Getting The Newborn To The Barn

It was just another ordinary day. I thought. It was a snowy day in December. We had just finished feeding the cows in the field in Sugar Creek. Dave is driving the truck. It has a flatbed on the back of the truck. We have three large bales of hay on the back; they are 3 feet by 6 feet. Each bale has four strings that hold it together. I cut the strings and push small sections of hay off the bales. Dave drives along and I throw the bale sections off the back of the truck one at a time. The cattle follow the truck and start eating the hay that I throw off. I try to make a long line of the hay so all the cattle can eat. There are about 50 cows in this field.

We get done feeding the hay and Dave says there is one cow missing. How he knows that there is one cow missing I do not know but he knows. Dave drives the truck back to the gate. We go to the other end of the field and the gate is open. The snow is about 2 feet deep and we can see where the cows have  walked through the open gate and have gone up in the upper field.

 

I get out of the truck and walk up to the gate. I start to follow the cow trail I walk and walk and walk. I walk up through the field to the upper fence line. The trail goes parallel to the fence. The cow has walked a good mile up the field. The cow has gone into a grove of maple trees on the side of the hill. I walk up to the cow. She has a newborn calf it is lying in the snow. So I try to go over to the calf. But the cow will not let me by the newborn calf. There are some maple trees on the other side of the calf. There are three small trees in a row. They are like a small fence behind the calf. So I go over to the three maple trees on the another side of the calf. I try to reach though the trees to the calf. The calf is just a little bit too far away for me to get it up. The cow tries to go through the trees to get to me but she cannot go through the trees. But I cannot reach the calf through the trees and it will not stand up for me.  I try to maneuver the cow to go on the other side of the trees. So the trees and the cow are between me and the calf, but to no avail.  The cow will not go on the other side of the trees and she will not let me near the newborn. If I could get the calf to stand up and walk, maybe I could get the cow to follow the calf down the hill.  I work at getting the calf to stand up but to no avail. It will not work. She still won’t let me near the newborn.

Picture your self 2/3 of the way up this mountain. That's where we were. 

 So I walk all the way back down to the truck. I tell Dave that the cow has a newborn and will not let me near it. So we stop and talk about it for a while. We come to the conclusion that we will go get the horse to get the cow down off the hill with the newborn. By the time we get back to the farm it is too late to go back after the cow and her calf.

So the next day we take the truck with the bales of hay and the truck with the trailer. The horse is in the trailer. We drive back up Sugar Creek where the cow and calf are. We start to feed the cows like we did the day before and after we feed the cows Dave gets the horse and we saddle up the horse. Dave gets on the horse and goes back up to where the cow and calf are. I am waiting at the bottom of the Hill for him to return with the cow and the calf. It is some time before he gets back to the truck but when he comes back there is no cow and no calf with him. He says he tried to get to the calf. But the cow  kept on ramming the horse with its head, and before long the horse was scared of the cow and would not go near the newborn or the cow. So he came all the way back to the truck with no cow.

We decided to unsaddle the horse and leave the horse there for another day. For two more days we do  not go after the calf. On the third day, the cow is down off the hill to eat hay with other cows. Dave’s a fast thinking guy. He told me to go shut the gate. So I go up and close the gate. So the cow cannot go back up in the field for her newborn calf. Then we drive the truck in the field and feed the cows like we usually do. After feeding the cows we settle the horse and Dave and I took off after the calf.   Sometimes when the cows have a calf in the field and the calf or cow is not doing too good we take the calf back to the barn. Sometimes when there is a lot of snow the calf cannot walk in the snow too good. I have a sled and I put the calf on top of it. I strap the calf down to the sled and then the cow can see the calf and follow it back to the barn. I always have a sled around just for that occasion and today is a good day to use the sled.

It is not a very pleasant day. The snow is coming  own quite thick the wind is blowing and it’s not going to be a good day to go after the calf. Dave takes off with the horse and I have the horse by the tail. And I’m glad the horse has a very long tail. And behind me is a sled and up the hill we go. I am doing a very good job keeping up with the horse but now and again we have to stop and I have to catch my breath. The snow is coming down hard and the wind is blowing. The trail that we have been taking to go up to the calf is all but buried. So we blaze a new trail to the calf.  When we get up to the calf there are a bunch of holes in the snow where the calf has been lying down over the last few days. I catch the calf and strap it down to the sled very tight so it will not fall off.

We get everything set and back off the hill we go. Dave takes off on the horse. I have my hand in the tail and the sled is behind me hooked to a rope. Boy we had to be a sight to see. I always wish that somebody was there with a camera to take a picture of us all in a line going down the hill in the snow. I think that would be one picture for a calendar. You couldn’t look at it and not smile seeing us all going down the hill: Dave on the back of the horse with his head down from the snow. Me behind his horse my head down fighting the blowing snow. The rope behind me hooked to the sled, and the calf tied down to the sled and looking around wondering what is going on.

We get down off the hill. By the gate the cow is waiting there. I go back to the sled and untie the calf and take it off the sled. I get the calf up and walking and take the calf over to the gate where its mother is waiting. Waiting to go find her newborn calf. But I have the calf down here. I put the calf through the gate. The cow smells her calf and is very happy that this is her calf, and they take off down though the field.

Dave and I stand there amazed that we got the calf back down to the cow and we will never forget this day as long as we live.  It has been five years since Dave and I did that rescue. We still talk about it to this day and a smile always come across our faces.  

The day we brought the calf back to the barn.