Calf Dilemna . . .

[Kathie in Thorp]

Spinandslide -- Back in the early days of pygmy goat ownership (former life), my mentor, who had 30+ head of PG's and kept a baby monitor running from barn to house 24/7, told me that she could recognize the voices of all her goats. I thought, "Yeah, sure you can!!" A couple years later, with 20 in my barn, I could too!! :roll:

Iowa52 -- Our 2 youngest grandkids named Freckles, and won a trip to Dairy Queen with the winning selection. My husband's mother died a few weeks ago. When one of our cows was due last spring, she pestered us about what we were going to name the expected calf. I finally just told her that no matter what, bull or heifer, we'd name it after her. That yearling heifer is Margie. Bless your :heart: , Marge!

SusieQ -- Love that story! Obviously, that guy never kept a cow over a year -- or he had to keep track of numbers of notches per cow. :bang:

VanC -- I keep supplies of hard-butt, BS, and WTF repellants on hand in sz. large. Need them now and then.

 

[highgrit]

I can recognize some of their voices for sure, and my wife and daughter like to name some of them. It sill amazes me how different cattle can be, no to look or act the same.

 

[djinwa]

Maybe numbers are the way to go. This reminds me of growing up among 7 kids. My dad would introduce me at church as the number 4 son.

How many neighbors do you have? Maybe you could call this guy number 3.

 

[spinandslide]

yes Kathie..I know my sheep all have different "baaaa's", the horses have different nickers, the dogs different barks..makes sense cows would moo differently.

I have one cow who moo's like an elk..I imagine you can hear her into the next county she is so loud, epsc if Im late with dinner... :lol:

VanC said it well..plenty of those hardbutts on here and in real life..bottom line, as he said..you're feedin' 'em and carin' for 'em..nobody can tell you what you can or cant do with them.

 

[Alan]

Just browsing through this post, but made me realize something. We have a reg. herd, so I name all the cattle I plan to keep and paper, I don't name steers. But even with my older cows I find myself referring to them by their tag number and I have to think about what their name is, I even know their linage quicker than their name. Right or wrong, I know I won't worry about a name so much, but that's just me.

Just a thought,
Alan

 

[chippie]

Years ago when our kids were in elementary school, our family milk cow had a Brahman cross heifer and our daughter Elizabeth named her "Sandy". Elizabeth also had a Belgian Blue steer for our fair. One day he was a little bloated and was laying in the pen making some noise.

Our youngest son (he was about 8 ) asked what the heifer's name was. My husband was only half listening and thought that he asked why the steer was grunting. So my husband replied, "He's farting & stuff".

Joey went to the back gate and hollared, "Come on Fartin & Stuff" to get the heifer to come up. The name stuck. Elizabeth showed the heifer at the fair in the Commercial Heifer show, and whenever anyone asked what the heifer's name was, someone would reply - her name is Fartin' and Stuff but my sister calls her Sandy. ;-) Elizabeth would get so mad at her siblings. LOL

 

[redcowsrule33]

Shoot, you guys are creative. Ours are all named Dammit....

Just kidding, that's their just first names.

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

Chippie and Redcowsrule 33 -- I'm so enjoying the stories I'm hearing! Thx!

"Dammit Mammer Jammer!" "Dammit Margie!" Yes, we do use DAMMIT as the true first names of our cattle.

 

[dun]

Chippie and Redcowsrule 33 -- I'm so enjoying the stories I'm hearing! Thx!

"Dammit Mammer Jammer!" "Dammit Margie!" Yes, we do use DAMMIT as the true first names of our cattle.

Our Corgi thought she had 3 names, Tigger, Here, NOW

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

Smiles, Dun! Have a co-worker w/ a Corgi. She's proved to be a beautiful handful. I think she has many names, most of which have nothing to do with a command.

Saw the cutest video today via Youtube, but was not able to download it. A cattle dog found a human statue seated on a bench, and was trying to get the bronze statue to throw a stick. Check Youtube.com for dog human statute fetch and I think you can find it.

 

[dun]

Smiles, Dun! Have a co-worker w/ a Corgi. She's proved to be a beautiful handful. I think she has many names, most of which have nothing to do with a command.

Saw the cutest video today via Youtube, but was not able to download it. A cattle dog found a human statue seated on a bench, and was trying to get the bronze statue to throw a stick. Check Youtube.com for dog human statute fetch and I think you can find it.

Here's a link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8DiOthAKek
And people claim Border Collies are hyper!

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

Save by Dun, again!

 

[Suzie Q]

Another story from me.

Two City friends came to visit. Glenda and Verelle.

When they asked hubby what their names were he pointed to a cow and said that one is Glenda and that one is Verelle.

So they were called Glenda and Verelle until I said he could not call them that so then they became Not Glenda and Not Verelle.

Until the day that Glenda came to visit and asked where Verelle was and I answered that she had been off with David (Next door's bull). Mortified I realised what I had just said as the real Verelle had had a bad break up with a David.

So after that that cows name became Definitely Not Verelle.

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

UPDATE: Little TINKERBELL is nearing her 2 week BD (born 16 days early via AI), and she's doing just fine! Nursing well (now has all quadrants figured out), runs, bounces on her tiny feet, and is naturally curious and checking out hay and water. On the weekend, will turn them out into a short pasture, but she's way too little to turn out into the big pasture as a (and the only) play toy for 750 lb. sibs. Second AI'd, older cow is due end of the month. I expect she'll go that far, or maybe a little longer. S'all good!

 

[brimmer X]

We tag most of our cows, but do name the standouts. I bought one of my first cows, and she was really an ugly cow black and white. You couldn't tell if she was a long horn or holstein cross but she milked good and calved like clock work. She had one horn off and one that stuck out about 6 or 8 inches. It looked like it was sawn off or smoothed out with a file. She became known as Maybeline. We had a set of twin registered brahma heifers born known as Lavern and Shirley. I still have Shirley. One extremely cautious cow called Psycho, you never knew what she would do. She is history. Our biggest standout right now is Maude, a big old Charolaise cow. Don't worry what people think about naming your cattle. I find it a good conversation piece.

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

Still loving the stories!

 

[LazyARanch]

Some of ours have names, some are just numbers. Depends on their personalities! (or lack of...)

We've got Donkey, the Old Red Hen, Crazy Red, 66, Angel, Lucky, Frosty, Goggles, Snirt's Momma and Snirt, George, Rocky, Fat Kenny, Pitiful Pete (a hard luck bull if I've EVER seen one....), Fancy, Spook, Twin 7, Twin 41, Rosie, Posie, Blondie, Ruby, Olive and Belle (after the granddaughters), Jeannie (after the MIL) :lol:

So about half the cow herd have names and the rest numbers!

Just a habit I picked up from having horses first. retty: and hubby goes along with it.

Our two bulls are both sired by Mytty in Focus but they couldn't be more different. Fat Kenny
is the easiest keeping air-plant I've EVER seen, and Pitiful Pete is hard-keepin' and always limping or lumpy. He got thin quick out with the cows this year so we pulled him early. If we can get some weight on him, he's gone!! Originally they were just Kenny and Pete after the trucks and the rest of their monikers came later. They were pretty similar when we bought them in size and weight but obviously the one flourished on pasture and the other didn't.

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

An air-plant bull . . . lucky you! LOL! Keep them stories rolling in. I can never laugh enough in a day !!

 

[angus9259]

You could name a calf "Dumb AS$" so when it when over by the neighbor's house you could call it . . . . "hey dumb as$".