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Calf in sheep's clothing

S

Soapweed

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Joined
Feb 11, 2005
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Location
northern Nebraska Sandhills
My sister sent me this picture of a Kansas calf, after the last big storm. I think it was published in one of the major newspapers of that area. There had to be lots of cattle that looked this bad or worse after the rain, ice, snow combination of the blizzard. My heart goes out to the affected people and to the animals involved.

tribunesnowheifer.jpg
 
I got one of those also Soap. I couldn't figure out how to get it on here.

Sure reminds me of spring of 97.

Hope them folks get everything taken care of and back to normal.
 
I don't think I've seen anything as bad as that since about the late 50's-early 60's when we had several blizzards- one right after another...

Wellington Rankin just let his cattle run all over the state and pick all winter (usually got a parollee out of prison to watch them- since he was on the parole board :roll: )- and had a state lease pasture next to us... When the several days of storms finally quit we found about 60 head of his cattle that had drifted into a fence corner-- and they looked just like that.... About 20 were dead- some died standing and just dropped down- apparently suffocated from the snow over their nose...

We cut the fence and let the live ones that could walk thru-- took care of and fed them for several days until the brand inspector finally came and hauled them out, since they couldn't find anyone local that was watching them...
 
I showed this picture to Lil Lilly, she has a valid question. If you had a herd as big as say......Soapweeds or Jassy's....and had alot of calves in that condition. What would you do with them?

My answer to her was....."I don't know....I'll ask"
 
the_jersey_lilly_2000 said:
I showed this picture to Lil Lilly, she has a valid question. If you had a herd as big as say......Soapweeds or Jassy's....and had alot of calves in that condition. What would you do with them?

My answer to her was....."I don't know....I'll ask"
Click to expand...

Hope the storm quits and the sun comes out!
 
I kind of have bit my tongue about April 4, 97 the last few weeks.

That deal was 100,000 dead in a couple days.


That one came at the end of a real slobberknocker of a Winter. When we went home from college in Bozeman after finals week, moving home to the ranch, I was driving my 71 3/4 ton Ford. I couldn't see over the snow pile strung out along Main Street while driving, and the Winter went downhill from there.

This one is nothing like that one.

I wonder if it just seems so much worse since all of us on the internet now weren't then?????????????

Of course, my heart goes out to the ranchers in that area now, but many folks had calves on the ground during the April blizzard.

When I went out that morning, my sheep were trying to paw their way through a metal gate when they heard me coming. I'm no rocket scientist, but the rest of the day was spent bedding cows and sheep, and feeding. Some neighbors decided since their pairs wouldn't go to Summer pasture that day, they would get more neighbors to help push them.

We had a heifer hump up and calve, and lost that calf. We lost 7 out of about 200 sheep. What sucked was my brother lost 2 out of 160 and I lost 5 out of 40, ouch!!! 12 1/2% interest on that Blizzard in just stock loss. Our neighbors lost around 220 calves and some cows out of about 260 pair that they insisted must go to Summer pasture.

Badlands
 
I wish I would have had a camera with me when we found those Rankin cattle- would have loved to have posted them for all the bunny huggers and coyote hunting protesters....

Those cows were drifted tight into the fence corner- snow drift so high they couldn't get thru on the north and west- 5 wire fence on the south and east-- and those old coyotes had found them...Ran about twenty off when we showed up-- and they apparently didn't like frozen meat because they were eating the live ones that couldn't move or were too weak to fight or get away....

First time I saw that- but have several times since....
 
That just flat breaks my heart to see cattle like that. It bothers me the most because I don't know of anything that anyone could do to help them other than feed them well and hope for warm weather. The worst is that if you warmed them up fast you would likely make them terrible sick. Heck I am guessing that they would likely come away sick any way you would handle the deal. I can think of bad days that I wondered why I had cattle but I have to say that would be ultimate test of a persons faith to keep on going........
 
Everytime I see that picture I wonder how any critter can survive that.. I just cringe...

Winter of 96/97 was an interesting one. I remember it snowing on Halloween, Parents weekend, Thanksgiving, and than 3 feet on Christmas day up in the hills where we lived. Main street was like driving down a tunnel almost, so was our driveway... I don't remember seeing much on the news about it in Bozeman, but I do remember seeing tons of coverage of the Spring flooding on the Red River and major flooding on the Yellowstone. I here stories around here of 78/79 and 79/80 and while I can barely remember them as a kid the stories in the old timers, especially those with livestock are interesting..

Still.. That picture there is just haunting.
 
That picture is every rancher's worst nightmare. We've all seen it a time or two, although that one is quite severe . What kills a lot of them is when the ice covers their nose and suffocates them. Once all that snow & ice melts off, he'll be alright if he's kept full of feed & water.
 
Ya know Lilly..I showed Hubby this photo and asked the same question what would we do? He didn't really have an answer...Neither one of us have seen snow on a critter that bad! Hope we never do! My heard really goes out to the critters in that storm...and to the ranchers/farmers...it must really be heartbreaking for them.
 
We have enough barn space that we could bring them in in batches and warm the up but it would take forever and I doubt it would be worth it.. I imagine what we would do is up the energy part of their ration to keep them as warm as possible and pray for sunny and warmer days and no more ice..

We are getting ice tonight mind you, forcasted for up to a 1/4 inch and than 2-4 inches of sleet/snow... Fun... Angus Guy is a bit to the south of me and they are forcasted for freezing rain only but nothing like that...
 
Jassy said:
Ya know Lilly..I showed Hubby this photo and asked the same question what would we do? He didn't really have an answer...Neither one of us have seen snow on a critter that bad! Hope we never do! My heard really goes out to the critters in that storm...and to the ranchers/farmers...it must really be heartbreaking for them.
Click to expand...

We had a lot that looked similar to that in April of 97. We had to sneak up and break the ice on their faces. they could hear you but couldn't see you. Boy, they would really run when you broke it off their faces. Poor critters, plumb dark to them and then all of a sudden, instant daylight. Can you imagine how bringht the sun must have seemed to them?

It's pretty surprizing what they can take if they get some feed and water into them.

We lost one who just couldn't take it, that was alive after the storm. Just too much for him, I guess. The rest that died, were in a fence corner or the bottom of the water in the creek they drifted into. Weren't really that many all told, on this place.

The cold that stuck around after the storm, for a week, was almost as bad. Everyone was calving then.

I hope I never see another one like it. :(
 
We were cold and very windy during that April storm but luckily no snow. I think the Dakotas got the worst of it.
Back in Feb. of 78 we had a week long blizzard that really socked this country. I had calves wintering 16 miles away at a place near town. Some boys snowmobiled down and fed for me a couple of times and I was alone here at the home place. When the plows finally got out I followed one to town and fed the calves. had to open up the corral with an axe cause the gate was drifted over. The calves had close to a foot of snow on their backs when they came out of the old brush roofed shed.
 
We managed about .25" of ice Friday night and almost that Saturday night. No big deal. Just had to walk and drive careful is all. Don't know about tonight but is raining pretty good. There was some talk of of a bit of snow.

Hope I never have to deal with cattle looking like that. Mud covered is bad enough.
 

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