Webmaster’s note: The format of this column includes all of the Quill’s Endians participating at various times and in various ways! Phil writes this month’s column.
Some Calm
Over the years, we have tried to make fence-training livestock a “less-risk” enterprise. Some critters new to an electrified fence train quickly and recoil from the pain. Some jump forward in surprise. Therefore, we provide a backstop and a physical barrier in front of the fence. It seems straightforward enough. If you train on a hot fence that carries a 5,000-plus volt jolt, a couple of times generally provides ample reason for respect. Cattle are generally easier to contain than other livestock. They tend to shy away from “testing” the fence more than goats and hogs do.
Imagine our surprise to find our heifers gallivanting around the neighborhood several times in the last week! Surprise is the gentlest word I can conjure just now. Imagine our… surprise!
Waiting when something is amiss is a special kind of pain. But wait, we must. We could track them only so far. We had no luck. We could only hope someone would spot them near (and not in) the road and alert us. The calves were up in our friends’ blueberry barrens or nearby woods for most of last Tuesday, but not to be seen or called forth. The first phone call came just before Carolyn and I were to leave for Ellsworth to drop off a truck for service. With help from Noah of Rainbow Farm, the three of us were able to bring them home and put them back where they belonged. And there they stayed, peacefully rotational-grazing in a pasture.
Until they didn’t.
Two days later, a message left in the middle of the night alerted us they were no longer peacefully grazing in our pasture. We tracked them to the same spot, only to not find them again.
The torturous waiting began anew. Thankfully, we did not have to wait nearly as long the second time. Benjamin and Carolyn brought them home and I moved their “home” to the main pasture–where we can keep a closer eye on them.
We’ve heard there is a bear about in the neighborhood. Although bears respect electric fencing well, perhaps he spooked the heifers to not. Four days and counting, they are still home with no breakouts. We can go about our business with some calm.
Heather and Phil Retberg and their three children run Quill’s End Farm, a 105-acre property in Penobscot that they bought in 2004. They use rotational grazing on their fifteen open acres and are renovating thirty more acres from woods to pasture to increase grazing for their pigs, grass-fed cattle, lambs, laying hens, and goats. Heather is Vice President of Halcyon Grange #345 and writes a newsletter for their farm’s buying club of farmers in her area and has generously permitted us to share some of their columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.