Oh My Gosh!! I Tipped My First Cow!!

[needstoknowmore]

ugh. Long story as short as I can make it. I have been talking to a lot of people who think that Ellie Moo (blind calf) would be just fine in electric fence. So since I haven't had her out in a halter for a while I thought I would see. I caught her and was walking her around the goat pen, now with 6 strands of electric fence. She didn't even seem to notice it. The thought was she could sense or hear it. Her tail did hit it once, but I didn't let her run into it. I had her doing circles around me so that she was just inside the fence line. She stopped at the furthest point from the fence. So I told her to walk and gave her a little tug on the rope. And down she went. Completely on her side with legs sticking out straight. It scared me at first. But she got up. She was all dirty on that side, it is nothing but dry dirt out there. So I wiped all the dirt off her head around her eye, and she was ready to move on like nothing happened. She recovered a lot faster than I did. As much as I want to get her out into the pasture with grass, I just don't know if I can turn her loose in the electric fence!!

[Vere My Sone]

I don't think i could turn her loose in an electric fence either

[agmantoo]

Put a bell on the other calf and the blind calve will learn to stay with the seeing calf. You cannot confine the blind calf with an electric fence. A calf can sense if the charger is working but they must see the fence in order to get their nose close to the fence. If the fenc eis working, the calf gets the same type sensation that you get from placing your hand on a tv screen.

[dcross]

If she's really calm on the halter, just tether her out on the grass.

[lgslgs]

Poor Ellie! Sounds like a very tough day for both of you.

I hope things are going better today.

Lynda

P.S. Would she respect the fence if it wasn't electric? I'm sure she wouldn't if she learned to push it down, but while she's small might she learn to step away from a fence the same way she'd learn to step back from a tree or other object?

[needstoknowmore]

Thanks all. I didn't think the electric fence was going to work. The way she sometimes runs into the fence where she is at tells me that she needs solid fencing. I have tried hard to come up with ideas to get her out in the grass pasture. But there is nothing to tie her too, and the ground is too hard and rocky to put something in. The day I bought Lizzy, I had headed to town to get cattle panels to make her a pen out there. But I spent the money on Lizzy instead of panels! I am selling 3 goats this week and then most of my chickens and ducks. All the money from them is going to fence and a hay feeder for Ellie and Lizzy. Once I get the fence for their winter pasture done, then I will work on one out on the grass. Eventually I will get it all done.

I haven't forgot about getting more pictures of them. Just haven't got it done yet!

[JulieLou42]

Could you conceivably wet the ground first where you'd drive a t-post in for a tether pole for her in the grass pasture? Put her on 70' length of chain and nylon rope with a 2"diameter ring on one end of the rope and over the t-post. Use about the largest spring clips [2] you can find at the True Value or Ace Hardware Store -- one of them on each end of the 35' chain [70' was too costly for me]. Attach one clip to the rope and the other to her halter. Be sure the chain, NOT the rope, is attached to her halter, or she'l tangle herself up in the rope. To sum up, you'll need:

1- 2"D ring
2- large spring clips
35' nylon rope
35' heavy chain[cost me more than $30 five years ago]
1-t-post

Put a water tank/tub at the farthest reach of her tether, preferably in a frame of some sort that she cannot push/knock over. [I learned this the hard way, and made up a frame out of 2x4's for it!]

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

[Slev]

I guess I don't get it. Wouldn't it be better to just invest your time and efforts with a different cow that had vision? (Having named it, I assume it is not going to be a cow you will be eating some day?)

[Valmai]

For temporary tethering.. could you try tying her lead to a large heavy tyre??