The Dreaded Evening on The Homestead

Have you ever had cows escape from their fencing in the middle of the night to wreak havoc? I have, and I lose sleep over it for weeks. Envisioning the cows escaping the fence filled my chest with anxiety and I could hardly sleep fearing I would wake up to the same disaster I had last time. They didn’t end up escaping the fencing again… until they did last week.

It had been two months of peace on the homestead. The cows’ fencing was hot (electrified) and I was finally able to sleep in peace. The farmer regularly checked on the fencing, and he was actually planning on rotating the cows out of my pasture to my neighbors in a few days. Almost out of the woods, or so I had thought.

The dreaded evening, I was relaxing on the couch and let my puppy outside to roam at dusk. She loves to go outside and patrol when it starts to get dark—animal activity ramps up and she loves her job of being a puppy patrol officer on the farm. Well, I let her out and about 15 minutes later I hear prolific barking. I don’t think anything of it because she is always barking at something or another, but then I see a shadow pass by my window. I jump up, run to the door, and see that a cow had strode on past the house. My heart drops. I think maybe it’s just one and I can chase it back to its fencing (I had to do that a few times, not a big deal when it is just one.) Next thing I know, cows keep passing by and Kintla is outside barking her head off at them. In reality, her barking and running only caused the cows to get further away from her fencing, but that’s okay. Kintla isn’t a herding dog, so I don’t count it against her. Just like that, the whole herd was out of the fencing and I immediately knew this was going to be a looonnnggg night.

By now, it’s dark and I only have my porch lights and my flashlights to illuminate the yard so I can see what the heck is going on. I’m upset and freaking out because all I can picture is the disastrous mess they left behind last time—tangled fencing, Moo’s area destroyed, trees tumbled over, and my garden stomped through. What the heck was I supposed to do? I figured I couldn’t call the farmer because it was already past 10PM, and I didn’t want to be rude. I decided to try to herd them back myself. For whatever reason, this specific breed of beef cattle is destructive and I wanted to get them back to their fencing asap, but I didn’t even know where they were getting out at.

I tried to herd them multiple times, I failed. They would scatter and just “moo” at me like they were saying “who the heck are you? You’re not our farmer.” I was so pissed. My mind show to my two beehives, and knew I had to secure those down at the very least. This specific breed of beef cattle are so destructive, and I just knew I would wake up to a hive disaster, and I couldn’t let that happen. I built a barrier in front and around my hives in the darkness of the night and just prayed that it would hold.

I tried to go inside and sleep because I was exhausted and it was approached midnight, but every time I closed my eyes, all I could picture was the disaster I woke up to last time. I went to my windows, saw a cow rubbing up against a small tree of mine and I watched the limbs quake and crack. I cringed, and I decided I had enough, so I called the farmer.

I woke him up in the middle of the night and he came to herd his cows off the pasture onto my neighbors. I was relieved, he was happy I called because he doesn’t want his cows to be issues, and he discovered the hot fencing had died. Just my luck… a few days before the cows would have left, the fencing died. What are the odds?