A
Anonymous
To make a long story short - have I ever done that?
I have a cow (great opening line for a cattleman) and she is an old, ugly sway backed, swinging bagged thing. I am almost ashamed to let folks see her. God only knows how old she is - but I will wager that if she is below 12 years of age I would have a bunch of surprized cattlemen on hand. But her health is good and she has an iron constitution - if there is no grass she eats anything green - if there is no green she will eat anything that could be considered - including thistle. She has never been sick a day in her life and winters outside in the snow. One of my originals that lived on straw for two years in the prairies.
She is quiet. She is a lead cow and she is absolutely dead easy to handle - even with her 30 in span of horns. Not a LH, but a good set for a HH.
Any coyote or dog in the field better be quick, because I saw her toss one in the air about two years ago - she is pure hell on wheels with strange dogs and 'yotes. My own dogs give her very wide berth at all times. Amazing how agile she is with that big bag. Yet as quiet as a church mouse in the pens and chutes.
She is a built in calf protector - and it does not have to be hers.
But .... I digress.
Every year she throws the biggest calf and weans the biggest calf. Unfortunately, from about three generations back she has a little Simmental in her and she sometimes throws a yellow calf.
Every year she calves out on her own and I have to run her into the squeeze to get the calf started. The calf is healthy, it just does not know how to latch onto those big tits. We have to teach it. Her tits are so big I cannot get my hand around them and we have to shoot her with Salix and Predef to dry her down a bit. She produces so much milk her bag has become quite - no - extremely over sized and to watch her walk for the first couple of weeks after calving is almost painful.
Once that is done, we have never had to touch one of her calves - because of her conformation, we always sell her calf at weaning - never want that set of udder genetics to come back into the herd.
Every year I say this is the last time I do this - she goes on the truck after the calf is weaned. Every year the wife and kids talk me out of it. This year I have wife on side - at last!
But ... it seems there is always a but - this year I had to pop a couple of the "guest" cows after they calved out. We have been bottle feeding the calves at great expense. We just kept them in with the cull cow field and when they were hungry they would come to the gate for a drink.
One day wife cuts "swing bag" and her calf out and puts them in the cull pen. Lo and behold both orphans latch on and she lets them.
Now most who follow this board know I am a "never let the sun set on a down cow" kind of guy. I always figure it is better to shoot something that is worthless than it is to spend big bucks doctoring. I was going to fatten her and put her in the freezer. But this old girl is yet again safe in calf and handling three on her own to boot.
So, I have been looking for an animal like this to take on the odd orphan - just never considered trying her on the job - too many cows and too big a pasture to run the cows in one at a time to try them out on the adoption issue.
Eat her or keep her one more year?
Whadya' think?
(Gawd dang she is uuuugly!)
Bez'
I have a cow (great opening line for a cattleman) and she is an old, ugly sway backed, swinging bagged thing. I am almost ashamed to let folks see her. God only knows how old she is - but I will wager that if she is below 12 years of age I would have a bunch of surprized cattlemen on hand. But her health is good and she has an iron constitution - if there is no grass she eats anything green - if there is no green she will eat anything that could be considered - including thistle. She has never been sick a day in her life and winters outside in the snow. One of my originals that lived on straw for two years in the prairies.
She is quiet. She is a lead cow and she is absolutely dead easy to handle - even with her 30 in span of horns. Not a LH, but a good set for a HH.
Any coyote or dog in the field better be quick, because I saw her toss one in the air about two years ago - she is pure hell on wheels with strange dogs and 'yotes. My own dogs give her very wide berth at all times. Amazing how agile she is with that big bag. Yet as quiet as a church mouse in the pens and chutes.
She is a built in calf protector - and it does not have to be hers.
But .... I digress.
Every year she throws the biggest calf and weans the biggest calf. Unfortunately, from about three generations back she has a little Simmental in her and she sometimes throws a yellow calf.
Every year she calves out on her own and I have to run her into the squeeze to get the calf started. The calf is healthy, it just does not know how to latch onto those big tits. We have to teach it. Her tits are so big I cannot get my hand around them and we have to shoot her with Salix and Predef to dry her down a bit. She produces so much milk her bag has become quite - no - extremely over sized and to watch her walk for the first couple of weeks after calving is almost painful.
Once that is done, we have never had to touch one of her calves - because of her conformation, we always sell her calf at weaning - never want that set of udder genetics to come back into the herd.
Every year I say this is the last time I do this - she goes on the truck after the calf is weaned. Every year the wife and kids talk me out of it. This year I have wife on side - at last!
But ... it seems there is always a but - this year I had to pop a couple of the "guest" cows after they calved out. We have been bottle feeding the calves at great expense. We just kept them in with the cull cow field and when they were hungry they would come to the gate for a drink.
One day wife cuts "swing bag" and her calf out and puts them in the cull pen. Lo and behold both orphans latch on and she lets them.
Now most who follow this board know I am a "never let the sun set on a down cow" kind of guy. I always figure it is better to shoot something that is worthless than it is to spend big bucks doctoring. I was going to fatten her and put her in the freezer. But this old girl is yet again safe in calf and handling three on her own to boot.
So, I have been looking for an animal like this to take on the odd orphan - just never considered trying her on the job - too many cows and too big a pasture to run the cows in one at a time to try them out on the adoption issue.
Eat her or keep her one more year?
Whadya' think?
(Gawd dang she is uuuugly!)
Bez'
