Easter dinner included a ham, a turkey, and a pork roast. I did spend a few minutes thinking about how ham and pork comes from pigs, and why they're so different. I had the usual few pounds of food and and afterwords I overheard a conversation about the farm down the road. The farm is mainly a dairy farm and offers corn and whatnots in the summertime. One person then mentioned a story about the Beefalo on the farm. I questioned them on the definition and location of these 'Beefalo'. Turns out they're a hybrid between a cow and an American Bison, so the meat is tender, yet lean. The location of the farm is right down the street, so without hesitation I gathered a group of any other interested parties - everyone else had seen them but the little kids at the dinner were up for the trip.
After a quarter mile or so we arrived near the heard and our calls drew them a little closer. I already had some photo shots of them far away, but wanted some nice closeups. We were only a few feet from the fence - 7 straight electrified wires stretched from the ground to about 7 feet up. Our attempted calls weren't drawing them any nearer. A little frustrated with not getting their attention, I used my whistle/hum noise (much like the noise from UFO's tractor beam in any standards 50's or 60's sci-fi movie). It always makes dogs go crazy by running around, jumping on me, growling, etc. I suppose I should have thought about that before I made the noise.
The alpha male standing about 6 feet tall and tipping the scale at, oh, 1000 to 1200 pounds was at the front of the group and about 40 feet away from me. The noise made him actually look up at me and after 2 seconds, decided he didn't like me or my noise. It's quite surprising how quick a beefalo can go from a standstill into a full out sprint. It's also quite surprising how a human can instantly shat themselves and start running like Michael Johnson during his world record setting 100 yard dash. The beefalo saw the effort/fright and before he got to the fence, turned around to go back to the herd. Needless to say, from now on I'll only be confronting beefalo when they're pleasantly grilled and served on a plate.
After a quarter mile or so we arrived near the heard and our calls drew them a little closer. I already had some photo shots of them far away, but wanted some nice closeups. We were only a few feet from the fence - 7 straight electrified wires stretched from the ground to about 7 feet up. Our attempted calls weren't drawing them any nearer. A little frustrated with not getting their attention, I used my whistle/hum noise (much like the noise from UFO's tractor beam in any standards 50's or 60's sci-fi movie). It always makes dogs go crazy by running around, jumping on me, growling, etc. I suppose I should have thought about that before I made the noise.
The alpha male standing about 6 feet tall and tipping the scale at, oh, 1000 to 1200 pounds was at the front of the group and about 40 feet away from me. The noise made him actually look up at me and after 2 seconds, decided he didn't like me or my noise. It's quite surprising how quick a beefalo can go from a standstill into a full out sprint. It's also quite surprising how a human can instantly shat themselves and start running like Michael Johnson during his world record setting 100 yard dash. The beefalo saw the effort/fright and before he got to the fence, turned around to go back to the herd. Needless to say, from now on I'll only be confronting beefalo when they're pleasantly grilled and served on a plate.
posted by Brettuthius at 8:10 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home