I am thankful it wasn’t much worse. The weather could have been cold or raining, or the cows could have run off entirely or gotten on the road. All I can say is, I was happy when Dad and Mom returned and I could hand off the responsibility for the circus. It always seems to go smooth as silk when they are here.