Yesterday morning Dad & I went out to find the baby and tag it so we know which one is mine instead of being one of his or one of Derrick & Dana's. We found Molly but her calf was not with her. I was concerned if she was taking care of her baby since we lost her calf last year.
Last year we moved cattle to the north pasture and there was a tiny little calf struggling to keep up and was trailing (what looked to me to be) a first calf heifer. When we got to the pasture the little thing laid down in the grass and panted and panted but no mother came for it at that time. I wanted to pick it up and take it home to make sure it got something to drink and then bring it back when a mother was looking for her baby. Dad said to leave it alone because the mother would come looking for it. The next day he said the baby was in the same area and he did not see a mother with it but believed that it was being taken care of even though he did not see it being done. I still wanted to bring it home to take care it the little thing. Dad said he'd keep a watch on it. The next day it was not in the spot or area it had been for the prior two days so he felt it was with its mother even though he did not spot it but there were a lot of cow/calf pairs in a small pasture intended to only be there for a very short time. The following day he found the calf in the draw bottom, dead. My baby died. If only I had been more insistent about bringing it home to care for it.
Well, back to this year's new baby story...We found Molly but the calf was not with her. Dad has the cattle spoiled by bring them corn every day that all the cows come right up to the Ranger looking for corn and will take it right out of his hands. We got corn and gave some to Molly. She stood still and Dad checked to see if she had been nursed on and if she was giving milk. He said all was good there. We went driving around the pasture looking for the baby. We finally found it when we almost ran over it tucked in the tall grass in a terrace channel. Here is what we found. No wonder it was hard to find.
We stopped and the calf just laid there where it's mother placed it. I got tags ready for it and the castrating band ready in case it is a bull. The baby never moved the whole time I was doing this and Dad and I were talking. We decided we may be able to walk up on it since it was so calm there. That would be better than trying to chase it with the Ranger and hook it's leg to catch it especially since Molly was not there with her baby. I was standing at the back of the Ranger and Dad began to slowly walk towards the baby. All of a sudden it shot up and took off on a run away from us. That away was to run south. As it came to the fence it stopped a bit and paced the fence line before going through it into the wheat field. After running a ways into the field it stopped running and turned to look at us. We were on the Ranger but not moving. It turned around and began to run again. No point chasing it as it will only run further away. We drove to the fence then through the pasture along the fence line looking for the baby. We did not see it. Dad hoped it laid down in a terrace in the wheat field and that it would return to where the mother laid it. We scanned the hay field and wheat field but could not see it there either. We decided to check on it later.
Late afternoon Dad went out again and found Molly pacing the fence line in the area the calf ran through and she was bawling for her baby. Hopefully the baby will be close enough that it will hear its mother calling it and be hungry enough to come looking for her. I had to come to school to sub this morning and Dad had gone out early to rake hay so had not checked cattle before I left. I hope the baby is back with its mother.
I hope not to lose this baby like I did the one last year. Dad felt so bad for not letting me bring the calf home last year and he believed it to be Molly's calf that he gave me one of his calves to replace the one he caused me to lose. He did not need to do that but it was very kind of him. I'm afraid that if we do not find this baby, he will feel really bad again. After it ran, he said he knew better than to approach it from the north because it naturally would run in the opposite direction which would be away from home. He thinks if we would have been on the south side of it and it ran it would have run towards home and maybe not get lost. Also we would have been coming from the back of the critter instead of from the front. When we came across it and stopped, we just happened to be in front of it.
As much as I love working with the cattle and especially with the baby calves, maybe I am not meant to have any of my own.
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