You can read a cow by how much snot they’re blowing

Today I was reminded of why I do not like doing the doctoring (and most of the time do not) when it comes to vaccinating the new baby calves. One of the cows that had a baby today was not very nice. The cow has to be very, very mellow before I will doctor it’s calf. This is my reason.
My Farmer walked up to the momma cow to check to see if the new baby had eaten. He gets pretty close to her and she charges at him. Just real short and quick but it was a charge. My Farmer steps back in a bit of a shock then he steps toward her again and she goes after him again, with a bit more gusto. I was like holy crap! I said something about we will have to doctor that calf tonight when we feed so we can throw him up on the wagon and be safe. That’s not what my Farmer was thinking. He comes back to were I was, hiding behind the Razer, and says since we’re here now, we are gonna tag and vaccinate that calf. Kind of a I’ll show her who’s boss moment. There are two things we make sure we do for the babies as soon after they are born as possible. We give them an oral vaccine to help prevent a sickness, and we spray iodine on their navel. (We also give the calves a couple vaccine shots to prevent disease and we put a tag in their ear, but these things we will not do until after the calf has eaten.) As my Farmer heads back to the cow and calf, he is carrying the iodine spray bottle as if he is armed with a gun, pointing it right at the momma. When he gets too close for her comfort, she charges at him and my Farmer sprays her with the iodine. He backs up and she backs off. He steps toward her again, she charges, then gets sprayed. They play this game for two or three rounds. Then my Farmer looks right at her and says to the cow “stop being so stupid”. And she does. Just like that. She doesn’t charge at him again. Even after he catches the calf and wrestles with it, she just stands there and watches. She is extremely close as she watches. I too watched in amazement. And I took pictures. (I was also ready to dial 911) There is no way I would be there with her that close. I would have been done and gone at the first charge. I am not brave with these cows. I try to be, but when it comes right down to it, I am afraid.

After my Farmer and I were headed away, I made the comment that I couldn’t believe he got that done with the way she was acting. He said “I knew she wasn’t to serious. She wasn’t blowing enough snot”. Really!?!?! That’s how he knew?!?! Guess that’s why he is the Farmer and I’m just his sidekick. He knows what he’s doing. Or at least he’s really good at faking it.

As for me, I will continue to leave all the new baby doctoring to my Farmer. If I have to, I can do it, but I would rather not. And I will only do it if it’s a nice momma cow. That’s why I continue to like Livin’ the Life, the Farm Life that is. My Farmer does all the hard stuff. 🙂