~~ Where is Your Mom? ~~ Loaded up Ol Red the flatbed this morning with water, range cubes and cowdogs and headed S to check on the pancaked cow. Will she be (1) frozen and barely alive, (2) dead with her back down hill, or (3) sitting up and glad to see me? Well, she was sitting up, cold, shivering but looking pretty good - considering. She was thirsty. She drank about 20 gallons of water. I made the other cows and calves leave and I gave the downed cow some range cubes and about 10 more gallons of water. I left and hollered at the other cows to come on. They followed me over the hill to the corral. I checked to see if any more cows had been in heat since the day before. Basically killing time to keep the cows and calves at the corral so that the pancaked cow could finish her range cubes and drink some more water before her range sisters came back. I gave her about 1/2 an hour and the cowdogs and I left for home. Next stop was to check on newborn calf #2. I could see that the two cows with the newborns were over on the crest of the hill where I had left some hay yesterday. I just figured both cows would have both their calves nestled in the hay. But on the crest of the hill? Lordy, it was windy, temperatures falling and it was only 10 degrees...who knows what the wind chill was but I know this, It was darn cold. So I get to the hill and there are two cows and one calf. The Sunday calf was there with the two red mothers but the Tuesday calf was MIA.Okay. This is not good. Cow #2s bag was sorta full and looked like she had not been nursed yet this morning. The hunt was on. Yes, Ill admit...I was concerned now. To the place I seen them together last and the calf was not there. Maybe she took it to the other pile of unrolled hay? Nope, not there. Maybe over the hill to the ditch and she may have put it in the draw to be out of the wind? Ah...there it is. It was lying in a deep spot on some lofty grass, facing to the sun and butt to the wind. It was sleeping, warm and not shivering so I left. On the last of the evening chores, I loaded up water for the pancaked cow and headed S. Sloshing water and making a wet, frozen skating rink on the flatbed and creating unhappy cowdogs. Their feet were sticking to the bed. I got to the gate and told the 6 goofballs to get to the front of the bed where the caker would normally be. There wasnt any water there. Sheesh dogs! Sloshing along in the pasture and rocking along from one frozen cow pile to the next...I was just hoping I could get to the cow with at least some water. The cow had moved down the hill but shes still not able to get her hind legs under herself enough to get up. I dont think anything is broken. She was thirsty and drank about 15 gallons of water and I left her with about 5 more gallons, gave her some hay, she started to eat and I left. I paused and told the cowdogs, Go potty, and they baled off and took off to do their personal business. We get close to the highway and there is this imaginary line and they all know they are to lie down. They lie down, I go on to the highway, get out to shut the gate and they wait until I release them to come and load up. They leap up to load up and forgot the bed was slick...no brakes! I get home and put them away for the night. And this nagging little feeling, You better go make sure the calf in the ditch is with its mom...go check Tammy. Fine. I get to the hill and the two red cows have one calf...the Sunday calf. To the ditch and here is the Tuesday calf. Its nose is dark red from wind chapping. I get the calf up and head it up the hill to its mom. She is like, Well okay, yes that is mine. But, I want this calf...the Sunday calf...because it is traveling and mine is just lying around. I am about a 1/2 mile from home and now I can see that I need to take the calf home and get it fed. Its ears are over half frozen. It is obvious it has not eaten all day. But it is willing to travel away from the wind. I mutter to the calf and myself, Thats alright cow, you go ahead and leave your calf but I will be back and I will have Hawk, Ducchess and Bandit and you will be coming home. I get the calf going in the right direction and the cow gives up the idea of leaving with the Sunday calf and comes with me and her own calf. I got lucky. Yes, the cow was agreeable and the three of us walked on home to the lot. I shut the gate, thanked the Lord for his assistance, turned and faced the wind and walked back to get the pickup over on the hill by the ditch. The radio said it was 7 out and a wind chill of something below zero. I went home, put 4 cups of milk in the microwave, filled the calf bottle and headed back to the lot. I got the calf up and gave it the nipple and the calf just did nothing. A little stroking and it got the hint that there was warm stuff in the nipple and it began to suck. OMG...thank the Lord. The cow strolled over and began to lick the calfs fanny and the calf nursed the nipple faster. It polished off the 4 cups of milk and wanted more. So I pointed the calf in the direction of the cows faucets. It searched around but was not picking up a teat so I thought, Help him out. Apprehensively I snuck over to the cow, reached in for a teat, put it to the calfs mouth and the little chigger took it and started to nurse. The calf was making the milk sing down the teat. You could feel the milk surging down out of the udder. Man o man...can one get any luckier? Dark, cold, on a ridge, sun is gone, wind is cold and the warmest place for a bare hand is alongside a cows udder with a calf that is guzzling warm, fresh colostrum milk. You could tell the milk quality was good because it was sticky. The calf dropped the teat so I got the back teat and tilted it forward and the calf got a hold of it and began to tug more milk from mom. The cow turned and began to lick the calfs fanny and all I could think was, Life is good. I am lucky. She is being so kind. Maybe she is grateful. I guess the cow felt the calf had had enough and she slowly strolled away and mood in that voice that says, Come. Come on. Come with me. The calf went. I followed and aimed the cow towards a pile of hay that I had unrolled for her and the little one. Hopefully, the calf will stay in the hay and warm on up and be on its own by morning. It is going to be a cold, windy night and they say the wind chill will be -15 to -20 to -25. Now, I know that someone today on FB left me a note that wind chill is just a way for the weather folks to make things seem worse than the exact temperature. Well, Im here to tell ya. You putter around in the near zero or less than zero temperatures and a 15 to 40 mph wind and that notion of wind chill being exaggerated is bull hockey. Wind speed does make a big difference when the temperatures get to less than 10F. Check back in 30 days when this calfs ears are peeling off and there are only stubs left. Im just going to be on guard with the little dude or dudette to make sure we dont have a little pneumonia creep up on us. Wind chill being a farce...right! ~Checkin the Calf at 10 PM
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 01:55:52 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015