posted on Nov, 10 2019 @ 01:23 AM
It actually wasn't our "first" calf, but rather our second. Our first calf was born with no issues, our second one, not so much.
Since, we've had hundreds of calves, but those first ones were memorable.
We didn't know what we were doing; we knew they were ready, but we had no idea what to do.
They said we should check the girls every two hours, and we did. We did for four days straight. In the end we got tired.
One girl gave birth to a nice big steer, but our youngest girl was not ready to push her calf out.
As horrible as it might seem, I got up the next morning at 3am and found that little calf, buried in the ice and snow, he was nearly frozen to
death.
I dug him out of the ice and brought him back to the loafing shed. His momma, didn't even know him, she didn't want anything to do with him. She
was a 1st time momma, and she didn't even know him, she just gave birth to him and walked away. This was not what we were planning on...I was
laying inside the corral, holding the calf, wrapping my body around him...it was snowing.
Our vet showed up around 3am; she was an angel. I was down in the corral, holding the calf, and she came in. Momma was stomping all around all of
us. She wanted to kick someone, but she wouldn't step on me because I had her calf, but she was mad as a hornet!
We had to intubate the little guy, and boy was momma mad when we did that. It was incredible, she was just STOMPING all around us. There was nothing
she was happy with....but me and that vet were saving that calf's life...and somehow, momma knew it, but she didn't like it.
In the moment, I thought the vet was totally in control. Later, she said, she thought I was in control. I asked her if she was afraid when momma was
stomping around behind us, and all around us. She said she was terrified, but she didn't want me to be scared. Brave girl!!
To this day, we have a cattle handling complex that all the Vets in the area come over to. They pay us for our safe facilities. I'm greatfull, we
get our vet services for free now, just because of our handling facilities.
Oh, and that little bull calf...his name was "Ike", and he grew up to be a very, very, big boy. He has been a super producing bull and he's a
mammoth boy!! He lives on another ranch, and he's produced over 300 steers! Little frozen boy, buried in the ice, couldn't even move...and I had
to curl up with him in a loafing shed, in the hay, just to keep that little calf warm! He's a 2,000lb mammoth now!