Warmer Weather And Calving Season!

March came in like a lion but is turning quite lamb like as the month is progressing. Snow is melting in a hurry and mud holes & bogs are now forming in the pastures. This should make for some nice obstacles during calving season. Seems it is inevitable for cows to calve on creek banks so their little woobies can roll into the still freezing water. Just yesterday the neighbor had one roll under a log stopping him from his impending doom, and wouldn’t ya know it, mama was not too impressed with human interaction despite the help her little precious was receiving. It is in these times where you learn to appreciate the use of a good dog if you have one, or even a bad dog for that matter. As far as high headed mamma cows go when tagging or doctoring new calves a distraction is a distraction and she’s more apt to go after the more coyote-esque of her tormentors. Now when I was young and it was just dad and I checking cows I did not always bring my dog. It should have been a lesson I learned fairly quick but sometimes you just don’t have time or leave the barn in such a hurry with all supplies and said dog is out screwing around doing other dog things. I have many happy memories of being mauled, pinned to the ground or mashed between cow and 4 wheeler, being chased in circles practicing my near non-existent bull fighting skills and/or being nearly knocked off my mount by a horse charging new mom while dad was busy drenching a near frozen calf or injecting vitamins in a still slick baby bovine all the while yelling at me to “not weaken” which sometimes was easier said than done. Crawling underneath the pickup is always an option if it’s there and I’ve seen more than one grown man engage in this tactic. Yes, a distraction is a distraction and unfortunately for me I was the quicker of the two of us and I suppose the more dispensable as well. .

In this maiden voyage of calving season without dad this year I fully intend to execute the dog plan. It has worked wonders for me in the past and I don’t think that being chased and or mauled while I’m out checking cows by myself is quite on the top of my adventure list this year. Zip, who rarely gets coerced out of the tractor while it’s running will be my back up so I hope Tuck is up to the challenge this year if she needs called upon because I don’t think Pony Scout will pose quite the threat to snuffy new mammas as she doesn’t look to be much of a menace and comes across as nothing more than a giant black prairie dog. In hindsight I guess we shouldn’t have bought those twenty high headed replacement cows two years ago, they honestly didn’t seem that bad in the ring but once those first babies started dropping their attitudes changed immensely… this should be fun.