I saw Lucinda, the calf we have raised from birth, outside the back fence along with a whole lot of other calves. This was unusual because this is the first time I have seen her with the other calves. She just doesn’t seem to mix well with them, maybe because she was in the corral for so long and didn’t grow up knowing how to make friends. She is now seven months old and it was a joy to see her for the first time with the “group”. I called to her and here she came! I walked outside the gate and started petting her and rubbing her under her neck. She acted as if she had nothing else she wanted to do but stand there and let me rub and scratch on her.
All of a sudden the other calves were watching what was going on and seemed really interested in it. I talked to her and the calves softly and told them I would pet them too if they would come up to me so I could do that. Some of them came up but of course they would have nothing to do with me as soon as I reached out to them.
Suddenly from the back of the pack, came a good-sized bull calf marching straight for me. He was not lowering his head or acting like he was going to hurt me but as if he were saying, OK; I’ll let you pet me. He came within reach of my arm but when I leaned toward him to pet him, Lucinda head butted him. She drove him all the way back down the hill. She turned around to walk back up to me, stopped, turned around and stayed there for just a moment to see what he was going to do. He ran off, she turned around and came back for some more petting. I imagine she will be the lead cow of the Middle Herd on the Red Oak Ranch in just a few months!
