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Cattle

Remembering the Night I Saved a Cow and her Calf

April 27, 2020 /

There is a point, as it is melting in the fields, that the snow becomes soft enough that the cows can walk through but we can not drive our ATVs through it. Cows have a tendency to walk as far away as possible to calve. When you put the two together, it can turn into trouble. When this happened last week, we drove the tractor out and rescued the cow and her calf.

Rescue wagon

As we were doing this, I was reminded of a story from 2 years ago. I shared the story then on my old blog site. I figured I might as well share it again on this blog site. It was the first time I had pulled a calf by myself and hopefully the only time I will have to pull a calf by myself. Here is a picture I took last week, before all the snow melted, to show where this story took place.

Bare knob next to creek where the cow decided to calve.

Here is the reprint of….

“Crap! Bam! Plop! and He’s out!”

At our “just before dark” check, we find a cow that has starting into labor but still a ways off. She has wandered away from the rest of the herd and found a small bare knob. Bare ground is good. However it was a very small “isle”, surrounded by snow, and had a creek close by. Bad place to have a calf. Deep snow all around, no level ground, and a creek less than 10 feet away are 3 strikes again a new born calf trying to get up after he is born. My Farmer and his most trustworthy and helpful furry companion, Cooper, after some persuasion, get her off of her “high and dry” knob and we push her back to the feedlot to a better spot to calve.

Figuring all is right for the evening, back home we go so my Farmer can get some sleep before his 3 am check, figuring I will wake him if he’s needed during my watch. When I go back out to check things, I find that the cow has returned to the knob. She is standing up there on her “high and dry” knob like she is Queen of the Hill and very proud. It actually strikes me as kind of funny.

She still has not calved. There is no way I can get her off the knob and to a better spot by myself, (remember I may talk big, but really I am a bit afraid of the cows, especially the ones in labor. They tend to have an attitude.) I decided to give her some time and hope for the best, and check on her again in a bit. When I go back out, I find her laying down, still on the knob. She has pushed the calf’s head and front legs out. However, she can’t push anymore because her head and back are down hill and with the calf part way out, she is pretty much immobile. Another reason the knob was not a good place to calve. (But she wouldn’t listen to her Farmer now would she.) She’s in trouble and needs help now.

I phone my Farmer. It rings and rings, then it goes to voice mail. Dang it! I should have put his phone by his head!

Ok…this calf needs to come out NOW. His head and tongue are swollen so I know he’s been there for awhile. CRAP! What do I do? I hear my Farmer’s voice in my head say “well just grab a hold of his legs and pull!”.

Now, I have seen my Farmer do this many times, and I have been there to help pull. It’s always a tough pull for him, so how am I gonna do it by myself? Now my fear factor is setting in. Can I do this and can the cow hurt me? With the position she is in, I know there is no way she can hurt me so my be brave needle goes up a tad. I grab a hold of the calf’s legs and pull. He’s a slippery, slimy, BIG, little guy and he’s pretty stuck. I’m not strong enough to pull him. Double dang.

I continue to pull and will him out, starting to get frustrated, (and I guess I was very much panicking at this point, as I will point out later) and then momma pushes! And BAM! He comes half way out! Holy shit moly! Then my phone rings. It’s my Farmer. Calmly he says “What’s up Shirl?” I can’t believe he’s so calm! I have a crisis here! Calmly, I’m sure, I tell him I need help. The cow is down on her back and she can’t push the calf out. He’s on his way, he says. Well he better frickin‘ hurry!, I silently scream in my head.

I know I have to finish getting the calf out. I can do this I tell myself. So I pull some more, yelling at momma to push and yelling at baby to come and then PLOP! Just like that he’s OUT. Yes!!! We did it!

I clean out his month and nostrils. He’s breathing and alive. Hallelujah!

What an adrenaline rush! I can not get momma up though. My Farmer (finally) arrives and gets her up. (I shouldn’t be so hard on my Farmer. He really did come to my rescue in good time.)

Both momma and baby are alive. So awesome. If I would have waited another hour, the story would have been different. They both would have died. Yep, I saved the day…well night. I did have a little help….but I’m still CLAIMING IT!

After we got back to the house, my Farmer checked his voice mail. Evidently, when I put my phone back in my pocket after calling him, I forgot to hang up and you can hear me yelling “willing” the baby to come out. Sounds like maybe I was in a bit of a panic mode. OK. Yes, a complete panic mode. This little “recording” really was funny. My Farmer suggested I put it on my blog. I don’t think so. I don’t want to embarrass myself. It’s OK to laugh at him but not at me. 😉 Plus, I wouldn’t know how to put it on here.

My Farmer took the pair to the corral to keep on eye on them for a few days. Here are some pictures. You can still see the mud on the side of momma cow, and the baby’s head and front legs are still a bit swollen. Momma and baby are both doing fine.

cow
Muddy momma cow
baby calf
Baby calf I pulled doing great!

The other good thing about this night was that I bought myself a new pair of gloves the next time I went to town. The ones I was wearing that night are still out there in the field on that knob. There was NO WAY I was putting those slimy, yucky gloves back on!

There you have it. My story of the first calf I pulled all my myself, with a little help from momma cow. I hope you enjoyed it. Leave me a comment below, I love hearing from all of you. And don’t forget to follow me on Instagram and Facebook if you are not already. I really appreciate it.

Until next time, I’ll be here Livin’ the Life, the Farm Life that is, and hopefully, not pulling anymore babies!

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