Cows are smarter than we think

We had an incident a couple of weeks ago that made me totally rethink how smart I think cows are. I mean, I know they aren’t really dumb, but sometimes they do some really dumb things and end up getting sick or hurt or causing a lot of trouble because of the dumb things they do. 

But this herd defied all of that. 

One of our neighbors has a small herd of beef cattle, I think there are about 15 head of mother cows and right now they also have their calves at side, some of the calves are as big as the moms. He had planned on using some of our place for pasture, but had them on another neighbor’s place that he rents too. The plan was to graze that field down then move the cows to our place and then back to his own place. 

Well those cows had other ideas. I looked out the window and there were the cows, all in our place. I just thought he had moved them in sooner than expected, but just to be sure I called him. He was in a sugar beet truck hauling beets for his employer. He had some quite colorful names for those cows. Since there had been some rogue cows in other parts of the neighborhood, I told him I would go confirm whether they were his or not and shut the gates so they were contained. That way no one was going to hit one with a vehicle and cause injuries to the cow and the people. 

I drove down where his cows were supposed to be, sure enough the gate was down and there were no cows in the pasture. I followed the tracks back up the road. Now comes the interesting part. Those cows could have entered our place through a gate down near the gate that was down, but they didn’t. They could have also gone through a wide-open gate to another neighbor’s lush alfalfa field that was ready to cut for third cutting. That could have been deadly for the cows, but they walked right past that gate and on up the road. 

They wandered around in Rick’s shop yard a bit then headed up the road to Angie’s place. She has all of her horse hay back there near her house with not a fence around any of it. They didn’t go that far either. Those cows wandered up that road, right to the only gate open into the very fields they were going to be pasturing and walked in. All I had to do was shut the gate and go back home. They were safe, had plenty of food and were content. 

So now we have a herd of cows that move them selves to new pasture. I wish all cows were that easy to move. 

Now, a short footnote on the tomatoes. I am about half done. The green ones are ripening right along and in another week or so I will either have them all done, or be so sick of them that I throw them all out to the chickens.

Autumn Tomato Skillet

3 tablespoons butter

4-5 green onions, chopped

¼ teaspoon each dried thyme and marjoram

6 peeled whole ripe tomatoes

Salt and Pepper to taste

Melt butter in skillet. Add onions and herbs, Sauté gently about 5 minutes. Arrange tomatoes in skillet, sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Cover tightly and simmer 15 minutes. Carefully lift tomatoes onto serving platter.