Progress With The Red Poll Cattle

The girls were becoming used to me and recognizing me as the source of the sweet feed they liked so much. They were always happy to run to the barn, hoping it was feeding time. I got a cow bell with which to summon them and they quickly learned what that meant. It brings me great joy to summon them from the far end of the field and see them running toward the barn, kicking up their heels like playful calves:

I fed the bowls of grain outside and them moved them closer to the barn:

I kept moving them closer:

I want my dinner!:

They began hanging around the barn instead of far off in the field:

And they were filling out and looking good:

They were also working on their pecking order. Ear tag number one was always top cow, but all the others vied for position, rising and dropping in power as they worked it out amongst themselves. But mostly they stayed together, one little happy herd:

My beautiful grass began to be covered with cow pies. I had to wear rubber boots whenever I went out to the barn. I had to clean the barn floor with the bucket of the tractor every morning, back-dragging the manure and then shoveling it up into the bucket. I dumped it out in the tall grass so I'll have a manure pile for future gardening:

The cows quickly learned to eat in their stalls, but insisted on squeezing their big heads under the lowest rail. I nailed boards there to force them to stick their heads between the two rails. That worked for three of them, but the other two panicked and required another week or two to get the hang of it:

I often tried to scratch their necks or foreheads while they were eating so they'd get used to being touched. That sweet grain is a powerful incentive to keep ones head in place even if a human is touching you:

The girls were learning that I was OK:

And then we had our first snow and ice. They began sleeping inside the barn and I had to keep breaking the ice in the stock tank. Both the cows and I were learning. I still didn't have their paperwork, so I just called them by their ear tag numbers: