The Simple Life

[Anonymous]

I was enjoying this post before it got all political. When I was a kid, my father raised purebred hereford cattle. They were a pretty docile bunch. As a kid of ten, I would go and tag the calves after they were first born and we never had a cow that took offense to that. I was always told that if you stand on the opposite side of the calf when you are tagging, the cow would never hurt you. When I bought my own farm, I wanted to go my own way. I ran around and picked up commercial cow-calf pairs from here and there of mixed breeds. I bought a few that a fellow had advertised as highlanders. One that I picked up in that bunch was a different breed. A little grey horned cow that had the best calf of the bunch. Every place this cow went, it was like watching a movie at 1 1/2 speed. Having only dealt with herefords and having been out of the cattle loop for about twenty years, I just thought she must be a busy cow, just like those busy people you see who are always rushing everywhere. When spring came and calving started (we pasture calve), I searched high and low for this cow for the best part of a day. Finally, I heard a soft moo from the deepest part of the swampy bush in the corner of the property. There in a clearing, surrounded by red slap willows, I found the cow and her new baby calf. She looked a little agitated but she is a busy cow, I thought. As long as you keep the calf between you and her you'll be fine. I confidently approached the calf keeping it between the cow and I. All of a sudden, there was this ungodly sound I didn't even think a cow could make. The cow bowled right over the calf. As I ran, i felt a horn in the backside. I don't know how I managed, but suddenly there was a tree between the cow and me. She was persistent and kept trying to get at me for the next few minutes. I finally managed to carefully back away. I lost my hat and when I went back to get it, it had been stomped into the ground and was covered with fresh cow patty. That cow spent the rest of the summer stalking me before I sent her for slaughter to the fall sale. When I shipped her she was 900 lbs and the calf that she raised was just under 600 at 7 months. How come the most crazy cattle have the best calves. I guess the moral of this story is that if your starting out, be careful what you buy, it might come back and hit you in the butt.

 

[CattleAnnie]

I feel for you, Sash, as I've been there on that account many a time.
Have gotten some excellent bred cows through the sale ring, and have gotten a few certifiable ding-bats as well (unfortunately).
The worst one was a black Salers cow. She tipped the scales at a nice 1600lb+, and was adept at giving me the willies when I checked the cows at night, due to an uncanny ability to silently metamorphise two feet from behind your back. You'd be wandering through the pen, shining the light at various butts, make a turn in the opposite direction, and there she was, in all her glory. Big, eerily silent, with a long narrow head that made it seem like both eyes portruded from the same socket. Yep. She was christened "Frankencow" before she ever delivered a calf. And when she delivered, she exceeded her title. Raging hormones and maternal instinct barely contained by her hide (made my ex-sister-in-law seem like Mother Theresa). Usually when I'm dealing with an overly-excited mom, I like to carry a long handled pitchfork with me (I know it sounds mean, but one little prick with the tines generally garners a whole world of respect from a cow, as whoever has the biggest horns wins), but in Frankie's case, it only serves as bit of a buffer zone, giving you a little three second window to run, crawl, leap, or fly the heck away from her calf. That cow got so wound up, she would hit the fork with all her might repeatedly, was everything you could do to stay upright - just sort of brace yourself between hits. I'm not even going to tell you what a joy it was when I found out that the teat her calf had been sucking turned out to be a dud (the performance of getting her into the barn, then the maternity pen, hobbled -cause guess who can kick like a mule - well, you get the gist of it...my collie earned her respect and my eternal gratitude that day). It's a blessing that the auction mart always has a berth for beasts of her character. Just ticks me off that some shyster would bother to sell a cow like that as a bred. Some animals are full of bluff, but that one will kill someone if given the chance. The only place for an animal like that is cut and wrapped.
Take care and happy calving.

 

[dun]

Interesting note on the Saler cow. The only time I felt like I was being stalked was by a bunch of Saler recip cows. Every time one of the other cows would move, there would stand a couple of Salers eyeing me. Move to the other side of the pen, a cow would move out of the way and there were those spooky Salers cows again. Eirie feeling

dun

I feel for you, Sash, as I've been there on that account many a time.
Have gotten some excellent bred cows through the sale ring, and have gotten a few certifiable ding-bats as well (unfortunately).
The worst one was a black Salers cow. She tipped the scales at a nice 1600lb+, and was adept at giving me the willies when I checked the cows at night, due to an uncanny ability to silently metamorphise two feet from behind your back. You'd be wandering through the pen, shining the light at various butts, make a turn in the opposite direction, and there she was, in all her glory. Big, eerily silent, with a long narrow head that made it seem like both eyes portruded from the same socket. Yep. She was christened "Frankencow" before she ever delivered a calf. And when she delivered, she exceeded her title. Raging hormones and maternal instinct barely contained by her hide (made my ex-sister-in-law seem like Mother Theresa). Usually when I'm dealing with an overly-excited mom, I like to carry a long handled pitchfork with me (I know it sounds mean, but one little prick with the tines generally garners a whole world of respect from a cow, as whoever has the biggest horns wins), but in Frankie's case, it only serves as bit of a buffer zone, giving you a little three second window to run, crawl, leap, or fly the heck away from her calf. That cow got so wound up, she would hit the fork with all her might repeatedly, was everything you could do to stay upright - just sort of brace yourself between hits. I'm not even going to tell you what a joy it was when I found out that the teat her calf had been sucking turned out to be a dud (the performance of getting her into the barn, then the maternity pen, hobbled -cause guess who can kick like a mule - well, you get the gist of it...my collie earned her respect and my eternal gratitude that day). It's a blessing that the auction mart always has a berth for beasts of her character. Just ticks me off that some shyster would bother to sell a cow like that as a bred. Some animals are full of bluff, but that one will kill someone if given the chance. The only place for an animal like that is cut and wrapped.
Take care and happy calving.

 

[Jake]

We had a saler cross steer in the lot this summer that was his way. There is a little creek that runs through the corner of the lot and that's the water source on a good or even mediocre year and when we'd go down to check the fences or water he was always there you turn around and look on top of the side and nothing there turn around half a second later and he was right in your back pocket. If you were in the open he'd be out of sight one second and almost running you over the next. It gave you the heeby jeebies walkin around and just having to wait for him to scare the crap out of you. He only actually took me once but thank god it was the day he was getting shipped so I didn't have to keep that in the back of my head.

 

[Cattle Rack Rancher]

Those are the kind of things that I wanted to hear when I started this post. I have an angus cross cow that likes to approach from behind me, and an angus cross bull as well. I think (I hope) it is just because they are curious. Anybody else out there got any stories of cow encounters that they would rather forget.

 

[arrowhunter]

Here's my little story, I had a charlais cross cow that I got at the dreaded sales ring. She seem a little wild eyed and nervous but never tried anything when I would walk around the cows.........Until she had her calf. Most of the time there is still a little snow on the ground or it still somewhat froze when we calf so if we want a calf inside we just pull a sled behind the atv, toss the calf in and the mother happily follows. Not her!! I no sooner pulled up to the calf and she let out a beller that made the hair on my neck stick out. She proceeded to hammer her head into my atv with me standing on the other side! Not all that fun at the time, laugh a lot about it now tho. Needless to say she was hamburger!

 

[Anonymous]

I remember throwing a bunch of cubes out for the gals one sunny spring day years ago. They, and my bull, ate them all up as I sat on the ground nearby watching them and just enjoying the weather and life in general. The cows milled around and after a while I found myself physically in between the bull and a few cows, and he started acting what I perceived as unusual and I thought I detected a threatening demeanor. I figured he had his mind intent on breeding one of the cows and was getting PO'd at me so I got up and walked away. A few minutes, and about 75 yards, later I just sensed something weird or eerie and I turned around to see the bull only a few steps behind me walking with his nose darn near on the ground. By that time I was near the truck and I quick stepped it to safety. To this day I'm convinced that bull fully intended to rip me a new one if I had not otherwise felt his presence. In my mind that was just another example of why you should never fully trust a bull or turn your back to him. Arnold Ziffle