Stubborn Streak: Cattle vs. Wind vs. Farmer

Baby calves and mamas with minds of their own weren't the only impediments to working baby calves this spring.

The Kansas wind also kept up its stubborn streak for most of our three days of working calves.

 

At least the baby calves are cute. The wind is just annoying.

 

I loved this one's heart-shaped face!

 

Our first day of working baby calves was the most pleasant from a wind standpoint. It provided enough breeze to keep working conditions comfortable and wasn't so strong that we needed dust blinders.

And it's a good thing: That was the day we drove cattle from the Peace Creek pasture half a mile to the pens and working chute. By "driving," I don't mean that we chauffeured them with a limousine. Instead, we used 4-wheelers to "encourage" them from Point A to Point B.

 

For awhile, my job seemed to be keeping them from traveling too far to the west. The guys were back in the pasture, trying to get a baby calf to come out of the fence. By the time they decided it wasn't going to happen, they couldn't see me anymore and Randy thought maybe I'd accomplished it myself.

I wish.

Instead, I was trying to get them to turn back toward the farmstead. It was a lot easier once reinforcements arrived. (I took a grand total of this one photo during that time. I was too busy running the 4-wheeler accelerator to pull the camera out of my pocket.)

 

I had a little more time for camera "clicking" while the babies were in the chute. If a young bull calf was undergoing the operation to become a steer, I took a brief time out for a few glamour shots.  

 

The calves got glamour shots ... and regular shots. When Jill and Brent were little, I took them at the appointed times to get their vaccines at the pediatrician's office. Our baby calves undergo a similar process each spring. For this appointment, Randy fulfills the role of "physician's assistant." He certainly doesn't have the education of a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. We do use a veterinarian for many of our cattle herd's health needs, and we ordered the medication from our vet, Dr. Bruce. But this is a task that Randy does, with help from me and a neighbor.

 

The babies go, one at at time, down a lane and into a calf cradle - a miniature squeeze chute. (That part takes some pushing, thanks to our neighbor, who's much younger and much more spry!)

The first order of business is giving each calf a number tag and notch in its left ear. This year, the numbers all start with "1" to indicate the baby was born during the 202"1" calving season. 

 

I didn't get many photos, since I was busy as the "doctor's" assistant, handing him the ear tagger, syringes, etc., in succession.

 

Then the baby calf and his friends got Tic-Tac-sized growth implants in their ears. The hormone stimulates the pituitary gland and helps the calf grow. The $1 implant will bring a $3 return. Randy believes it's a matter of using the technology available to more efficiently grow food for consumers. And, yes, we eat the meat that we produce here on the farm and share it with our children and grandchildren. 

We give each calf two injections. One is an immunization to prevent blackleg. The other prevents viral diseases in cattle. People often question the reasons for giving immunizations to animals that will eventually enter the food chain. But these injections are like giving immunizations to our own children. It helps keep the calves healthy, and healthy cattle provide a good source of protein in the human diet.

The bull calves also become steers during their time in the chute. 

 I might have had a little eyelash envy with this one.

We could tell when a few of them were born, just by looking at their ears. This one began life during one of the coldest parts of our winter, so his ears got frostbitten. It was a little tougher to get the ear tag in those ears, and we had to go through a few extra tag buttons to get the job accomplished.

Once we were done with the baby's "doctor" appointments for our Peace Creek inhabitants, we loaded the babies into a cattle trailer for their short ride back to the pasture.

The mamas did a good job of following the trailer, with only a few minor diversions caused by lush green wheat.

However, Randy let the baby calves out of the trailer a little prematurely and many zoomed out of the gate again.

However, it didn't take long for mamas and babies to be guided back to the right location - with only a slight detour. 

The system changes from pasture to pasture. At some of the locations, we separate the mamas and the babies from each other. We then haul the babies to the working chutes with a cattle trailer.

 

The mamas protest this forced separation. 

 

But, it's not long before they're back together again. 

 

The mamas and babies will be in their appointed lots until we take them to summer pasture in early May. 

 

Check: Another item off the to-do list!

Social Distancing in the Cattle Lot

It only seems right during these days of the Covid-19 pandemic that some of the "patients" were outfitted with "masks" during three days of annual check-ups on the County Line.

 

I guess in this case it's OK to lick your nose ... as long as your "hands" stay away from your mouth and eyes.

 We practiced our version of social distancing.

Pandemic or not, springtime means it's time to "work" baby calves. 

That may sound like we're sending them off to collect a paycheck. But it really means that we are doing the work by sorting, hauling and doctoring the baby calves.

When Jill and Brent were infants, I took them to well-child checks at the pediatrician. They were different than the last-minute appointments we made for ear infections and other ailments. Well-child checks were designed for the pediatrician to evaluate their health status and give any recommended vaccinations.

Our baby calves undergo a similar process each spring. For this appointment, Randy fulfills the role of "physician's assistant." He certainly doesn't have the education of a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. We do use a veterinarian for many of our cattle herd's health needs, and we ordered the medication from our vet, Dr. Bruce. But this is a task that Randy does, with help from me and, this year, a neighbor.

The process starts by gathering the mama cows and the calves. The method varies, depending on the location. To work the calves at Peace Creek, we use 4-wheelers to drive the cows and calves a half mile to the corrals and working chute. 

But, for the other three locations, we gather the cows and calves into a corral and then sort the babies from the mamas. As I've said before, I skip trying to photograph the sorting process. I need my hands free while trying to send mamas back to the corral and keep the babies from following along.

At those other location, we haul the babies by trailer to the working chute, leaving the mamas behind. 

The babies seem more curious about me than concerned about the fact they are separated from their personal milk machines. The mamas end up with that "first-day-of-kindergarten" feeling being separated from their babies. See them all lined up along the fence?

But, just like at the end of the kindergarten session for we human Mommies, the babies will be back with their mamas soon enough - right after their "doctor's appointments."

The babies go, one at at time, down a lane and into a calf cradle - a miniature squeeze chute.

 

I didn't get a photo of calves in the squeeze chute this year. The first order of business is giving each calf a number tag and notch in its left ear.

 

This year, the numbers all start with "0" to indicate the baby was born during the 202"0" calving season. Then the baby calf and his friends got Tic-Tac-sized growth implants in their ears. The hormone stimulates the pituitary gland and helps the calf grow. The $1 implant will bring a $3 return. Randy believes it's a matter of using the technology available to more efficiently grow food for consumers. And, yes, we eat the meat that we produce here on the farm and share it with our children and grandchildren.

We give each calf two injections. One is an immunization to prevent blackleg. The other prevents viral diseases in cattle. People often question the reasons for giving immunizations to animals that will eventually enter the food chain. But these injections are like giving immunizations to our own children. It helps keep the calves healthy, and healthy cattle provide a good source of protein in the human diet.

The bull calves also become steers during their time in the chute. Afterwards, we haul them back to their mothers. For the Peace Creek group, we loaded up the calves in the trailer and the mamas follow along behind.

Then they are reunited.

Other pairs are grazing on a small lot of wheat. I think they look so pretty against the green.

 Others are back in pastures.

The pairs will hang out together until later this spring when we haul them all to their summer vacation spots. We only have a few stragglers left to calve.

Walking Through Life Together

Today, the footwear will be just a tad more utilitarian than it was 38 years ago.

Wedding photos by Stan Reimer

It was on March 28, 1981, that we walked out of the sanctuary at the Pratt United Methodist Church and into a life together. That day, I was wearing uncustomary-for-me white heels and Randy was wearing rented white dress shoes. We were just a couple of farm kids, walking into a new life as husband and wife.

And, 38 years later, we're still walking through life together.

Life hasn't been without its share of muck and mire (and droughts, too). But it certainly helps to have someone there to help you get unstuck from the places and things that bog you down or parch your soul.

Today, we'll spend a lot of the day like we've spent the last two days - rounding up baby calves and their mamas, sorting them, then running the babies through the working chute.

Instead of a fancy dress and veil, I will wear jeans with fragrant "adornments" ... and I don't mean spring flowers. The only tie involved for Randy will be the rope used to hold the bull calves' legs in place for a quick bit of life-changing surgery. 

Instead of wearing my own pearl earrings, the calves will get their ear "jewelry" in the form of an ear tag.

I think I'll always have a special fondness for Calf No. 938.

It took Randy a little while to figure it out. Finally, I covered up the "9" and asked, "Do you get it now?"

To be fair, he was a little bit busy at the time. His jobs during calf-working time are certainly more labor intensive (and numerous) than my roles.

The ear tag got used on Tuesday, so I'm sure our anniversary wasn't uppermost in his mind at the time. But as I spy No. 938 in the pasture, it will remind me of a long-ago day when this farm daughter became a farm wife.

 

I'm sure glad I traded my old address for one on the County Line. 

If we get done in time, we may go look for a new refrigerator before we go out to eat. Oh, the excitement!

 I wouldn't trade it for anything. And, to Randy, I Choose You - every day.



There will be more on this spring ritual at another time - when I'm not so busy helping to separate mamas from babies and then slapping syringes into the "health care provider's" hand.