No cows on the place

In another entry I told of our attempt to load up two cows and a calf to go to the livestock auction last Monday.  We got the pregnant cow loaded, but the cow with a calf by her side was suspicious, and would go nowhere near the loading area.  So we took the cow we had in the trailor, although we hated to make two forty-five-mile, one-way trips in our ten-miles-per-gallon pickup, when one trip would have sufficed.  But you do what you must, and a bird (or cow) in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Ever since, we'd been buttering up the remaining cow, giving her grain and hay... each day giving it to her just a little closer to the loading area.  Yesterday Cliff saw his chance, and got her and her calf loaded a day earlier than planned.  So we made the trip to the salebarn once again. 

We'll likely have a cow or two again someday.  I still want a Jersey heifer calf to raise.  But if we go with beef cows, they will NOT have Limousin blood in them.  These ladies were 1/4 Angus, 1/4 Shorthorn, and 1/2 Limousin; and I believe the latter part of their genetic makeup was what made them so dangerous when cornered, and so untrusting.

Having milked cows for many years in the past, I like cattle you can pet and hand-feed and spoil.  We had a Brown-Swiss/Holstien cross cow once named Koko who, when she bloated, stood passively as Cliff put a tube down her throat to get rid of the gas... with no restraints on her at all, except for a halter which I was holding loosely.  Now that's trust!