Claudia and her husband joined Monica on the farm late in the summer of 2016. There was plenty of room in the house (it had 4 bedrooms, two bathrooms and even two kitchens). And more than enough room outside to keep everyone busy and out of each others’ way.
Prior to their move, Claudia and her husband lived in a log cabin in upstate New York. (WAY upstate. 30 miles from the Canadian border upstate.) They often bought meat from a farmer who raised bison. The farmer would tell stories of the buffalos’ biannual migration: every spring and every autumn, the bison would walk around and around and around their pasture for days. Seasonal migration ran deep in their DNA.
Dexter cattle were bred by the Irish 500 years earlier. Dexters are one of the 28 breeds of short-statured cattle. Rarely taller than 40 inches at the shoulder and weighing 700-900 pounds, they were a good breed for two middle-aged newbie women farmers to raise.
Intelligent and gentle, with tasty flesh and rich milk, the urge to migrate has been bred out of Dexter DNA for a long, long time.
Dexter cattle do not migrate.
But it had been a very long winter. And although most of the snow had melted, the pastures were not green. The few green shoots of grass were quickly devoured by the livestock. Hay had become incredibly boring and everyone was ready for the lush, green, succulent grass.
You know – the good stuff.
Oops! Someone accidently left the pasture gate open. The herd found it. And so the Dexter spring migration began. Down the long driveway they trotted. Monica ran for the ATV; Claudia ran to the barn for buckets of treats.
Right from the start, Monica had bucket-trained her cattle. Scooby, the bull, would do just about anything for a Scooby snack (an alfalfa cube or horse treat). Ameila, the herd queen, knew exactly where the chicken corn was kept and knew how to pry the metal cover off the container. The cattle understood what rattling buckets meant.
But today, the herd only wanted fresh, green grass.
A bucket of corn in her hand, Monica raced through the muddy cornfield on the ATV, parallel to the driveway, hoping to divert the herd. The cattle took a right at the mailbox and trotted down the dirt road. Claudia, a bucket of Scooby snacks in her hand, jogged up the driveway. She could see that the cattle had no intention of returning to their brown pasture. They were looking for green grass.
Down the road they trotted – Scooby and Amelia leading the way. Monica phoned Rae, the neighboring farmer. The cattle were headed her way and maybe she could turn them with her truck or ATV. Slowly, so slowly, Rae drove up the road toward the cattle. Monica flanked them on the right. Claudia waited at the mailbox.
The Dexters could not wade through the ditches, still full with snow, to escape the vehicles: their legs were simply too short. Resigned, the herd turned back up the hill and headed for home.
Though this would not be their last walk-about, an important lesson was learned: double check the gates!
