Yesterday we went out to the family farm because there is a new little bull calf who needs to become a steer. Making steers is my job now, although I've only done it once. That time, it was really easy to catch the calf because he had a bad case of pinkeye and didn't see me coming. I managed to tackle him and my son and his cousins held him down while I did the nasty business and gave him a good dose of antibiotics for the pinkeye. This time was not so easy. We found the calf napping all alone under the chestnut tree, which seemed like a lucky break, since his mother and the rest of the herd were grazing way over on the other side of the property.
My son had a cargo net. The plan was to throw the net over the calf to snare him until I could get there to hold him. Ha. In spite of being just a few days old, the little guy can really move. He trotted away down the field, and my son crept slowly after him. I was flanking him, hoping to corner the calf between the barbed wire fence and the slough. Ha again. He panicked and popped right through the fence into the neighboring field, where the resident cows gave him the once over. One of them kept following him around, while he yelled pitifully for his mother.
I should mention that running through this field is impossible. The ground is soft most of the year, and cows are heavy. They make deep imprints in the ground, and although we've had some rain, it hasn't been enough to soften all those divots. You have to keep an eye on your feet everywhere you go, or you'll step wrong and roll your ankle. Here's a slightly closer shot of the poor baby being trailed by the curious cow.
There was nothing more we could do from there, so we walked back out of the field. In the meantime, dad had gotten the tractor out and driven over to the neighboring field. He walked through the gate and through the much larger herd of cows and out to where the sad little baby was wandering around. He managed to corner him and get him to hop back through the fence, and I walked down to shoo him towards his herd. We figured he needed his mom pretty badly by this point.
My son went out in the field with the herd, trying to push the calf into a corner where I could grab him.
No go once again, so we just stood and watched them for a while.
There was even some keep-a-way with a willow branch. Sorry about the hot wire in the middle of her face.
In the end, we decided to call it a day, and just sat on the porch swing with some cold beer for the guys and a glass of very bad wine for me. That was a lot of walking over fairly difficult terrain to come out empty-handed, but you can't win them all. Sometimes you just have to tip your hat to the animals and walk away. But we'll be back, little guy. Sorry.
In case anyone is interested, banding a calf is pretty simple. Here are the tools.
You put the little rubber band over the spikes on the elastrator like this.
Then squeeze the handles to open the band. The rest should be pretty self-explanatory without me giving you the details, which nobody of the male persuasion wants to hear anyway. It's not as bad as it sounds, really. When we band the goats, they are uncomfortable for a couple of hours, and then they forget all about it.
When we got back in the car to head home, I tossed the elastrator on my dashboard. I forgot it was there and drove all over town today doing errands with this thing right above my steering wheel. I thought it was pretty funny when I finally noticed it.
I should have prefaced this post by saying that none of us are cowboys. I am a goat girl, and I'm only dealing with the cows because the relatives who have been doing it are now too old to be chasing calves around fields. I know exactly one person who can rope cattle, and I will be calling him tomorrow to come catch this little guy for me. Maybe he will teach me how to throw a lasso! I would love to add that to my resume. Then banding calves would involve a lot less walking! I will close with a shot of the bull, who is very impressive but not actually scary. He's pretty gentle.
Have a wonderful evening, everyone! And guys, stay away from my car! Just kidding...
Yeah, sorta on the wrong side of the state for ropers... I hope you get the job done quickly next time you're out.
Hahahaha! Indeed! At least I know the one guy!
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When I saw the title I had to come and visit this post, quite a saga you had trying to catch the calf better luck next time, visiting and helping out on my uncls farm when I was young i know the process both of castration and banding helped with it many times, not sure I would be up to doing it now I am not as young and fit as I used to be
I'm not as young either! I figured you would get a kick out of it. Good to know you have some experience! I wasn't expecting that. It involved a lot of walking so I thought I could call it a Wednesday walk without getting into too much trouble.
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Well you walked a lot so for sure it counts as a walk for me, I think most of us kiwis ( New Zealanders) around my age probably spent some time on a farm :)
Oh! When I was much younger we farmed and had a herd of 80 mother cows. All of those boy calfs had to be castrated and we had some really protective mama cows that attempted to do you serious harm if you got near their calfs. Lots of adventures!
I was a little worried about the mama cow getting upset. That's why we thought we were golden when we found the calf all alone. Oh well, maybe next time...
We used to drive out and put the calf into the back of the pickup truck... And sometimes had mama cows trying to climb the side of the truck!
Hahaha! That's an awesome mental image!
What a job... ugh
Not necessarily my favorite job.
Very interesting story but I must say, I think I'm rooting for the calf at this point. Perhaps he figured out what you were up to.... Yikes!
Ha ha! I was secretly rooting for him too, even though there are already two bulls in the herd and we certainly don't need a third one.
Says the @goat-GIRLz.
What a day! Better luck next time.
Poor calf! But what's got to be done, got to be done. 😊
Thank you! I will need all the luck I can get!
This story reminds me of my friend who's had her haemorrhoids banded. Although she assures me nobody chased her over a field!
Hahahaha! That's quite an image! I will be laughing about that all day!
When I saw the title of this post I thought you were going to write about some guy who's wife tried to take him to divorce court :-)
I went with the literal definition this time!
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great story and i totally know how you must have felt lmao
i used to hate castrating my male goats but after about a dozen i got used to it
man do they scream
have a great day and everytime i read one of your blogs i really miss the goats
they are like dogs in a lot of ways
Thank you! I've never had one scream. They really don't seem super bothered by it after the first couple of hours. They always scream when they get disbudded though. I don't think I'll do a post about that. People will stop liking me! Goats are a lot like dogs. Smarter in a lot of cases!
you have never had a goat scream when you put that elastic band over there testicles????
i have not had one that did not scream lol
and yes goats are smarter than dogs in some issues and dogs are smarter in others but both are surprisingly a lot a like as in some dogs and some goats are too smart to be coaxed by food to do what you want them to do but they are usually the smarter ones lol
cheers
Hahahaha... bet that dashboard "accessory" kept all guys away or at least behave polite and decent all the way! 😂
Wow! Interesting experience... I enjoyed that!
Thank you! I wasn't too worried about getting carjacked, that's for sure!
Thank you! I wasn't
Too worried about getting
Carjacked, that's for sure!
- goat-girlz
I'm a bot. I detect haiku.
😂
Wow, you've got a lot of...well, you know.
Maybe add a pair of those fake ones to your truck with every success, to match the elastrator on the dash.
Ha ha ha! That's the funniest thing I've heard all week! I would totally do it if I didn't find those things so gross.
tough job to do, but it needs to be done. !BEER
Command accepted!
It does need to be done, no matter how unpleasant.
View or trade
BEER.Hey @goat-girlz, here is a little bit of
BEERfor you. Enjoy it!This is so funny!!!! Except for the part about the traumatized calf. And the envisioning you trying to traverse the pocked earth with your injury. Are there really all that many people in town who would know what that instrument is? So I learned a lot from this post too. Def get lasso on your resume, I think that sounds like great exercise, as if you need more of that.
Thank you! There are plenty of people who would know what that is, at least around here! I have wanted to learn how to throw a lasso for years, even though this is the only time I would need to use it. It would just be so cool!
Oooh, you had the elastrator right above your "steer-ing" wheel! :-) Sound slike he's a bit of a crapper, that young bull!
Hahahaha! If there was a best comment contest, you would have won. That's so funny!
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