Gordon Couger wrote in message


One year I had a neighbors calf in wiht mine when I took them to
market and
before I took them I asked him if he wanted to come get it or send it
along
with mine. He ask how we would tell them apart. It was easy it was the
one
that brought the most money. It out weighed mine about 150 pounds. He
let it
go with mine.

The way we ran cattle on wheat pasture and used hot wire fence we
would
often get calves mixed and just take care of the other fellows calves
until
we gathered them for market. They would loose a day or two of gain if
worked
them to get one or two out. A lot of places we would have to set up
portable
corrals or drive them to a neighbors to pen them.

That would drive your regulators batty. As would the wild cattle that
are
still out there in places.

there are underlying worries about feral sheep. In the lake district,
fell sheep are kept by many farmers on pretty rough terrain, and on some
fells there are a handful of old ewes who aren't really farmed by
anyone. Worse are those who got into the forestry plantations and have
hung on in there.

With cattle what happens and what is reported as happening need not
co-incide to closely. I know people round here who have had a bullock
turn up. You phone the neighbour and if it has got in with yours then
often it is a case of next time you fetch them in for anything, sort his
out and he will collect it. Depends on how well you get on with your
neighbours.
I know of one bullock that was on a neighbouring farm for four months
before the "host" bought the animal. They couldn't buy it earlier
because the animal was locked down under the 20 day rule and they would
have been overstocked and lost extensification payments if they had
owned him.
At one point the animal stood out in the lane looking embarassed as the
host farm had "all" its cattle TB tested by a ministry vet.


--
Jim Webster

"The pasture of stupidity is unwholesome to mankind"

'Abd-ar-Rahman b. Muhammad b. Khaldun al-Hadrami'




Gordon