Calving Season

One of the hardest times of the years for cattle ranchers is calving season...at least if you do it when we do. February brings a round of new calves to our ranch every year. I've had all sorts of experiences throughout my years during that season. Some of them involve my sister and I comically trying to cart a newborn calf in a wheelbarrow through a maze of frozen cow patties in the middle of the night so we could get it out of the cold and into the barn. Poor little calf almost got dumped out several times! There are lots of highs and lows during this time of year.

We started our calving season a month early with a cute little premature calf. My dad and uncle had quite the time getting the calf and the mother loaded into a trailer. Since the heifers were not meant to calve that early, we still had them in a pasture several miles from home. Because the calf was so tiny, its legs kept giving out on the way to the trailer. However, when dad tried to pick it up and carry it, the mother took off and wouldn't follow her calf anymore. She is a first-time mother and didn't appreciate the human interference. We couldn't get her to come back to her calf until her calf started bawling for her. Her mothering instinct kicked in and she came back to it.

We have already lost one calf this season. Ranching isn't an exact science and a lot of things are still left up in the air. Among other things, you never know if the mother will clean its calf after it has been born. If it hasn't cleaned it and you don't get there soon enough the calf might suffocate because the afterbirth its mother should have licked off covers its nose. During the wee hours of the night it makes it hard for worried ranchers to get much sleep. The first-calf heifers are kept very close to my parents' house so dad can make nightly inspections during the height of calving season.

The older cows, who have already had at least one calf in previous years, are also kept close but we don't worry quite as much about them. They know the routine and have the wisdom to know what to do. It always cracks me up how curious they are though.

This is what I saw when I got to the bottom of our hill tonight. The cows were just hanging out and watching me drive up.

 As I got closer, their curiosity was getting the better of them. Notice how they are walking forward.

 This is my dog smiling for the camera....ok, maybe she's yawning. That pretty much sums up exactly how impressed she is with my blogging skills.

Finally! I got a decent picture of her and I have some very interested visitors in the background.

I am enjoying this "blogging" business so far. But I need your help. I have a tendency to get really excited about things and then it tapers off. So, if you actually read the blog and you notice I haven't posted anything for a while, please make sure to let me know about it. If people are actually interested, I will feel more responsibility to keep things current.

Have a great week,
The Farmgirl