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...