Today we moved our cows from the neighbors pasture to our other neighbors pasture. It’s only about 75 feet from one to the other but due to the timing, David our neighbor had to do the move himself. Since he’s never done a move like this before it was a little unnerving for him. Miguel and I both had to be off doing other things so before we got missing we went over to check on David and see how he was doing. While we were there, we went to check on Curious, #11. She had shown some signs of bloat last week and we’d been steady checking on her every time we were over there to see how she was doing. I knew that Curious had winter calves so I knew she wasn’t pregnant. Maybe I should check my records before I know things so well. Well today, we discovered the source of her bloat.
Turns out her last calf was an early May calf so of course she is due. Curious had dropped a perfect little girl calf in the woods just shortly before we arrived. The calf was up and walking, nursing and doing all the right things. Curious looked ok too so we left them in the woods to enjoy the shade and the quiet.
Fast forward the rest of the day and I go back to check on David and check how the cows are doing. All the cows have been moved into the new pasture and are happily grazing, including Curious. However David immediately says he thinks the calf didn’t move with the rest of them. I give Curious a minute and sure enough, she’s looking back at the old pasture too often. Spork is with me so I have him drive the truck into the pasture while David and his friend Charles both ride four wheelers over to the woods to look for the calf. By the time Spork and I arrive, they have located the calf safe and sound in the woods. I pick the calf up and carry her kicking and squirming to the back of the truck and then tell Spork to take us out of there. Of course, he can’t see over the steering wheel and he’s managed to drive us into the wet spot I told him to avoid. We were stuck in 2 wheel drive, 4 wheel high, and 4 wheel low. The whole time I’m in the back of the truck holding the calf so she doesn’t escape. Finally Spork takes my spot holding the calf and I get a strap and tie off to David’s four wheeler. After a bit of back and forth we finally get unstuck and the whole gaggle of people and cow head up to the other pasture. We unload the little calf into the pasture and she immediately starts circling us trying to figure out which one of us is her mom. I call Curious who after a few calls sees we have her calf and comes running looking very much like a freight train barreling right for us. Spork stands beside me, I stand out in the pasture with the calf, and David edges away and gets out the gate. 1200 pounds of running angry cow didn’t look like a good idea to him. He’s probably the smart one but I’ve known this cow her whole life. She was running to the calf and didn’t care about us.
Mom and daughter quickly reunited and wandered off into the pasture to do cow stuff. I joked with David about bailing out on us and we called it a day. Just another day on the farm.