As this is still very fresh on my mind, having just come from the calving barn, I will tell you my tale. At one a.m., the night man knocked on my bedroom window. This is our secret signal to have a midnight rendezvous. The only trouble is, is that it isn't all the secret. Peach Blossom also awoke, and told me to take the telephone and call her if we needed help.
I always did think that the military should take some lessons from cowboys on wearing apparel, because it sure took me longer to get dressed while helping Uncle Sam than it does to don my cowboy duds. Typical of military clothing is buttons, lots of buttons, that are hard to find in the dark. Then shoe laces and "blousing rubbers" further confugal the situation. With cowboy gear, it is shirts with snaps, britches with a zipper, and pull on boots. You just can't beat this system for speed and efficiency.
The night man was waiting on the porch to inform me that a heifer was calving. It looked to be a humongous calf, judging by the size of its feet which looked like three inch fence posts. He had her already in the head catch. We made our way to the barn facing a thirty mile-per-hour headwind, but no snow was as yet coming down. All I had to do was put on the latex gloves, attach the chain, and help pull the calf. My system of choice is to use a long 60" calving chain. I put a loop around each foot above the ankles, and then make another half-hitch loop between the ankle and the hooves. This allows only half the pressure in two spots instead of all the pressure in one spot on each leg. Even after a hard pull, the calf doesn't walk around for a week with the front ankles bent under him.
I attached the chain and my able assistant had the calf puller in position. It is the old fashioned kind, with a crank winch and ten feet of cable. I prefer this type of puller, as it is what I grew up with, and I like being out on the end of it having plenty of leverage to hold the cow in line. It was a very tight pull, but I knew the heifer was plenty dialated. We had sorted heavies out of the heifer bunch just before dark, and she had the water bag showing then. I was running the winch, and the night man was holding the tail and monitoring the situation. The heifer went down in the back end but was standing on her front legs. She appeared to be tired from her hard labor, and as I've done oodles of time in the past, I told Kenneth to just release the head catch so she could lay down in front. He did, and that is when the fun commenced.
That heifer was not nearly as wore out as I had perceived. She doubled back, up and over, like a rattlesnake in striking postion. Venom was in her eye and on her tongue. All that we pedestrians could do was jump for cover. She took off in a flash, with the firmly attached calf puller swinging wildly from side to side. She headed back through our panel alleyway, and fortunately the panels jammed together to block her forward departure. She made an abrupt U-turn, with the calf puller hammering everything it touched. Blood was in her eye (figurtively), and here she came after us. Fortunately, she charged back into the calving pen where the head catch was located. We were on the gate, which she butted continuosly for quite some time. Kenneth went outside of the barn and came in from the other direction to lure her to the other side of the pen. Finally we got the gate shut. We still had twenty minutes of strategic battle before we got her back into the head catch. Then one hind kicking leg was still tangled up in the back strap of the calf puller. I was finally able to disengage the hook on the cable from the chain on the calf's legs, and we were once again back to square one.
We rejuggled the chains on the calf's feet, re-attached the handy-dandy puller (which fortunately had not got wrecked), and proceeded to pull the calf. The cow went down in the back end, stayed up in the front end like a puppy dog, but I didn't care. We pulled the calf with no further interuptions. He was a big old baldy calf out of this baldy heifer. The hybrid vigor came through, both in his size and his durability. He is in fine shape.
The cow I knew would only cause more trouble, so I opened the barn up all the way through, and opened a couple corral gates so she could go straight out to a pasture. We really don't need her around clogging up the arteries of commerce. I made a trip back to the house and mixed up some powdered colostrum for the calf. I have a new momma in mind for him. A cow had dead twin calves two days ago, but she is gentle and has a nice bag. All is well that ends well. :shock: :wink:
