Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

It's official. I'm worrying to much. I went out to check heifers about an hour ago and one was calving. I looked at her and thought to myself, "this is going to be trouble, I know it." I did decide to give her a half an hour to see if she would have it but I was sure that she wasn't.

I went out a half an hour later and she had made some really good progress, usually it would be enough to give her more time, but this time I looked at her and thought, "those feet are awful big, I can see the tongue but not the muzzle, I just know this cow is trouble so I had better pull it." Normally I would give one like this more time but not this time. I went and gathered up the hand to help me and got a stall strawed down and the barn ready and by then the hand showed up and we were ready to get her in.

We walked up to get her and guess what? There she was, standing there, licking off her new born calf. I'm officially worrying to much. It's that simple.

{to myself}Quit worrying so much. Let things take their course. It will be all right. Cattle most of the time have calves by themselves. Quit jumping the gun.{/to myself}

Damn, I feel like an amateur at calving after this stunt. I can't believe I did such a bone headed thing.

Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere. Glenn Turner

The heifers finally started picking up on their calving this last week. They were definitely not cycling when the bulls were turned out last spring. Nothing I can do about that, it's just the breaks. We have been busy though keeping up on things. It has really been tiring.

The weather has been nice for calving but as with everything involving the weather, it could be better. It gets just warm enough every day to create a lot of mud then it freezes at night and sets the mud up. The ground never dries up so the heifers have very little good ground to calve on. What a pain.

Did have the first casualties this last week. Two calves lost on one cow. I don't know what it is, but if I have a cow with twins in her she is more likely to give me trouble than any other one around for some reason. This particular case was a little weird. The heifer never seemed to have any contractions. I noticed her acting a little odd in the evening, not real calvy, but like she was going to calve within the next 12 hours or so. By the morning she still hadn't started to calve but you could tell by looking at the discharge from her that something was going on so I decided to investigate. When I reached in to figure out what was going on I knew there was trouble. She was fully dilated, but I could barely reach the calf, meaning that she wasn't having contractions to push the calf up in the womb. I reached in as deep as I could go and finally snagged a front foot of the calf and started pulling it up. I could tell by the way the way it felt the calf was dead, I hate pulling dead calves, it makes me feel bad. I worked for the longest time but I never could get another leg or the head or anything, all I had was one front leg. I finally decided the only way I could save the heifers life was to take it in and have a vet get it out, another thing I hate to do with a dead calf but what option did I have?

The Vet tried to get the calf out just like I did and was having the same problem. He had a pharmaceutical solution though, Pitocin (SP?), causes the critter to have contractions. She started having enough contractions to push the calf up and get a hold of the one leg and the head finally. He pulled the calf out this way. He them reached in and found another calf in there. It was so far down in the womb he couldn't get a hold of it so it was time for more Pitt and the contractions finally pushed it up enough to get a hold of. He then pulled it out. He said by looking at the condition of the bodies the calves were more than likely dead for a couple of days. Why she never had any contractions was beyond him. I guess the hormone that starts such things was missing.

When you have as many cows as I do around here you can expect this kind of thing to happen once in a while. I don't have to like it, but you have to accept it. Otherwise you will go nuts.

The cows should start calving here before to much longer. Spring work will really start taking off then. Things to do and cows to calve. If I just had help that was worth a damn around here I would really be looking forward to it. The way it is, I will just struggle through.

The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. Albert Camus

Every year seems to be a little different and bring something new. This year I might not have many calves yet, three, but the cattle are reacting different.

I always like to leave the heifer in the pen she has been in while she is calving. She is comfortable there and more willing to work at calving. Try to move them and they tend to clench up and quit trying to calve and give a person problem. Normally the other heifers don't bother the new mother and baby so it works out great. You do have to watch for another one calving trying to claim the calf all ready on the ground but I usually don't have too much trouble.

The last two calves though didn't work that way. They both had the calves on thir own but the other heifers didn't leave them alone. Almost every heifer in the pen had to come check out what that new, wet, wiggly mass was and get in the way of new mommy and baby getting to know each other. Last night the heifer was trying to take care of her calf while trying to fight the other heifers off so they didn't bother her calf.

I really hate to have to move them when they are still getting to know each other but what choice did I have. With the weather forecast the way it was, snow, I decided to stall them for the night and call it good. I try not to stall the heifers unless I have to but I did for safety on this one.

It's always different around here and different things happen. You never know it all or see it all in this business. Your always learning something new or seeing something new. I guess that keeps us all young, at least that's waht I say to make myself feel better..

On last thing talking about the snow, the National Weather Service forecast had these exact words in it last night. They don't keep it so I can't link it, but I swear I read this.

There will be 3 inches of snow tonight and an additional 3 inches of snow on Monday for a storm total of 7 inches.

Last time I checked 3+3=6, not 7. I guess this new math is what a college education teaches these meteorologists.

I took a different path, one you might not expect. But along the path, I learned a lot about my life - about life. Jennifer Capriati

Time has this really funny habit. It keeps ticking on no matter what. You go on with your daily life and routines and all of a sudden you look up and notice that the month is about over, time has marched on and you almost didn't notice.

Marching forward on,
Slick ice cleaned by winter winds
Grab that whipping end.

This happened to me this month. With the daily feeding of the cows and the routine of therapy appointments, doctor's appointments and other routines it almost slipped away. Its time to bring the heifers home to calve and it almost got past me. I realizes the end of the month was coming about Wednesday and I have been getting the few things done here to bring them home.

I was considering bringing them home Monday but I am not sure that is going to happen now, I might have to wait until Wednesday to do it. Today while feeding I broke both front springs out from under one of the pickups. Yes, I said both front springs, one on each side. How I managed that is beyond me, but it happened. I am probably going to have to spend Monday trying to get the parts to fix the problem.

It will be good to bring the heifers home. I am not looking forward to night calving and the lack of sleep that entails but to see some calves running around will be fun. Time almost got away from me though. I wouldn't have forgotten about bringing the heifers home but that dastardly beast, time sure slipped up quick on me. It tried but failed as it always will.

Being and time determine each other reciprocally, but in such a manner that neither can the former - Being - be addressed as something temporal nor can the latter - time - be addressed as a being. Martin Heidegger

Yesterday I got the replacement heifers in so that the young person who got the Merit Heifer that we donated could pick her up. While getting the heifers in I noticed quite a few were coughing and one was acting a little sick. The sick one was not coughing but had a snotty nose, glassy eyes and had no energy.

With the sick ones and the ones that are coughing I think the biggest thing I could do to help them is to start giving them a little bit of feed. They have been out on native pasture since weaning with no supplement and it's just getting to be too much for them. Not enough green feed with it freezing every night so I will start feeding them. Hopefully that will get them over their little problem and gaining weight again, or so I hope.

I always seem to do this. I stretch the calves out long enough on native pasture that I get a sick one or two before I start to feed them. A little hay usually fixes thing right up and I save feed costs until then. It will be nice in a way to start feeding a few. It will feel more like winter is coming.

To find joy in work is to discover the fountain of youth. Pearl S. Buck

BTW, I notice on the main page for the Merit Heifer program is a picture from a couple of years ago of the young lady with the heifer we donated to her. Pretty good looking heifer if you ask me.

The replacement heifers peacefully grazing on the volunteer barley coming up. It sure is nice to have them out of the corral and grazing green grass. Taken 10/02/2006.

I just got in from checking a heifer I had been watching since 4:00pm just waiting for her to decide to calve. Guess what? She had twins. It is in a way exciting. It doesn't happen on my place very often. It's also a pain in the ass too. Where do I put the cow? What do I do with the calves? A cow has a hard time keeping track of twins since she can't count. Oh well, I will figure it out. I will just bask in the excitement for now.

The most exciting happiness is the happiness generated by forces beyond your control. Ogden Nash

I don't know that I have ever had heifers calve out so fast. It's only 14 days into the first cycle and we are all ready over 60% done. At this rate we will easily make 75% of the heifers calved out in the first cycle. I throw that magical number out because all the "experts" of the industry say that is the goal and can only be obtained by special diets when breeding and synchronizing your heifers at breeding time. This will be the second year in a row I've manged the feat with no artificial drugs and on simple hay and grass proceeded on the ranch itself and not using all the special high priced feed. Just shows you what the "experts know.



This picture was taken 2/7/2006 before the cold, wet weather hit. So peaceful and nice. I am so tired myself, wish I could lay down and rest. That's not in the cards though.

Getting some of the critters moved around to get ready for the cows to start calving. I like to move the cows to a new feeding area just before they start calving to give the calves a cleaner place to lounge around. I have noted that it reduces my scours problem tremendously. Any way of attacking a problem naturally and without expensive drugs I am all for. Another one of those things the "experts" won't tell you about. They just want you to buy the drugs to treat your cattle. Bah, who needs it.

The cows could start dropping calves anytime now. I sure hope the weather straightens out. I have a simple philosophy for calving out cows, if they can't do it on their own, they don't need to be in my herd. The first calf heifers are the only ones I watch and help. That doesn't mean I won't help a cow but they are in a two thousand acre pasture and I don't have the time nor energy to drive around and keep an eye on them. They have done it once and they can do it again on their own. The only time I will break this rule is if it gets really cold. Then I will drive around and help them warm up their calves.

If the weather gets halfway nice though there shouldn't be any problems. That's what I am praying for.

It is the nature of babies to be in bliss. Deepak Chopra

Today was one of those once ever 3 months, do over days. Days you really wish that you could do over again.

Calving went pretty good overnight but the problems started once the sun came up. I went to start the tractor so i could feed and guess what? A flat tire on the rear. I looked the tire over and couldn't see a problem so i filled it with air and thought it would hold while we fed. I could feel some air leaking in the vicinity if the valve stem but not having any spare parts for the valve stem decided it would be stupid to try to fix it. At least it was kinda holding air now, why mess it up.

We checked heifers and left to go feed the cows, who are over 5 miles away. We got over there and went to start loading hay when guess what? No, the back tire was still fine, but both front tires on the tractor were almost flat. Now over here I have no electricity or any way to run an air compressor to try to fill them but I do have a propane tank which in a pinch you can use to air tires up. The problem is the hose is at home for doing that so we have to run home to get it. Once at home we get the hose and think we had better check heifers before we leave. It's only been an hour since we last looked at them and guess what, 4 of them are calving. So we have to split up to get the feeding done and watch heifers.

I finally got propane in the tires so I could feed but it was a long drawn out process before I was done. I kept having to add propane to the one tire to keep it up.

When I got home two of the heifers had calved, and two hadn't. The one needed pulled right away so I dug in and got that task done. One of the calves that was born by itself was not doing good. I am not sure what is wrong with it but it appeared to be cold and hadn't moved much. I run it to the house to put in on the porch to warm up and decided to arm the last heifer that hadn't calved and see what the problem with her was.

I reached in and could tell immediately the calf was dead. Damn. I tried to pull it but I couldn't get the head to come up like it should. It kept flipping over and back. Since we don't have this kind of problem very often I am not very skilled at dealing with it. I worked at it for 15-20 minutes and decided it would be best to take it into the vets and have them get the calf out. The heifer was worth too much alive to mess around any longer. So now I get an hour drive into town to get this heifer fixed.

Finally got back home with the heifer and dead calf and hings are finally slowing down. I just had another heifer calve but everything is just fine with it. The one slow calf is still on the porch warming up and I don't have a lot of hope for the situation but I will keep on trying.

One dead calf, one calf in very poor shape, 3 tractor tires flat, and a whole day on the run non-stop. Definitely a do over day if I could. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

I don't want to do the same thing over and over again. Dylan Moran

The Heifers and their calves that are back to their home are using this rock formation for shelter from the nasty wind and cold weather nature is inflicting on us right now. This calf was loath to come out of the shelter of the rocks with his mom to feed. I can't blame him.

If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men. St. Francis of Assisi