by Jan Fielden
Today, while I was down feeding Sweet Pea, the calf whose mother died after giving birth to her and to her twin brother who also died, I heard a chorus of calves crying for Momma!
I turned to look at them and there were small calves, 6 of them, walking together and crying. There were a few Mommas around, but none moved as they would have if their calf had been in the group. One of the calves took off on its own and ran up to another group of Mommas and its’ Momma wasn’t in that group either. The calf just stood there but soon the rest of the chorus members went to the calf as if to give some emotional support. Soon they were all off on another trail trying to find the cow they each belonged too. They kept the crying going all the time. I thought if they would just “sing” solo, maybe their Momma would find them.
Sometimes we see a Momma running to get to her calf because the calf has cried for it, but not very often. The cows haven’t been moving around very much because of the heat…at least I think it is the heat. But today it was cooler and so I thought they were not wanting to “lay up” like they do in the heat. Calves and their Mommas sometimes have a hard time keeping up with each other; the calf will go to sleep and the Momma moves to another pasture and doesn’t get the calf up to go with her. So, then the little one is left trying to figure out where Momma is. They are not always successful in their endeavor but always latch on to another cow and follow it to where the rest of the herd is. Momma will be there! Red Oak Ranch just a rockin’ along.
