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May 2008
A Cow’s Life
Dear Friends,
I guess we’ve all been spending a lot of time in the pastures and calving lots lately. The bad weather and mud has forced most farmers who raise cattle to be even more vigilant and watchful, particularly with those baby calves being born every day.
When a person spends a lot of time with the herd, even if it is a small herd, you learn a lot about the nature of cows, and you have time to ponder their tendencies.
The other day, when the weather was turning colder and the sleet and wind were beating against my face as I tried to roll a bale of hay out for the cows, I noticed behind the shelterbelt, one lone cow resting on the grass, chewing her cud, and about five baby calves resting beside her.
All of the other cows had left that spot and followed me with the tractor and bale. But that lone cow stayed at her post, I suppose as a "babysitter" for the rest of the babies in the herd.
I’ve noticed this situation many times, but the cows change every time. I guess whoever draws the short straw gets to stay with the kids, while everybody else gets to eat early.
Individual cows have different personalities too. You have the overly protective mothers. You know the ones. They give you the evil eye when you are about a quarter mile from their calf. Even if you are trying to tag another calf, if you are within a hundred yards of their kid, they run you down like a dog.
Those mother cows have pushed me through fences, chased me into the cab of the pickup, through the cab of the pickup and sent me head first and feet in the air into the box of the pickup. I’ve leaped (and I don’t leap very well) into bale feeders and hid in shelterbelts. One cow even got me on the ground and started rolling me down the hill, like I was a rodeo clown.
Then you have the mothers who are always calm and take everything into perspective. When you approach their calves, they are watchful, but not aggressive. If you tag their calf, as long as the little guy doesn’t bellow out, they are content with the situation. These are my favorites. They take good care of their babies, but my presence doesn’t threaten them.
I have seen these supposedly calm mothers give chase to coyotes or our farm dog when he gets too close, so I know that they will take a stand if they have to.
There are a few cows that take the other side of the extreme. They couldn’t care less about their calves. If the calf gets stuck in the mud, caught in the fence, it is no skin off their nose. They just head for the bale pile and pig out. No darn kids to bother them or get in the way. These cows are even worse than the overly protective ones, because they often abandon their babies in bad weather, or for no good reason at all.
One mother cow that we’ve had in our herd for quite a few years has a tendency for twins. Normally, we have to remove and bottle feed one of the calves from a set of twins because a cow won’t "take" the calf as her own or because she doesn’t have enough milk to feed two. But this cow has enough milk and has raised three sets of twins in recent years, all season long.
But she, too, has tendencies that are kind of comical. When the calves get a bit older and, pardon me, "calf around" too much in the pasture, she bellows out and lets them know they need to settle down. And she is often the first cow to crawl over or under the fence in late summer, seeking a little extra forage to keep her milk supply up and, just as likely, seeking a little peace and quiet away from her over zealous twin calves.
But, I’m sure she only does this when she can find another cow to "babysit" for her.
W.K. Kellogg Foundation
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