”Meeeeeeh.” I let out a poor imitation of a calf and watched the hillside across the draw. Cows were standing there and I wanted them to go find their calves. A bawling baby will get any mother’s attention, so again… “meeeeeeeh”. I wasn’t very convincing, I guess.
Vernon had told me that two cows had calved close to each other at night… and they were both claiming the same baby by morning. That wouldn’t work, but where was the other baby? I was recruited to come walk around to see if I could help. What do they look like? Well, they’re a little black calf about this high…. Seriously, 99.5% are solid black, how do you tell them apart? Most the time, it’s not a problem, mommas usually can keep track… but having a black calf in the night next to another black calf in the dark… you can see how the mix up occurred.
Tagging them early with their eartags matching their mom’s is our strategy. Otherwise we spend hours searching and watching. Vernon had tied baling twine around one untagged calf in case it was our suspect. I saw the young thing staggering after a cow on a steep hillside, and the old biddy turned around and tried to shove it off the hill! “Quit!” The calf followed a few more steps then exhausted, lay flopped down by a sagebush. But the cow, get this, stopped and stood guard over it. It *was* her baby after all! <insert eye roll>
A bit more walking and watching, and Vernon called me over. They loaded a calf into the side by side with Indy and I and we were to take it to the calving shed while the guys loaded the mom in the horse trailer and hauled her in. A day or two in a small pen with each other would strengthen the familial bond and straighten everyone out.
Great to hear the mama’s and babies got sorted out.
Good ending to this cow tale!
That is amazing glad you were able to connect the two..