Cow Tails From The Vineyard: It's All About The Moos

It is a rather slow time in the vineyard. Rich has finished weed wacking all of Block 2, and when the weather permits I will get out there and finish our first pruning on Block 1....I am about half done.
Rich headed back up north today. Christmas just passed and he wanted to be back up in New England for New Years and to help out at Fenway as they use the baseball field for winter hockey. "We" also need to do some repairs with the trellis system in our Nortons. I say "we" because Rich gave me instructions on what he needs to have done before he comes back down to kick start the 2014 season.

But now about the Moos. There are three different kinds of Moos. There may be more but I have only begun to recognize these first three. There is the "I am really hungry" moo, there is the "Where is my calf?" moo, and then there is the "Someone is or will soon break out of the pasture" moo.

It is very important to recognize these moos, for to ignore them will lead to certain disaster and an evening full of frustration and disappointment. It is always better to declare DEFCON 1. the highest alert status possible, than hoping for the best and assume nothing is going to happen. There are mere minutes between a red alert Moo and total chaos.I was on the unfortunate side of this error in judgement the other night, and though the final result was positive, it made for a nightmare of a night.

It really began earlier in the day. We had three jailbreaks during daylight hours, and three times Chris, Rich, and I were within the width of the field as we saw the cows jump or break fences. For each of these we managed to get the cows back in the field, and subsequently repair the fences. The fact is that if a cow wants to jump a fence (it's more like a WWF body slam), they will do it even knowing it might make a mark in their suede coat. Barbed wire is a joke.

We had gone around inspecting the fence one last time before dinner, and we had just polished off our last glass of wine when a fellow farmer called me on the phone and suggested that there were some cows loose (red ones at that) and they had been seen by a neighbor maybe a half mile away from our fields. The point here was that we had heard a moo at around 6 and blew it off. The call came in at around 6:30. Knowing the daily history of our cattle, and also knowing I am the only red angus breeder in this area, putting 2 + 2 together was not difficult.

Chris and I threw on our jackets and proceeded to walk up the main road towards where we were told the cattle were last seen. On our trip there a pick up truck approached us from behind and stopped. It was another concerned farmer who had received the same call.....he was going to check on his gates to see if there had been an escape by his cows. The verdict came quickly....his cows were still in, mine were huddled against the woods near his cattle just plotting their next move. By this time they had walked another half mile further away. Walking to get to them now was out of the question. It was time to get the truck and see if, by holding a bucket of corn while riding the tailgate, we could entice them to turn around on their exodus and return home. It was a trial that turned unsuccessful. It worked for a few hundred yards, but then the lead cow became disinterested in all carrot and no feed, so it suddenly veered off to the side pasture, taking all 7 cows and calves with it. They even stopped at a home and decided to take a loop around their barn and house, leaving cow plops along the way. We even let the leader (U204) have a nibble, but once the pail was emptied it no longer held her interest. Obviously this approach wasn't working; time for Plan B.

We now left the truck back at the beginning, where by now the cattle had reversed themselves and returned to. Chris was to walk on one side, I on the other to see if we could turn them. We were able to reverse them and sort of get them headed in the right direction. It was hurtful to watch. A cow's straight line did not resemble any I had ever drawn. A stop over at a pump house to nibble on some uncut weeds around its parameter. Another walk back out to the road slowing a few cars who saw the animals wandering around the asphalt. Rich by now had shown up in the ATV, where he and Chris changed roles. Chris became our resident cowboy as he motored up the right side of the herd "keeping them" from taking a side exit into the woods. This worked well until he dropped into a ditch, whereby he needed to be towed out later after we got the cows home.

The cows now had taken the last turn in the road and probably recognized their fate. They saw the house in the distance and  kept a steady pace along the side of the road. Cars were now backed up a few hundred yards up, and the one I talked to shared  with me her loose cow stories. She appreciated the mess we were in, but at that point it almost  looked like we had it under control. The cows continued, and turned up our driveway headed right to the front of the house, a site they were quite familiar with from previous adventures. So much so that they knew that here was the best grass in the area, and the cul de sac in front became a stopping place to eat up some relatively tall grass. Compared to the dead or dying grass in the fields it must have been almost gourmet like. We, along with the calves, were tired. To let them munch on grass at this juncture was welcome. The calves either lied down or decided a nice warm milk meal was needed. For thirty minutes we all stayed still. I was trying to decide how long we were going to let this go on. We were in control, weren't we ?

But the "driver" in Rich came forward. His patience had run out so he decided to start pushing them to the gate they had broken through. By this time I was in a nice warm truck keeping the headlights pointed on the cattle. Chris created a border on the backside and also ran ahead to open the gate for easy access. It wasn't so easy though; it is much easier to open repaired gates in the daylight than in total darkness. We got them in finally, and proceeded to mend the fence once again. I went and got a couple bales of hay and Chris and I moved them to the middle of the field thinking that that would keep them in for the rest of the night. Little did we know.

The next morning I was greeted in my back yard by the four cows. They were mooing loudly. Seems that they were able to crack the code to get out, but the repairs were too tough for the calves to figure out so they stayed behind (personally I think they fell asleep inside the pasture fences while their mothers had another "Mom's Night Out"). These were the "Where are my calves?" moo that I was hearing after having only a few hours sleep following our exciting evening of events.

I talked to them, like a parent who was just too tired to lecture anymore. All of us went over to the gate and with some coaching, got them to go in without the calves deciding to run out. It all ended where it all began. The cows had their night on the town. Between the 2nd jailbreak and their really unproductive tour of the neighborhood that finished with their eating my front lawn, they were full and spent the day resting and plotting their next move. Need less to say, Chris, Rich, and I spent that day fixing the fence and planning on installing electric. The cows may have won the battle (or at least tied). I will win the war. The next cow that decides to explore the world in the name of the Queen may be dubbed Sir Loin of Elberon !

Vines Are Like Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree

For the first time Rich and I have gotten out in the fields before the new year has started, to prep the vines for 2014. There still is some major catching up to do, projects that were put on the back burner while we hurried ourselves through the harvest season. Rich is weedwacking 7 acres of weeds that ran amuck last Fall. I have started to prune the vines; this will be the first pruning of two that will need to be done before bud break next year. After Rich completes his assignment we will spray under the wires to kill off any winter weeds (trust me, there are plenty) and put down a pre-emergent to prevent new growth. We hope this year we can keep ahead of the weed problem using herbicides alone......we'll see I guess.

As you squint your eyes looking at the above picture, you can see vertical canes that are a good 8" to 10" above the cordon (the horizontal arms). We keep them long to prevent winter born viruses from getting down to the budding region; they will be shortened when we do our 2nd pruning. It is during this second pruning when we do our bud count; we want 2 buds per cane and we are trying to have 6 canes on each side of the trunk. This provides 24 opportunities for shoot growth on each vine, all growing upwards vertically to fill out the trellis.

Winter in Virginia is a strange combination of some really pleasant weather with days in the 50's to what seems to be a series of cold snaps where the temperature never gets above 30. Compared to Syracuse or New England this must seem quite balmy, but when you have to be in the fields working with your bare hands as you prune and tie up vines, it can be numbing on the fingers. Though there are periods when we think we have caught up on our work and our projects work their way in doors (i.e. an unheated barn), taking care of vines is a year round job.

Somehow we also have to find time to put up new fencing for the cattle. T29's calf likes to squeeze through the barbed wire and walk the backside of the fence. Why, I don't know other than wanting to relive the experience it had with being born in the "outside world".

There is a winery to be built in 2014 too.

The Amazing Race

When I finished the previous blog, I had been told the night before that T29 had escaped. She was a week overdue on her calf, and this no doubt was a sign of her anticipation and frustration. The fence she left behind was a mess. Four barbed wires all ripped to shreds and tangled; no doubt the result of her jumping over and/or bulling her way through. The other cows and calves were on the opposite side of the field, so I opted to take a walk along the tree line and see if I could spot her. The adjacent field is owned by another farmer, and he had soybeans still to be harvested. They were maybe 30" tall and a dull brown in color, so you would thing that just by looking over the top of 100 acres of beans I could spot a huge animal.  I spent a good hour walking around, visiting the spots I would go if I was a cow.I had no success.

I returned to my pasture having collected my hammer, fence staples, and spare wire, and proceeded to fix the fence. It was now "solid", or so I thought.

For the next three days I wondered around the back fields looking for T29. I called the Sheriff's office thinking that if someone woke up and found a cow eating their flowers that they would know it was mine....not that I would know how to collect it if that happened. I also went down to the local tractor equipment store and let a member of the local hunt club know that I had a cow on the loose, possibly two, so he should notify his hunters to be on the lookout. A hunter with a quick trigger might manage to knock off a calf.....their coloring and size isn't much different than a small deer.

It was on the fourth day that I went into town to run some errands, and I came back and thought I'd eat some lunch when I looked out and saw T29 eating my side lawn grass.  I slowly walked  over to her and started my ritualistic conversation. She apparently really didn't want to be bothered, so she started walking towards the pasture and back woods. I suppose I could have shooed her into the pasture, but if she had a calf how would I ever find it ? So I slowly walked beside her and for the most part she ignored me and kept walking. And kept walking some more. Nearly twenty minutes later and easily a mile away on the other side of the field she walked and eventually stopped in the middle of a small corner of the field.

I knew what she was doing....looking to see exactly where her newborn calf was and with her occasional mooing try to draw it out of the woods. Within minutes it peeked out, and then the two were united. I approached them and Mom decided to only let me get so close. She turned and started walking even further away from our pasture.

I wasn't going to allow this to happen. If she went deep in the woods I'd never be able to corral her and get her back. And with hunting season I didn't want to lose the two of them for another night. I started to jog next to them hoping I could cut them off and turn them around. The mother and calf started trotting in the away direction.

Being a marathon runner I decided I'd be damned it I was going to let a 3-day old calf out run me, so I went into a full sprint, barely enough speed to cut them off but after a minute I was finally able to get ahead of them to make them turn. Once turned however their trot slowed down to a brisk walk, and they beelined to the pasture, now a good 25 minutes away. As long as they were headed in the right direction I wasn't too concerned, though I knew the fence there wasn't open. But to race ahead to open it probably would have had them turn again. So I followed a few hundred yards behind them thinking they would be standing by the fence when I got there.

I eventually got my way to the back gate by the pasture, and the two of them were no where to be found. At this point I was tired and hadn't had lunch. Time for a break before I worried about them again. When I exited the house a half hour later there they were nibbling grass in my back yard. T29 saw me once again and decided to start going to the back woods again, calf in tow.

If I just followed them I would be right back to where I was hours before. What I did was jump the fence into the pasture, and follow them in parallel until we got to the back corner where there was another gate where I could hopefully be able to let them in, assuming that was their plan (I know it was mine). I had with me a bucket of corn and by now I had captured the attention of the other three cows and their two calves. They came running down to where the action, and the treats were. I needed to open the fence,and here now were another potential five escapees. I decided to feed the cows that had exhibited good behavior, open the gate and see what happens.

T29 worked her way down the fence line, her view being blocked by weeds and shrubs bordering the fence. Her face popped around the corner only to see the other cattle were having a major snack on the corn I had brought out. She was not going to be without, so she mozzied into the pasture aiming directly to the bucket of corn which had by now been totally emptied. I closed the gate right away having finally gotten all the cattle together after four days.

I texted Diane to share my victory, displaying a score: "Dave 2, T29 - 0". Not wanting me to have too big a head, she texted back "I think the score is more like Dave - 2, T29 - 2."

This left only U204 to have her baby, and on the day I wrote this blog entry, December 1st, I am proud to say that she gave birth to a fine calf which was two weeks late. My herd has increased from four to eight within the last 5 weeks. My cow affairs are behind me, though I have to castrate some, tag others, and think about AI'ing the adult cows in another month or two. Time to get back into the fields while the weather is still reasonable. Need to weed wack and prune twice, along with some trellis repairs, all before April 1st, 2014.