by Jan Field
Fedora, the calf we are raising…I am feeding and cleaning up after…is starting to get to be more than I can handle. She was a big calf to begin with and she is growing like a weed. I have to hold on to the bottle with all my might to keep her from taking it away from me. The Colonel fed her for me one night and when he got back up to the house he said if you don’t look out she will take the bottle out of your hands. I feed her once in the morning and once in the late afternoon. She gets Sweet Feed in the afternoon because she has to go so long until she gets something else to eat. Although she eats hay and grass on her own, she is still a baby and needs all the nourishment she can get.
This calf is not content to be in the corral by herself and I don’t blame her, but she will only be four months old the end of this month. We usually let any that we have to feed out when they are close to six months old. I think Fedora is going to beat that deadline. She has taken to trying to get out of the gate when I open it to go in. Today, I had to push her to make her move away so I could open the gate and get in. I was bringing the Sweet Feed and she has started trying to take the container out of my hand. She lowered her head as if she was going to ram me. I was trying to pour the feed into the tub she eats out of.
Finally, I had enough and told her if she didn’t stop it, I was going to let her out and the big ole cows and calves would beat up on her something fierce. She didn’t seem to care. Such are the days at the Red Oak Ranch!
