Tagging calves

THERE IS SOMETHING THAT I ABSOLUTELY HATE ABOUT THIS TIME OF YEAR! It's called, "Tagging calves." In order to identify a pair out on the open range all Summer, the calf must receive an ear tag bearing it's mother's number in one of it's ears. Now, a brand new baby calf doesn't much care, but a mother who has just pushed out it's beloved is another matter.

Earlier this week, when Cora and Andrew were both at work, it fell to me to go and help Robert tag the 6 new calves that were born that day. The first one we did was just a little huffy and I didn't mind it too much when Robert yelled that I get up in front of him with the baseball bat to protect him from her. She didn't really seem all that mad when I was behind Robert, but when I got out in front of him, I could see that she was not in love with him grabbing her baby and wrestling with it to get the tag in it's ear.

The second one, I got out in front of him right away because I could see that indeed was MY place to be as the protector of the tagger. This one backed off as soon as she saw the baseball bat and heard my growl--as much as a woman of 52 can growl.

The third one was another matter. She was snorting and pawing the ground. I shook the bat at her and whacked it down to show her that I would do that to her head if she came any closer. Now, if you have ever been in a showdown with a 1,000 + pound animal 5 feet away who is determined to get past you to her precious baby, you will know the real meaning of fear.

I kept gulping and hoping that Robert would say that the calf was tagged and I could get out of the way between the mother and the calf, but it was a little bit feisty and it took awhile. In the meantime, the mother came closer and closer to us and pawed the ground something awful. I was frozen to the spot, remembering getting trampled by that heifer last year, when suddenly a cry came out of my throat, "HELP US, LORD!"

At that exact second an angel came to our help, as I literally saw the large beast pushed to the side about 100 feet. She was so stunned that she lost all of her steam and just stood there shaking her head trying to figure out what had happened. PRAISE THE LORD FOR HIS PROTECTION AND PROVISION OF SAFETY!!!

Just moments later, Robert said that the tag was in the ear and that I could back out of there. He looked up then, and saw the cow gone, and was amazed that she had given up so easily. I guess you would have had to have seen it to believe it. Thank you, God!

Well, the next cow we outsmarted. She went into the corner of the fence line and Robert cut her off from her calf with the RAM. I opened the door on my side and poked the bat out at her. This distracted her enough so that Robert could get out the driver's side and tag the calf--piece of cake. I knew that if she would take a wild notion towards me, I'd just slam the door shut and she could bang her old head into the side of the vehicle. If she would decide to run around the RAM, I'd let Robert know in time and he could jump inside before she got around to plaster his hide.

To think that I've been doing this for 30 years with this man and so far we've never lost any skin. Once we got close. About 10 years ago, I felt led to take the pitchfork with me as we walked up the hill to the cattle at the other farm we were at before we bought this place. The cows were eating the bales that Robert had put on top of the trailer.

One new calf stood beside it's mama at the end of the trailer. Being we had walked up the hill, instead of taking a vehicle, the cow hadn't heard our approach as it was a very windy day. Robert sneaked up on the calf and almost had the tag in it's ear, when it let out a terrible beller. The mother came unglued and turned on Robert.

This took Robert by surprise and he put it in reverse something fast. This cow meant business. When Robert backed up, he tripped over a frozen chunk of manure and fell down. As I came out of shock, I realized that this cow was going to trample my husband into the ground. She had her head lowered, and definitely had the edge on him, and I saw myself a widow.

Then suddenly I remembered that I had the pitch fork in my hand. I raised it over my head and with every ounce of strength I had, just as she grunted her intent to kill, I whacked her on the head from the side. THUNK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Robert got up quickly, as the cow staggered from the blow, and we ran down the hill together breathless. How I praised God that day that I had followed my intuition and took that pitchfork up the hill with me although I had never done it before. Now, I've traded weapons for a baseball bat, as it's less likely to poke ME than a pitchfork would in the heat of battle.

Back to Thursday. The 5th cow was an oldy but goody. We got her walking away and by the time she turned around, it was all done. Why couldn't they all be that way?

Cow number 6 fell for the same trick we used on #4. We got her to go past the old school bus (which is used for a calf shelter) and the calf stayed between the bus and the barn. Robert was pretty much in an island as he tagged her. I kept the cow entertained by hanging my bat out of the RAM door. If she had decided to run around the vehicle and the bus, Robert would have jumped into the vehicle and been safe--of course the calf would have remained untagged. My role as distracter, then, is a vital role in the whole process. Sometimes it's down-right deadly and sometimes just scary--at any rate, it is the one thing about Spring which is down-right awful!

Sometimes the calves must remain untagged until a time when the mother isn't in such a murderous mood. Usually at the next feeding, we will watch for her to be off eating and then tag the calf. Sometimes the calf must go untagged because we come out when the mother is already eating, and we don't know who she is, so we can't give the tag her number.

Right now we're feeding one in the barn who was calf #7 the day I was out with Robert. We just could not figure out who the mother was. Robert was playing with it TRYING to get it to beller so that the mother would come, but nothing happened. That was really weird.

Since then Robert has been taking a bottle out to supplement it's milk supply, hoping that the mother would show up. Finally 2 days later, they brought the calf in as no mother had claimed it yet. Sometimes a dead cow might show up then, but nothing like that has happened, so that goes to show that a weakly mothering instinct is no good either.

So now this morning after Jacob and I milked the goats, I found Cora very upset as she had just had an experience similar to the one that I had with the "Angel" cow on Thursday. I offered to go back out with her and Andrew to try again, but she preferred Jacob, who can move faster than me. This left me to come in here and see what I could do to help energetically.

I prayed for wisdom to know what to do to help my children to be safe. The first thing that I had to do was cortices to all of the cows who would have their calves tagged today--there were 4 of them so far. Then I got the Reiki going to protect my children. Also the children needed Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to help them release the negative energies associated with other such situations in the past. This really helped ME too. Lastly, I had this wonderful thought, "I wonder if WRITING about tagging calves will help me to get rid of some of this built up stress at the thought of my children being out there facing mad mamas?" Hence, this blog post.

I decided to include a picture of a cow-calf pair that we had to get in the barn as she needed help and we ended up pulling the calf. Getting a cow into a barn, while she is in the middle of a difficult labor, is probably a topic that deserves it's own post, so I'll just say that I pray a LOT when this needs to be done too. It's worth it, though, when the calf is alive and we can see them happily bonding through the nursing process. It's another thing when, after 9 months of pregnancy and all of that work, the calf is dead as happened with one of Cora's cows about a month ago. It gets pretty gloomy around here then.

Mostly I started writing this to get rid of some steam while my children were out tagging calves. However, now they have come in all smiles at their success; they've taken their showers; and are eager for lunch. I guess that means that I'd best close this post about the hazards of tagging calves. If you happen to think of the farmer/ranchers at this time of year, I'm sure that there's not a one who wouldn't appreciate prayers for safety as they're out facing very protective mamas in the process of tagging calves.

SABBATH BLESSINGS TO ALL,

Dawn--the protector of the calf tagger