As we near the end of May the rain and spring weather have been replaced by a boiling (and humid!) 30 degrees. The sun has definitely felt nice, but I could pass on the sunburn that came with it. Calves are still rolling out and with that comes new problems and interesting memories.

When cows fly

It’s not all the time when you get to see a cow in the air besides when they jump. This week, a few of us did get to see a cow get some air.

A check in with cows that hadn’t yet calved, a cow that was off by herself was found. Coming over to it, we tried to get it to stand with no avail. Whenever she tried to stand her hind legs wouldn’t cooperate nor hold her own weight. One of our theories was that she gave birth to a calf that was too large and it temporarily paralyzed her back legs, with no calf around her we also assumed that a coyote had made off with it. Although she couldn’t move, she did have grass and was laying next to a dugout, however, if things got any worse having her nearby would be for the best.

So the crew was gathered as well as a tractor, chains, and something to haul her to the yard with. It was quite the effort to get the chains placed in a way where she wasn’t being strangled by the chains but were still able to lift her high enough to be put in the trailer. The operation definitely was a bizarre sight, but it did the job and we were able to get her back to the yard.

Unloading her was another challenge, but when we finally got her on the ground the challenge had been overcome. Getting her water and something to snack on was the next order of business and it continues to be a morning, evening, and sometimes noon chore to ensure she stays content. There has been progress as the other day I caught her standing up for a good period of time. Hopefully there will be even more progress and she will be back to walking relatively normal.

More bottle babies

Early in the week there was the discovery of two different orphans. As usual we checked around for a mother, however being in a field with fewer cattle everything that looked like it had calved was paired and anything that didn’t have a calf didn’t appear to have recently calved. Obviously they came from somewhere but the cows without calves didn’t look like they cared to have a calf, so we fed both of them and loaded them in the trailer to take back to the yard.

The first couple of days I was bottle feeding them morning and evening but as their portions increased we realized that we couldn’t keep bottle feeding them until fall. Fortunately and unfortunately we had two heifers who had lost their calves and were wanting some. With past orphans from this season it had taken a bit to get the cow to warm up to a new calf (hobbles were used for a while on a couple different occasions), so I suspected that it would be no different for these two. I was proved wrong as the younger calf was adopted rather easily with the heifer and the older calf only needed a couple days with its new mama on hobbles before she accepted her. Hobbles are two straps connected together that are put on the hind legs of a cow to prevent her from kicking her calf when it comes to suck. Hobbles are taken off after the cow learns to not kick at her calf.

While I thought getting those two on heifers would be a bit of a challenge, it turned out to be the easiest adoptions of this season.

May goes out hot this year and the hustle and bustle around Grant Ranch hasn’t slowed down. Who knows what June will bring us, but we hope that it isn’t quite as toasty as this last week has been.