Rodeo on Partridge Road

All those who missed the Abbyville rodeo last weekend could have compensated by viewing the activity at 3015 South Partridge Road this evening.  My first hint that something was amiss was when I looked out the dining room window from my computer and saw two well-muscled Angus rear ends disappearing out the driveway onto the road.  I picked up the phone to call Shane, hoping he was still working outside here as he had been earlier in the day.

Nope.  Back home in Abbyville.  "Be right over," he said.  Well, actually he said "Those miserable  _______(n., plural--livestock waste)."  He only said he was coming over when I asked what he was going to do.

I exchanged my Birkenstocks for Crocs and hurried outside to monitor their movements.  Under the mulberry tree in the fence row on our side of the road.  No.  Heading south at a dead run.  Right turn into the alfalfa field, headed west.  At least they were on our property.

Shane walked out to head them back and instructed me to stand in a strategic place to keep them from escaping again onto the road.  I did, and kept them from escaping there.  Just as we had them within a few yards of the open gate where they were to enter, they made a break for it and headed east across the road into the neighbor's newly planted milo field.  I tried to head them off but Shane soon passed me up (Crocs are terrible running shoes, and I am not fleet of foot even in good shoes.) and got ahead of them on the east side.  I headed north when I saw a very sturdy-looking angel appear out of nowhere (He looked exactly like Caleb.) to keep them from going south.  West was the only logical place for the steers to go, right?  Wrong.  South it was, right past Caleb, who made a valiant effort to contain them, then circling west into the alfalfa field again.  Then they plowed through the pasture fence and got in with the other cattle.

Shane decided to borrow LaVerne's ATV to try to separate them out and bring them back.  I stationed myself where I was before, and the steers soon appeared from the west, with their strings of glittering slobber swayed north by the stiff south wind, Shane following on the four wheeler.  Before he got very close, they plowed right through the electric fence and made a beeline for freedom.  Things sort of become a blur somewhere about here, but I remember them racing through the neighbor's milo field again, heading south.  Shane went around by the road and confronted them before they could cross into the standing wheat south of the milo field and headed them back.  The one, whom we now know is totally berserk, headed back to the pasture to join the other cattle.  The other stood around the hog barn looking tired.

I decided maybe fatigue would make him cooperative, so I gently started steering him toward the gate.  Shane came back soon, having given up on Berserko.  We took up our positions again, but Mr. Fatigue headed west around the back of the house instead of north to the open gate.  I saw him plop down to rest just beyond the greenhouse.  He really was exhausted.  It would have been easy to get a rope on him at this point, but Shane wasn't sure what he would do after that.  Tie him to the clothesline post?  Nah.

We eased him up and guided him around the west and then the north side of the house to within a few yards of the gate by the shed before he took off again.  Around to the back of the house again.  Long story short, I think he must have burst through fences to get back to the herd.  That was the end of the rodeo.

Shane set about fixing electric fences.

When Shane had left here earlier this afternoon, those two steers were in a small pen with hay and water.  There were welded wire cattle panels and welded pipe panels all around, with a small barn on one side.  They jumped a cattle panel into the garden and then jumped another cattle panel to get out of the garden.  That's how they first gained their freedom.

The problems with these two steers all began on Friday, right after Shane took their three pen mates to the butcher.  They apparently couldn't stand having been left behind.  Feature that.  They were soon trying to follow.


Hiromi and I didn't need our exercise walk that morning.  Marriage counseling, perhaps, but not an exercise walk.  It turns out that Hiromi does not appreciate having it pointed out to him that when you want steers to run west, you do not stand north of them and yell and clap your hands and walk forward.  They do not have an overwhelming wish to make a right turn and go west toward home as can mistakenly be assumed by some who do not have extensive experience in anticipating bovine behavior.  They will run south very fast, at right angles to the route home.

That chase involved several trips across the road and down the road and through the alfalfa field, etc.  That time Shane came over on his way home from Yoder Meats (the butcher shop)  and decided to leave them with the other cattle after the steers barged through fences to get to them.  Later he patiently separated them off and put them in the most secure place he could think of.  That's where they escaped from  this afternoon. Keeping them penned separately  is necessary so he can feed them grain till they're butchering size.

Berzerko was too tired to resist anymore when Shane went after him in the pasture.  He would not turn aside or away from the ATV at all, even if Shane drove slowly up against him.  It's hard to keep chasing when the chasee won't take evasive action, so Shane prudently abandoned the effort.

The newest plan of action is to fortify the small paneled pen with several strands of  electric wire, and then pen the steers there till they learn some respect for a hot wire again.  I assume that Shane's offer to sell the troublemakers to me was not entirely serious.  Believe me, I was not tempted.

The steers' behavior probably evidences an extreme version of the herding instinct.  Why it's happening when they have each other's company is a mystery.  When Rambo, Shane's berserk 4H steer acted that way, we assumed it was because he was penned by himself.  Not only were these steers not left alone, they weren't even moved to a different pen.  They were in the same pen they've stayed in contentedly for several months--away from the other cattle.  Does anyone have insight into bovine behavior that would explain the trouble we're having?  Hiromi, Shane, and I are all lacking such insight.