SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (AP) - Mark Spencer sat on his four-wheeler along Experiment Farm Road at County Road 17 on a chilly Monday morning, waiting for a sheriff’s deputy to arrive.
Nothing illegal was going on, Spencer was just waiting for some traffic control so he and his team could move 80 head of cattle from the field along County Road 17 where they were moving to another field a quarter-mile to the east along Experiment Farm Road.
“We run cows on corn stalks,” Spencer told the Scottsbluff Star-Herald. “When we’re done with one field, we move them to the next. Sometimes, it’s just down the county road, but today it has to be down the highway a ways.”
The process didn’t take long, but it took some coordination.
“We’ve got a guy in a pickup to lead them with some hay,” Spencer said. “A couple of four-wheelers will gather ‘em up and keep ’em pushed to the pickup, and we’re going to bring the (deputy) today to help shut down the highway. It’ll just be a little safer that way.”
Once the deputy was in place and a couple of strategically-placed vehicles were set up to keep the cattle from straying into a driveway and to get them to cross the highway at the right place, Raymond Spencer got in front of the cattle in the field on the north side of the highway with the hay truck. Mark Spencer and Bill Debus trailed on the four-wheelers to keep the cows in line.
Like the Pied Piper, Raymond Spencer led the herd out of the field, down the driveway and onto the highway. Sure enough, a quarter-mile down the road, the cattle crossed the highway to another field on the south side. A smooth transition.
“It worked out just like it’s supposed to,” Mark Spencer said.
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