Tag'n Calves

When you think of dangerous animals and farming, you probably think: bull. But, what on a farm can as dangerous as a bull and just as ornery? A cow with a baby.

Each spring with the arrival of baby calves, Al sticks his neck out to go into the yard and tag the newborn calves and spray their navel with iodine to prevent infection. While this is a necessary part of raising cattle, we seem to have trouble convincing some of the mama cows it's a good idea.

To the cows anything that touches their baby is a threat. A dog, a wolf, a human. Now most cows will simply circle nearby and wait until you finish with their calf- others have no intention of letting you anywhere near their baby.

The farmer must know his herd. He needs to know which cows are aggressive, which are calm and plan accordingly. Sure there can be an issue with a first calf heifer (don't know how she'll react) or a newly purchased cow. It's great to see a cow be protective to fend off wolves, but not so great for us when they want to bulldoze you into the mud.

Over the years Al and his dad have had some notoriously protective cows. Up until recently it was Ol Google Eyes. She was black with a white face and two black eye patches and was the most ornery cow in the herd. No dog, or wolf would dare come near her- she'd come charging. In order to get Google Eye's calf, Al would have someone drive a pickup into the field, would bail out, nab the calf and climb into the truckbed and tag it there so she couldn't get him.

This year the trouble came from a solid red cow. Odd thing was, she hadn't even calved yet. I went with Al into the cow yard to help with tagging (my job was to spray iodine) and the first calf went great. On to no. 2. The mama cow backed off, but this other one came right up bellering and pawing. Not good.

We tried yelling, making a bluff charge (to back her off) and she luckily retreated then circled right back. The calf we were after ducked under the fence and Al crawled under and pursued it. He was yelling that I should crawl under too. Meanwhile, I kept an eye on the ornery cow who was occupied watching the other calves (and satisfied no one was near). I had made a run to a nearby bale-ring (empty hay feeder) and was prepared to jump in for some protection while I debated.

I ended up heading out the gate keeping an eye behind me for an angry cow. Luckily this cow decided to back off -but a truly ornery cow would keep charging. Lesson for me: Learn to duck a 5 strand electric fence. Remember to be more worried about the cow than possibly getting zapped by the fencer.

The herd

Babies taking a rest