The New Calf

Spring has arrived on the farm.

As I look out the kitchen window I am rewarded by views of intensely green hills dotted with sleek black cattle.  The trees are fuzzily green with tiny, new leaves.  The air is filled with the sounds of birds, soft cattle lowing, dogs barking, and wind chimes being pounded by the brisk spring winds.  (When you live on a hill you get lots of wind!)

One of my favorite things is to walk the farm in the spring to see the fields come to life.  So, dragging the collie out of the house, I trudged off to see what was changing and growing.  We carefully picked our way through the mud around the feed barn and wandered down the hillside, admiring the dandelions sprinkling the fields.  We checked out the old walnut tree that has been home to generations of gray squirrels, looked for interesting footprints in the soft mud by the little gulley, crossed the little trickle of water and approached the creek. 

I love our creek.  It is shallow,  with lots of rock ledges that create little waterfalls, ripples and quiet pools.  The old trees lean over and form a shady tunnel in the summer that the sparkling water flows through.  It's full of crawdads which provide hours of fun for the grandkids and food for the huge blue herons that frequent the creek banks. 

As I walked down the creek toward the old bent tree that makes a perfect seat to reflect and ponder, I watched carefully where I stepped.  In a field that is home to a herd of cows, you are wise to watch where you put your feet.  I had already noticed the cattle grazing peacefully on the hill, enjoying the sun and warm weather.  The collie was off following his own idea of a fun pathway.

About that time I noticed a pool of bloody fluid on the edge of the creek bank.  "Hmmm.  We must have a new baby somewhere." I thought, continuing on my stroll.  Then a new sound penetrated my spring induced trance, Galump!  Galump! Galump!  Suddenly I realized that I was hearing the awkward gallop of a cow--graceful they are not!! My head snapped up and I swiveled around.  Sure enough bearing down on me was a mama cow in full charge!  Somehow, I had managed to get between her and her calf, and she was not happy! 

Glancing around, I frantically searched for the calf, all the while backing slowly up.  Then I spotted a pair of ears, peeking over a hump of dirt on the opposite creek bank.  I was lucky that mama had called to him and he had raised his head.  These little fellows are almost impossible to spot when mama has put them in a spot and told them to be still.  You can almost walk on one laying quietly in the grass.  Neat trick when you are black. Now that I knew his location I could move away from the baby and hope that she would go to him and forget me.  I'm too old to climb trees and an angry mama cow is nothing to fool with.  Fortunately, this period of over-protectiveness  wears off in a few weeks. 

Easing out of her area I called the dog and decided that it was time to return to the house.  A field full of new mamas probably isn't my best choice for a walk.  Later that evening, when Hubby got home from work, I told him about my findings and the new baby.  Things got busy and it was dusk before he went to find the baby and tag it.  (Each new baby gets an ear-tag with his ID number so we can keep up with his paperwork and health papers.  Last year they got busy and had several calves that got big enough to make ear tagging them a rodeo.  So this year we are working hard to catch them early!)  Hubby returned to the house and reported that he had evidently missed him in the low light.

After a restless night, Hubby was up before dawn fretting over the baby he had missed. With rain in the forecast, babies on a creek bank weren't safe. Tossing the covers off he announced he was going to check on it right now!  "What??" I mumbled from the covers, "NOW?  It's still dark!!"  "I've worried about that calf all night and I'm going to find it NOW!", he retorted.  "Umppf! You can't find a black calf in the dark ." I muttered pulling the covers over my head. 

By dawn we were riding over the back field in the ranger looking for a small black calf or an anxious mother.  We counted calves.  No increase.  We checked mamas.  Everyone calm and watching us with sleepy eyes.  We drove and drove.  The sun climbed.  No new calf in the field.  No mama looking for a baby that was missing.  No cows that were not pregnant that were supposed to be.  Hubby is now looking at me with that questioning look in his eye.  "I guess I could have been wrong and it wasn't that new...."  He kept looking at me.  "Maybe, I just didn't notice it was already tagged in the excitement of the moment...." 

We drove back to the house.  I've been fired as cattle checker.

We did have a wonderful sunrise ride.