I have been getting a lot of interesting questions lately! Audrey from Minnesota Prairie Roots asked this:
Having grown up on a Minnesota dairy farm without pasture land for grazing cattle, this is all new to me. So can you explain the sirens? And what are you feeding your cattle?
Most of the year, the cattle eat grass. We are very lucky to have excellent range land and the drought has not been quite as hard on our corner of the state. But, in the winter and when grass is scarce we supplement with “cake”.
Cake in the tubs.
It is a compressed corn-based product for the commercial beef herd. There are different brands and ingredients. But, mostly it includes grains, protein, fiber and minerals.
We use the sirens to call the cattle to the feed truck. With the rugged terrain and large pastures, they can usually hear us before we see them. The siren is very loud! You can hear one by clicking here (this is a specific brand which I am not necessarily endorsing, just sharing the sound for you).
When they come to the siren we let them eat cake!
Morrow Family Ranch 
Thank you for the explanation. Always like learning something new.
Questions like this are great! Helps fuel my imagination. Thanks!
Boy did the siren comment bring back memories. We didn’t need a siren, our round bale forked tractor had no muffler after a winter time accident, (‘temporarily’ replaced with just a welded pipe) so the cattle would hear it coming for a mile!
Whatever works, right?