Ain't no fence strong enough...

Ain't no mountain high enough, aah

Ain't no valley low enough

Ain't no river wide enough

To keep me from you

Yes, those were Diana Ross' words in one of her famous songs.  Barriers are no obstacle at all when the love bug bites.  We learned this just this past week.  We had noticed that Rosie (our oldest Jersey cow) had come into heat.  It becomes evident because all of the cows begin jumping on one another.  Hormones are running high at this time and it is a good thing that we keep our bull, Astro, in what we call the bull pen.

We keep him away from the momma cows because we don't want him breeding them.  We are keeping him until the end of the summer and we'll bring him to the butcher shop to replenish our freezer with fresh grass fed beef.  This pen we keep him in borders the pasture and is largely made of hog wire topped with a strand of barbed wire.  It is strong and an effective barrier.

There is one area we call the 'chute' that connects the bull pen to the barn and corral.  It is made up of cattle panels that are stapled into 4 x 4 posts and reinforced with t-posts in the middle of the 16 foot span.  It is strong, too.  

A while back Tricia told me that Buckwheat, the buck, had been rubbing on the cattle panels.  Goats are notorious for rubbing themselves on fences.  Tricia mentioned that the goat's rubbing had loosened the panel from the 4 x 4s.  I meant to fix it.  I really did.  But I was distracted and never quite got around to it.

Well last week we were about to do chores and I looked out at the cows in the pasture with their calves.  Something seemed out of place.  There were too many animals out there!  I asked Tricia, "Does it look to you like Astro, the bull, is with the other cows?"  The answer was "yes."  Oh no!  I ran out to the pasture and watched with dismay as Astro mounted Rosie.  Not good.  After closer inspection, I could see that Astro had pushed open the panel where the goat had previously loosened it and squeezed on out to join the ladies.

I led Rosie into the bull pen with Astro closely following behind.  Then I led her out, leaving Astro in the bullpen.  He is getting to be a big fellow, and there was no fence high enough to keep him from his love.

I got a hammer and some more staples and fixed the fence.  I should have done that weeks ago.  Sometimes due to competing priorities, pressing jobs get pushed back until it's time (or past time) to get them done.  Do you ever do that?  It didn't take long to fix.  I may even come back and reinforce it further with some tie wire.  But that reminds me of the old quote about "closing the barn door after the horse is already out."

If what we observed did indeed take place, Rosie may be calving again in March 2020.  Astro is not her calf and he is A2/A2, so it is not the end of the world, but we were trying to introduce some new genetics into our little herd.  We've marked the date and will watch Rosie to see if she comes back into heat in about 21 days.  We will keep you posted on Rosie and if she's pregnant.

As I think of the power of love, I think of another song about barriers being insufficient in keeping love apart.  This one a duet by Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn:

Hey, Louisiana woman, Mississippi man

We get together every time we can.

The Mississippi River can't keep us apart

There's too much love in the Mississippi heart.

Too much love in this Louisiana heart.

The power of love can make one leap over fences or rivers or mountains.  Speaking of leaping, we made a leap in this blog post - from Motown to Classic Country.