We train our young replacement heifers to be gentle and to follow the Kubota or feed truck when we feed so when they go up the hill in the next year or two, we can gather them and their calves easily. Having been through the same process, their mothers and grandmothers have imprinted this same calmness on their calves.
Due to the atmospheric rivers, we were unable to see our cattle for 3 months, but the calves gentled down quickly in the weaning pen on alfalfa hay. Now weaned about 30 days, they’ve been turned out along the creek on native feed and a little extra green due to the spring rains. We’ve been supplementing them once-a -week. While I was photographing the floods’ ensuing boulder fields and patches of cockleburs, they heard the Kubota and followed me, on the march, towards the feed ground, hoping it was the right day.
drycrikjournal 
John, this post has a reassuringness about it that has a soothing taste. If only this would work for humans, too: “…their mothers and grandmothers have imprinted this same calmness on their calves.”
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Thanks for this, Babsje. There is an element of pastoral peace and common sense that supersedes the constant din from the outside world.
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That’s a beautiful photo. There’s just something about seeing the cattle on that land that is timeless and lovely.
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That’s good to hear. These girls are pretty trusting and seem to like being independent from their mothers.
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