Every rancher knows that no day is going to go according to plan, there is always something that is going to happen and throw a wrench in the carefully constructed plan. We had one of those big wrenches thrown in our plan today that completely rerouted what we were wanting to get done.

Two days ago on Saturday we went up to the group of late calvers to sort off the drys from the pairs. It took a while, but eventually we managed to move the drys one pasture to the east. We took the pairs two fields to the north, leaving behind one pair and a cow that hadn’t calved yet. Once all our sorting was done we left for the night, closing all the gates and making the mistake of assuming they’d all stay where we moved them for the day and half we’d be gone.

We returned to where we moved the late calvers (the pairs) to so we could do a quick check and then move them a field to the west, then we’d move into our other jobs. However, as we came down the hill next to the pasture we found only cows, more cows than there should have been. We drive into the field and as we get further in we start to find calves, who seem to be paired up for the most part. The realization that the drys somehow found the pairs (who were on the north half of the pasture) and decided to join them hit us pretty quickly. Knowing our plans were already going askew we unloaded our quads quickly and went to check where the drys should’ve been and the pair and cow we left behind.

There were only half a dozen drys where they should have been, which meant that sixty-four drys were down with the pairs. We separated from there, one going off to find where the drys could’ve gotten out, like a gate that was accidentally left open or a place where the wire was low and easy to step over, and the other went over to ensure that the pair and cow were where they were supposed to be.

The pair that we left on Saturday was still there, I was able to find them quite easily, however another mystery was added to the day as I found a second pair in there with them. We were unable to find out if the pair was hiding somewhere in the field when we sorted off pairs (unlikely) or if they both walked back once they got moved. The cow that hadn’t calved was a different story, she wasn’t where she was supposed to be. She had somehow managed to get into the wedge of a pasture in the northeast of the one she should have been in. Luckily, moving her back to where she was supposed to be wasn’t an issue whatsoever and we left the two pairs and the cow that hadn’t calved alone.

We met back up in the field where the pairs were meant to be and that’s when I was told that all the gates in the drys’ pasture were closed, that the electric fence wasn’t low enough anywhere for them to jump over, and that there weren’t any tracks showing where they could have possibly gotten out. Over sixty head managed to get out of the pasture, there had to be somewhere they all got out at and yet not a single clue to how that happened was given to us.

Before the pairs and drys could mingle any more than they already had, we started gathering what seemed to be the pairs. Fortunately those who we thought were pairs were all closer to the corral system, but as soon as we started moving them, all the drys wanted to be part of the fun. By the time we got to the corrals they were all mixed up, sitting and waiting for them to calm down and pair up wasn’t really working so we moved on to putting them all in the corrals and sorting them that way.

It took us hours of discerning whether or not this calf really belonged to that cow, or if that cow was actually dry or not before we finally decided that it was late enough in the evening and that we believed we had correctly sorted off the pairs and the drys. Although we managed to get everything sorted off correctly it doesn’t take away from the fact we never did find out how on earth sixty drys got in with the pairs.

So for the sake of today’s massive headache, I will quote the very wise and famed cat, Garfield, “I hate Mondays”.