Cold Morning Calf

While spring tries to stand firmly, upright, hands on hips, in that defiant Peter Pan pose… Winter keeps blowing her down with late snow storms and gusty winds.  We are caught up in this bipolar condition… but, of course, not as badly as in early March when it was so cold during heifer calving season. The guys worked late and hard… but Mother Nature can be a nasty lady.

When you have a calf born on severe cold days… things freeze.  I’m not talking of pipes.  I’m talking about parts of calves.  Ears.  Tail.  Feet.  Luckily, we haven’t had any hooves fall off any calves, but we did lose some ears and pieces of tails.

Poor little thing.

Shortened ears and tails will get us lower prices at the sale barn… because who would buy the beef from such a pitiful creature?  OK.  That was sarcasm.  Frozen ears and tails have nothing to do with the quality of beef.  Yes, they may have foot problems, but they may not. The sale barn will dock the price though.

I just feel sad for the little prairie dog ears on those cold morning calves.