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Calving 2012...a year to forget

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WyomingRancher

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This first pic pretty well sums up my luck this calving season :?. When I went to feed this morning, this poor girl followed me around, bawling and bawling. Her tight bag was a bad sign, but I certainly wasn't expecting to find this.
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Here was a special project early in the season. This was an enormous backwards calf, who couldn't stand for the first few days. He outweighed me, so I'd just drag him underneath the cow to let him nurse :roll: . The cow and I were both unimpressed with this "project", but luckily he straightened up and looks good now.
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Had a little trouble with predators too :mad:.
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I declared war and won... final score coyotes=3, WR=5 :wink: .
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Oh, it also snowed a little during all of this fun.
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Thank goodness for Pete. Help couldn't get here, and he was my one and only helper.
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Okay, now for some better pics... it couldn't all be bad, right?
These haven't gotten killed by boulders or coyotes...yet.
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Some of the yearlings.
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New Balancer bulls.
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New bulls vowing to not allow this to happen on their watch :D .
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Yes, this was as ridiculous as it looks :p . The old male dog wouldn't ride on back with Pete, so we improvised.
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Some of the pairs this evening.
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Yearling heifer.
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Dang the bad luck, but rocks aren't contagious. The saved ones look pretty good.
 
Thanks for the photos WR, ditto to what Denny said. :D

Great job on the coyotes, think you'll carry a gun year round now?

As I've said before, no matter how hard we try, we can't kill them all. :wink:
 
Great pictures. Sorry about your luck this year. The rest of the calves look great. That looks like some country you could get lost in and never want to get found. Beautiful. One thing about raising cattle, you know you will experience something next year that you have never seen before either. I think that is a first for me, calf squished by boulder.

Hope you get all the rain and sun this summer you need and fat calves in the fall.
 
Wyoming Rancher, with each one of your pictures being worth a thousand words, these have told quite a story. There are bad chapters, sad chapters, and fortunately the happy chapters of healthy great-looking calves and moisture for the grass to grow well this summer. I knew you had to contend with wind, but that must have been quite a gust to blow that boulder over. :wink: Thanks for sharing the ups and downs of your ranching in Wyoming.
 
Love the pictures...your calves (the upright ones :) ) look great and healthy. Good looking bulls too, got the giggles with your "boys" checking out the cute red calf! We technically start calving in a few days---we already have 2 dead cows, one got on her back and one we think got some poison somewhere in the meadow, had one heifer's calf in the hot box that shouldn't have lived but is doing fine now, had the snow melt fast the other day and had half of our first calf heifer herd make a break for "greener pastures"; they got in the plowed snow catchers and left in a fast pregnant trot, and so on and so forth. Calving definetly makes us want to cry at times, and makes you want to give someone a high five! Had a big ole' girl have a calf backwards yesterday evening and she slid right out just as fine as if it were born the right way and our snow is melting a month earlier than last year and our nights have been pretty warm lately. You gotta love calving! Again, beautiful pictures, i might never look at a rock again the same way :)
 
'Death by Boulder'...who would've thunk it ? I guess there IS a reason why horses 'spook' at them; but I swear I've NEVER seen one suddenly JUMP UP at me yet ! Nice pics; looks like a typical calving-season for anyone...no reason to feel bad; ya can't save 'em all, we do try though...
 
WR, quite the saga, lost a few scirmishes but looks like the battle is yours.

Beautiful country to be waging a war, those stationary combatants can really take one by surprise. Did it attack from above? :shock:

The survivors are looking great!

Thanks for the pics of the beautiful rugged scenery.

Dylan
 
Sorry you had all that trouble and the rock squishing that calf, that was
awful. Poor thing. I guess if you want to look on the bright side, you
didn't have to doctor him to lose him anyway. :D

Everything looks really good at your place. I love how black and
shiney your cows look. Good haircoat, even in winter, is a sign of
good nutrition. I thought the (live :wink: ) calves looked excellent.

Nice bulls. I expected Balancer bulls to be more coarse than those
seem to be. Where did they come from?
 
I got to wondering if that big rock was from the ACME BOULDER COMPANY and that maybe a coyote was trying to drop it on a Roadrunner and got the calf instead? :wink: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
Big Muddy rancher said:
I got to wondering if that big rock was from the ACME BOULDER COMPANY and that maybe a coyote was trying to drop it on a Roadrunner and got the calf instead? :wink: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Click to expand...

Yeah, but with the usual troubles that Wile E. Coyote has with those ACME Products, you'd expect to find Mr Coyote under the rock! :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:
 
The only thing I can figure is that a cow was rubbing on the boulder, and it dislodged. You'd think with odds like that, GCreek and I would have won the Megaball before this would happen :roll: :? .

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I had some help with the predators, the "Coyote Assassin" made an appearance :wink: . We had killed 9 prior to calving, so I thought we'd slowed them up some. I don't have quite enough for a Christmas display, but I'm working on it :D .
 
Dang it young lady! That is just a bad way to find a calf! :cry: :shock: They sure find ways to get in a bind. I hope those coyotes that are buggin' ya get what they need.....about 80 grains of lead administered intermuscularly. :mad: Hope you tough luck is behind ya and your about to have a banner year. :D
 
Wow WR !!! I knew you were having a heck of a winter but geesh, what could go wrong went wrong :???: So very sorry, my heart goes out to you and your cattle . I hope this one goes in the records as the worst winter and calving season for you and you have only to go up from here.

You live in a beautiful area , but is seems very unforgiving as well. The cattle look great though and you did a heck of a job pulling them all through that by yourself . You should be very proud of surviving a hellish winter and keeping your stock as healthy and safe as humanly possible.

Here is to an easy breezy 2013 calving season.
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Love your crew, my kinda helpers for sure . :D
 
When things look a little bleak, look at your healthy calves/cows out in the beatiful country ya live in and that will ease the frustration..at least for a little while.. :wink: I love the picture of all 4 dogs on the ATV..not much room left for you though..lol
 

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