Calving is Quite the Experience

Last night I was able to go out and help Jared tag some calves.  He had about three to do and really didn't want to get too far behind!  I went out to help him walk the cows up to where he feeds them where he can put the calves into the little trailer to tag them.  We can only drive so far out into the field because it is still too wet and Jared feels a lot safer tagging in the little trailer than completely exposed out in the field with the mother breathing down his neck!!  Anyway, with two of us walking cows to where the ground is much drier, worked really well.  We did notice though that one of the cows walking with the others did not have her calf with her, so after the other two were tagged and accounted for we went walking out in the field to see if we could find the missing little calf.  We were able to find her and she looked dry and alert.  We nudged at her to get up so we could walk her to the Jeep and tag her and then take her to her mom.  Well, she would not get up yet she looked really alert, so Jared decided to pick her up and carry her some of the way, the decision made as the sun was slowly making its descent behind the mountains!  He carried her about 50 feet and realized she was a rather big calf, about this same time she started to realize this was not natural for a cow and started kicking and flailing about.  Jared put her down and to our amazement she WAS able to walk, no not walk but run!  She bellowed and kicked her little back legs up and took off in the WRONG direction.  Jared decided to bring the Jeep to the gate closest to where we were while I continued to walk with her toward this gate.  Well, she definitely had a different idea.  As I was trying to steer her toward the gate she would side step in the wrong direction, toward the general area we had found her.  I even asked her if she was being stubborn because her mom told her to stay exactly where she left her until she came back from eating!  This stubborn little calf and I made it the fence line, totally not where we were supposed to go, I was sure I had her now because there was no way she would go through the fence, right?!  As soon as I had that thought I knew she had me again!  She did go through, I watched her walk a little ways into our neighbours field and made a mental note of the general direction she was in and I continued on to the gate where I was supposed to meet Jared.  This field happened to be much wetter than ours and again we had to walk to look for her.  Jared finally spotted her, I still couldn't see her until I was almost on top of her, and this time we carried her together to the Jeep, at least 200 meters away!  If anyone had seen us they would get quite the laugh!  Jared carried her front end while I carried her back end, where is the fairness in that!?  With three rest stops, mostly because she would start to kick and we would lose our hold on her, we made it!  Talk about the ultimate workout!  I really enjoyed being out with Jared, I love working alongside him, even though more troubles seem to arise when I am out there, he remains generally patient with me!  These calves are the prettiest colour, almost blonde.  The bulls that bred these cows were charlais, white in colour, so mixing with the red has resulted in quite the combination!  The only downfall with this colour is the calves blend right in with the dried grass and stubble making them much harder to see, especially from a distance!  When Jared writes the calf up in his book he always makes a note whether the calf is small, medium or large, I told him he had to write HEAVY for the calf we carried halfway across the field!  We are up to 15 calves, only one has died (of course on my watch :( ).  It has been quite the experience, one I truly enjoy with Jared by my side!

I have to thank Myrna for watching the kids for us while we were out doing this!  What we thought might only take an hour ended up taking over two!  When we came in the kids were in their jammies ready for bed!  I also felt bad for Emry, we had to have a super quick family home evening so we could tag calves with a sufficient amount of sunlight!  Jared got Emry on her bike to practice riding, and put training wheels on Emry's old bike for Calum to use!  It was a frustrating experience but at least we were able to incorporate a lesson.  We told her that with lots of practice and patience she would soon be riding all over the farm!  Jared even taught her proper bike safety and how to use hand signals for turning and stopping!  It was a great evening, a memory that will stay with me for quite some time!

Poor kid, a pink bike, hopefully he won't develop a complex!