I have always hated the day we put our animals on the truck for processing (and still do). We give them a good life. They are comfortable, well fed and live a natural life out in the fresh air. This is what we do and we are proud of what we produce and how we do it. This is farm life with cattle, but still…that pang, when it’s time to send them off.

On the other hand, I love when we sell critters to another farm! I know they are going to a new home where they will be well cared for. I wave goodbye with a happy heart, glad that I will not know if or when their day will come. So recently, when we sold a group of heifers and a cow/calf pair, I sighed a little sigh of relief. They were going as breed stock, not to the freezer, at least not yet.

The day of departure, we rounded them up, checked tags, and dropped a nice trough of alfalfa pellets in the corral with them to keep them busy while we waited for the transport. Everyone was where they should be and they were calm and content. It was looking “easy peasy” to get them on the truck and off to their new home. One by one they jumped right on the truck, including “Chloe” with her calf, “Gus”. No problem. But Chloe had other ideas! Before we could slam the trailer door closed, she pushed her way out and jumped off the truck, leaving her calf behind. That was the beginning of a rampage that we don’t often see. Sweet Chloe decided to make a break for it, crashing through the corral gate and jumping over everything in her path, smashing fences as she went! It’s amazing she came out of the frenzy unscathed. We, however, have a lot of repairs to make.

So, we made the decision to truck the ones we had gotten on the trailer, including her calf, and let her simmer down for a day or so before trying again. Chloe kept revisiting the spot where she had last seen her calf, wondering where he had gone. I was worried she would jump the fence trying to find him, or that she might end up with mastitis. So the job fell to Steve, our “can do” guy, to get her on the trailer and off to her new home that next day, as we were headed to Canada for a week. Luckily, she hopped right on the truck and off to be reunited with her calf without incident! She probably knew Steve wouldn’t let her get away with any more shenanigans, or maybe she was just done with jumping fences. Her new owner sent the above picture with the remark, “All is well with the world, again!” I think that says it all.

Sometimes things run like a perfectly oiled machine, smooth as can be. I start to feel a little smug, like “I got this”, so proud of our farming skills. This is farm life with cattle. And then there is a Chloe …