by Jan Fielden
Little calves will lie down next to the fence and sleep and roll and sleep and roll. The herd moves on, including the Momma of the calf. Sometimes they change pastures but sometimes they just go to a different part of the pasture they were in when the calf went to sleep.
However, with all the sleeping and rolling calves do, they sometimes “move on” too. When they wake they can’t find Momma, they don’t see the herd or maybe any herd and panic time sets in.
We had this happen last week. We had fed the Yearling Herd and came across a newborn baby along with her Momma. The calf was lying down resting from the hard work of being born and the Momma was eating. They were right next to each other. I took my usual picture of the two of them. Everything was fine for the first few days after the baby was born. It was up running around, kicking its heel, etc.
The days after that became a nightmare not only for the calf but for us as well. I was feeding the calf we have in the corral whose Momma had died. I named her Fedora. It was feeding day for everyone and when the herd came around the corner of the barn headed to the feeder, I noticed a calf bawling and bellering. Yep, it was the new calf that belonged to the Yearling Herd. The only thing we could figure out was it must have rolled under the fence.
To make a long story short…we called the entire Middle Herd in to the trap. Of course, they willing went because of the green grass growing there. We then separated the Mommas and the little calves…the ones that were very small and young to make sure we got the right calf with the right Momma.
Then we called the Yearling Herd up and got them in the corral. Using the picture I had taken we got the Momma in a pen with the three little babies. We had two calves from the Middle Herd in with the one calf from the Yearling Herd so it was simple to let the Yearling Momma and her calf out in the Middle Herd. It worked just fine and now all babies are with their Mommas and everything is quiet on the Red Oak Ranch.
