• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

4H Curse

N

Northern Rancher

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 10, 2005
Messages
12,247
Location
saskatchewan
Sara's 4H cow was getting close to calving-when she went out to check her this A'M she'd got herself high centered and bloated. I think were an outfit that wasn't destined to pamper cattle-my scruffy little heifers are out grazing and popping out calves while everything in the yard is having troubles.
 
Sounds like what happened here NR. My daughter got a youth loan to buy 3 bred heifers and the other morning I went out to check and one of the heifers had gotten her back downhill. The calf was half way out and dead and she was bloated up and for a while I thought we had lost the whole family. Then I saw her struggle to get up so I rolled her over and pulled the calf out. Annie wasn't too happy with her luck in the cattle business but I told her she could pick another heifer, preferably one that had already calved. :)

We've got 82 out of 90 calved out and that's the only trouble we've had. She really knows how to pick them.
 
Big Swede said:
Sounds like what happened here NR. My daughter got a youth loan to buy 3 bred heifers and the other morning I went out to check and one of the heifers had gotten her back downhill. The calf was half way out and dead and she was bloated up and for a while I thought we had lost the whole family. Then I saw her struggle to get up so I rolled her over and pulled the calf out. Annie wasn't too happy with her luck in the cattle business but I told her she could pick another heifer, preferably one that had already calved. :)

We've got 82 out of 90 calved out and that's the only trouble we've had. She really knows how to pick them.
Click to expand...

That's just part of the initiation to ranching. If a kid can live with the first few frustrations they will likely get the bug we all have and be handicapped by cows for the rest of their days. :D
 
Best lesson I ever learned in the cattle business was a purebred Angus 4-H heifer. $2500 of my own hard earned money on a heifer calf when I was 12 years old. I bought another bred at the same sale for $1167.
In 5 years (Dad kept her because he felt sorry for me) she had 1 calf and it had a white face. The $1167 heifer lived to 15+ and never missed a calf.
The lessons were
1: just because someone else thinks she's good doesn't make her so. Just like picking a spouse, you are the one living with her in the end.
2: have no mercy on problems, just get rid of them ASAP (this does not apply to the spouse analogy or I would probably already be gone :shock: )
3: nobody ever learned anything from having everything go right the first time

That said, hope things improve and that the youthful spirit isn't dampened. It is really needed in agriculture and life in general.
 
My little girl is tough. She has loved and lost more pets in her 14 years than most city kids do in a lifetime. The farm and ranch life teaches so many life lessons, even though a lot of those lessons involve death. She loves animals and thinks she wants to be a vet when she grows up. You go girl!
 

Latest posts

Back
Top