After rain at the end of the week and road work the past few
weeks, our road was a very sloppy, muddy mess.
I was afraid to drive the roads to go to church this morning. Mom & Dad did not even try the roads to
go to church. Today, though, it warmed
up to around 80 degrees and the roads dried out nicely. This afternoon I took the little red
4-wheeler out for a ride in the pasture. I wanted to enjoy the nice weather and maybe
find my cow, Molly.
When I got to the creek bottom to open the gate to the
pasture, I noticed a dead cow lying by the junk pile all bloated with 4 legs
out stiff. I would have thought Dad
would have mentioned it when we talked earlier in the day. I continued up the hill into the CRP pasture
and saw another cow lying flat. As I
approached her I saw that she was dead also.
I drove around her and looked her over but could not see any
injury. I looked a little further up the
terrace and saw another one. I drove up
to her and she was lying with her legs pointing one way and her head facing the
opposite way. Something went wrong out
here and Dad surely would have said something if he knew there were 3 dead cows in the
pasture. I turned around and flew
through the pasture and hay field back to the house to get Dad. He did not believe me when I told him. We drove out to the pasture on the Ranger and
we saw the three I found and began driving around the pasture looking at the
rest of the herd. We came upon another
cow that was one of Dad’s. Further
searching found two more.
6 dead cows in the one pasture. Why? What happened? We do not know. Dad wondered if it was poisoning from eating
the hot bale of cane he fed night before last.
When he fed alfalfa last night everything looked ok. Dad & I checked the other pastures but
nothing was wrong there. That bale of
cane is the only thing he can think of that was different. Dad does not know if the mineral the cattle
have gotten lately is high magnesium but does not think so. He is not allowed to buy anything for the
cattle any more (per D & D).
Dad will have to call the rendering plant tomorrow to have
them picked up. I suggested he pull the
tags off the cattle ears so he has a record of cattle lost. We are not allowed (per Dana) to keep any
kind of records. I am supposed to not
even keep records of Dad’s cattle for him and that she is the only one to keep
the livestock records.
This type of pasture disaster has never happened before
during all the years of my parent’s farming and raising cattle. I feel heart sick over the whole situation -
the loss of the cattle & the tension that has existed around the farm over
the past 9 months. I pray it all gets better soon.
Rose
