the great potato stampede

while i was at hughes and ganz, a division of AZL , we had a couple of great big pens about a half mile away from the main yard, down behind the hay barns. these were called the pasture pens, and together they would hold almost a 1000 head of steers.  we never put anything down there that wasnt half finished because it was a problem doctoring fresh cattle there. chances of half finished cattle getting sick was small and they were less problems, unless you dont count taking them there from the main yard. there was no fenced lane of any kind from the main yard that half mile to the pens. the gate that allowed acsess was small, a ten footer and it was in the middle of the fence, the hardest kinda deal  to put cattle through.  the road down there was a one lane affair elevated between two irrigated potato feilds.
     word came down that we were gonna send a fresh batch of cattle down there. it would take a combined crew from section one and two, 12 men.  you would think that would be enough, but not quite. the section boss from section two was to empty the pens at the main yard and send the cattle down a ally to the rest of us waitting outside. the wise thing to do would be take them in one or two hundred head lots.  but oh no, jack kicked the whole thousand out to us. now those cattle got to buckin and bawlin and playing on dry powdrey ground until you couldnt see your hand in front of your face . the section boss from section one came by me at a lope and told me he would take the lead to the pens down that little narrow road. i was to turn a 1000 head of silly , half fat , cross bred steers down a 10 foot wide road with irrigated potatos on each side.  the rest of the boys were doing all they could to hold these steers in one pile let alone drive them. then jack showed up, went to hollering and rode right up the big middle  of the herd at a trott, his intent was to put a bunch of leaders on the road so the rest would follow. with that much dust flying nothing or no one saw that hand full of steers take the road. jack never looked back, just kept a hollering and running those steers up the road. two of the cowboys on the potato patch side saw what was goin on and spread the word to shove the cattle to the road all at once.  i turned the leaders and the herd took the road, but that many cattle didnt fit, on each side of the road the steers spilled out into that fresh irrigated potatos, tromping them into a muddy mess!! we  tried to get them out but bogged our horses to the saddle skirts!! that bunch of steers churned up those potato patches then turned back to home. we held them and before we could stop them they turned and once more stampeded into the potatos. with the damage done we charged the steers toward that ten foot gate and the two men who were going to turn them in it. some made the gate, most didnt and went on by. we got around them on dry ground  and held them up until they settled down. by now that wasnt to hard as those steers had pooped out. when they settled the strung out like cattle should, walked to the gate and entered as calm as you please.
       we know AZL had to pay for the potato crop. but we never heard how much, but potato chip potatoes didnt come cheap even then.  from then on when cattle were moved to or from the pasture pens it was done when the fieilds were dry, and in in 100 head bunches!! jack ended up a pickup driver and i got his job.