Nothing brings the local residents together like a bit of community cow herding. S’s whole family and several friends were all out on parade first thing, ensuring that the moving of his south down cattle to pastures new went smoothly. In many respects it’s much more entertaining when things don’t go entirely to plan and invariably there is some small adventure when a few tons of beef take to the tarmac. Last year it was a mad rush through the woods to head off a group of cows which took a fancy to the chestnut coppice. This time a single red cow climbed the steep bank and bounded (don’t raise your eyebrows, cows can bound very well when they want to) into a field containing another heard belonging to S. Clearly there were old scores to be settled, as it wasted no time in joining battle with one of the residents. During an opportune lull in the butting and barging, W (a reassuringly large bloke) and I managed to push it down the field, where it rejoined its fellows through a hastily opened gate.
Job complete, the amassed drovers retired to W and P’s house for coffee and cake, little knowing that just down the lane the relocated cows didn’t fancy their new field and instead were trying to get into S’s maize crop. The phone call for back up came eventually, but on arrival we found the emergency over and a puffing, somewhat puce S. Never a dull moment with livestock!
Below is a link to a short clip of the cows.