Tagging and The Book of Cows

191 just went into the book with 102 and 59. The book of cows that are not nice when they have a baby. The book of cows that may hurt you if you give them the chance.

Most of our cows will not “take” you. You can walk through them anytime and they really don’t care. However, if they have a calf, especially a new born, it’s a whole nother ballgame. The game? Trying to guess how momma cow is going to react when it’s time to tag her newborn calf.

Through the years, we’ve got pretty creative to get the calf tagged if the momma was snotty. A lot of the time, we’ll put the calf up on the hay wagon to tag and doctor, which usually keeps everyone safe. That’s a maneuver we use only when we are tagging at feeding time.

With our Kubota’s, my Farmer and The Boss have gotten pretty good at a grab and block technique. One grabs the calf as he drives up beside it and the other drives between the calf and momma to block any anticipated injuring attempts. That’s what needed to be done with 191. Only with my Farmer still in recovery mode, I was the Kubota driver doing the blocking. But I wasn’t in the right position at the right time. The Boss grabbed the calf and as he pulled the calf into his Kubota cab, when I was supposed to do the blocking move, momma cow proceeded to follow the calf…..into the Kubota! I’m thinking she’ll back out. But nope! She’s going on in to get her calf! I see The Boss hunched up onto the seat as far on the other side as he can get, still holding the calf’s leg, momma cow blowing snot in his face, and she is not backing off. I’m kind of freaking out not knowing what to do and starting to wonder if a cow can fit into the cab of a Kubota! She finally backs out of the cab, probably thinking she needs to get more of a run at it. I’m thinking thank goodness for the steering wheel and the side bar and that we feed our cows well. She might have made it in if she wasn’t so fat! I take the opportunity to drive in and block her. Holy shit was all I could say! (My Farmer sitting inside the Kubota beside me did have more to say. But I can’t repeat it. wink, wink)

We all got our doors shut and made sure our windows were shut. That was a lesson we learned last year! The cow tried to come through the Kubota window after her calf!

The calf got doctored and tagged while momma watched very intently, from the outside. Once the calf was let back out with its momma, she settled down but still kept giving us the stink eye.

I glanced over and seen The Boss picking up the spilled doctoring stuff off of the Kubota floor and hear him say “Are you okay Lils”? Oh man!! Lily, his lil’ ole blind dog had been on the floor in the Kubota through all that commotion! Poor Lily!!

If you think about it, the event was kind of like how many clowns can fit in a car. This was how many bodies, can fit into the front of a Kubota cab!

It definitely made for some excitement for the evening. Excitement that none of us want to have happen again anytime soon, if ever. Including Lily.

Some of you may be asking where Cooper was during all the commotion. Honestly, I’m not sure. I’m guessing he was hiding under our Kubota. He seen how snotty momma cow was and he didn’t want any part of it.

That was just one of the moments we’ve had this calving season and we are only 1/3 of the way through. I’m hopeful that the new moon phase will change the weather and the cows attitudes and the rest of our calving season will be smooth sailing.

Ya, I’m the hopeful one. How else do you think I’m able to still be here, Livin’ the Life, the Farm Life that is.