Snow

Snow can really be a pain in the backside especially on a farm when it makes feeding and watering livestock more difficult. One such occasion stands out in my mind and I figured it would be mildly amusing to share. Here goes:

A few years ago we had ourselves a good old fashioned blizzard. We're talking a few feet of snow. It was almost up to the horses' chest. The weather had stayed cold for weeks and none of it melted. This made feeding hay with the tractor quite difficult you see.

We use big roundbales to feed our herd and that required firing up the old Oliver and driving to the other side of the 40 where Alan kept our supply of bales. Sure it was a great idea when it came time to feed in the back pasture, but not so handy when you had to drive the tractor from the barnyard ALL the way down there in 3' of snow or more.

It was my first MN blizzard and frankly I didn't think it would be a big deal. Tractors can get through anything, right? Wrong. Our old Olivers do not have front-wheel assist (4 wheel drive for tractors) and the front end had basically no steering. That's ok because you can steer with your brakes (tractors have left & right brakes) except for the fact that going forwards was near impossible.

After a few cuss words Alan managed to get the tractor down the cowlane which was roughly half way there when he got good and stuck. So then his dad fires up another tractor and goes down to help. After he hooks on there is much smoke coming from the tractors' exhaust and more yelling. It was about then when I heard Alan's tractor go: Puhpuhpuhpuhhhh.....   Out of gas. That was followed by a few more cuss words which I could clearly hear half a 40 away.

I decided to try and help so I saddled up Trigger our trusty Appaloosa gelding and headed down there. I also thought to tie an old 2x4 plank to the saddle horn to use as a shim for the tractor tire in hope of getting it unstuck. The next matter was getting there. The chest-deep snow was panked down in the tractor track so I rode him in that. It was quite narrow but he handled it like a pro toting the board behind like a trooper.

Al was glad I came down and though the board was of little use, he hopped on Trigger and rode back to pick up a spare can of gas. Horses, the original ATV.

There's one in every bunch...

That time of the year is almost upon us, calving season! The culmination of choosing the right bull for the right cow/heifer and finally seeing your hard work in the flesh. There's something very satisfying about it. You can breed for specific traits and improve conformation or, if you're not careful you can end up with a great big batch of crazy.

Over the years we've gone through many bulls of various breeds. When I arrived in MN Alan & his dad were running Simmental/Simangus bulls. They looked big and impressive with nice white markings that I was fond of but, we had no luck with the particular lines we had.

First thing we noticed was the calves were nuts. Not just a little nervous around people, I mean, clear the fence, smash the gates down loco! Try to herd them into a pen? Forget it. They ran like deer and dove through a five wire barbed fence like it was nothing. Me being a newby to cattle at the time wondered if they were all this way. Certainly not.

Due to the temperament issues we were not able to keep many replacement heifers. I'll never forget one in particular. She taught me a whole nother level of respect for cattle. She was black and white with a big black spot on her nose. We'd penned her for vaccinations and she just snapped. She pawed the ground, bellered. She wanted to mow us into the dirt.

Al & his dad wisely decided to sell her and they barricaded up the pen overnight to haul her the next morning to the sales barn. Only problem, she had escaped. She smashed the upper gate (chained upon the regular gate to prevent jumping) and had gotten into the pasture. Al and I decided to round her up with the 4-wheeler and a cattle prod. Probably not the best idea.

As testimony to how nuts this heifer was she took after us in the open field. More commonly cattle only get pushy when confined. It certainly wasn't normal. Finally we chased her into the swamp and Alan decides to go in after her. "Can't loose her" he says. I was less than supportive of this idea, but there was no stopping him.

Pretty soon I hear frantic yelling, she was after him! Al had climbed a partially fallen tree to escape and the psycho heifer was thrashing it with her head in hopes of getting him. It was the most scared I'd ever been. I wondered if the only way to get Al out safely would be to shoot her.

Fortunately she became distracted by Al's dad walking forward to get a closer look. She turned and went down in the mud in the swamp allowing Al a few minutes to make a run for it. I picked him up at the edge of the swamp with the 4-wheeler and rode to safety.

Needless to say, we no longer run Simmental cattle. Some people had good luck with them, but for me, all I think of is that crazy heifer who tried to kill us. The guys at the sales barn weren't too happy with her either. She busted two gates on them and they cleared out the bottom row of the seats when she came into the sales arena.

Fast forward to this years calving: Some nice Gelbvieh/Angus and Hereford mixes are about to hit the ground. We've had good luck with these crosses and are hopeful for another nice batch.

While we never took a picture of the actual crazy heifer, she looked roughly like this.