Professional cowboys had to be called in on Friday to deal with an unusual cattle situation in Oro-Medonte.
Jeremy Hanley is a part of a professional tracking team hired to recover Jim Partridge's cattle that went missing Tuesday night from this farm on the 6th Line in Oro-Medonte, but finding them isn't easy.
“There are lots of places for them to hide around here, lots of corn, lots of shrub land,” says Hanley. “They're just not moving too much yet, when they are it's the middle of the night and we can't see them.”
Partridge owns the missing cattle and says sometime on Tuesday night, 44 of his Angus Cross Head escaped from their pen. Partridge and dozens of volunteers have searched almost three square miles for the cattle and have recovered more than half.
“They roped two yesterday and got them here on trailers, it's been a real frustrating situation.”
Unfortunately one bull was hit and killed by a car on Highway 11 on Friday and the OPP have since posted signs warning drivers about the wandering cattle.
Seventeen are still missing and they're worth a lot of money – Partridge estimates their value at $3,000 each. He says he could lose more than 50-thousand dollars if the cattle are not recovered.
“They're so smart, they're stupid,” says cattle farmer Elgin Rugman. “They can be pets or they can be as owly as can be. They’ll put their heads down and charge you and they're gone.”
Rugman says the 1,200 pound beasts were originally brought in from southwest Alberta are high strung and completely unpredictable.
“They're black and in the heat of the day they don't like the sun, so they head for the bush. We try to flush them out of the bush and hopefully the horses can pick them up and the dogs can get them up here,” says Partridge.
