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Quick flicks

S

Soapweed

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
16,264
Location
northern Nebraska Sandhills
Hardworkingyoungman.jpg

Hard working young man and his partner
Sameguysamehorse.jpg

Same guy, same horse
Hishardworkingmother.jpg

Peach Blossom tagging a calf
 
Nicky said:
Did the Cosmo kid get a new hat? Looks like spring there!
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The Kosmo Kid got the hat from his grandmother. It had belonged to one of her brothers. My son spent about an hour one evening using a tea kettle, and completely revamped the hat to his specifications.

Spring is closer than it was a couple days ago. :wink:
 
Don't ya just luv taggin calves in shirt sleeves instead of them bulky ole coveralls???lol One cool thing is every cowboy can style his own hat and look good! Thanks
 
Even better when you can do it in short sleeves... Have had some when you coulda worn shorts but that just isn't going to happen...

One of these days I will get me a hat but not today, the old ball caps will have to do.
 
Jassy said:
Don't ya just luv taggin calves in shirt sleeves instead of them bulky ole coveralls???lol One cool thing is every cowboy can style his own hat and look good! Thanks
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Yes Jassy, hard as we try, it is hard to look cool in Carharts. lol. We were promised 50's today, but 30 was about all it made it to with the fog we had. Better luck tomorrow. Our heifer calving has not quite started yet.

I like the hat, and the pictures too Soapweed. How is your calving going? Are the cows kicking in too now?
 
Tap said:
I like the hat, and the pictures too Soapweed. How is your calving going? Are the cows kicking in too now?
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The heifers and cows are all chugging along at a pretty good clip. We hit the 25% mark yesterday. During the Friday and Saturday wind and storm, we were averaging right close to two calves per hour. The barns were about maxed out, but fortunately the storm was of fairly short duration.

DON'T READ THE FOLLOWING IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH :!: :shock:

Saturday night at half past midnight, there was a knock on the bedroom window. I arose and dressed, and met the night man on the porch. He was feeling badly, and said that he was trying to pull a calf and had it half way out but could get it no farther. I went up to the west barn with him to try my luck. Sure enough, the head and front feet were out to the shoulders, but it was really stuck. I tried my darndest, but to no avail.

We put a shovel handle between the legs of the calf (which was already dead) and twisted as we had tension on the calf puller. The shovel handle broke. We were up a creek. We paused to consider our options. With the calf half out, chances of getting the cow loaded on a trailer looked dismal. If we got her loaded and hauled to a vet for a C-section, chances of her surviving were remote. It was the middle of the night, and any vet would probably not be jumping for joy at our diliema. I told Kenneth that I would just go get a gun, put the cow out of her misery, and we would drag her out of the barn with the Polaris Ranger.

I had along my cell phone, so thought I'd give Peach Blossom a jingle and tell her what was up, since she knew I was on a midnight mission. She said, "Don't shoot her until I come to the barn." She put her arm up the cow, figured the calf to be hip-locked, and said, "Let's keep trying."

I knew that the mechanical calf puller could do no more good on that cow. I went to the shop and brought back a chain and heavy duty come-along. This we attached to a big post in the center of the barn. I decided to pull very hard. The cow would maybe die in the process, but I was planning to shoot her anyway. It was a team effort. I ran the come-along, Peach Blossom pulled on the cow's tail and kept kicking her hip area in hopes of dislodging the stuck calf, and Kenneth had found a pitchfork to stick between the calf's legs to keep twisting back and forth.

Amazingly enough, finally a bit of progress could be detected. Just when we were going good, we ran out of cable on the come-along and had to re-attach the chain to a different post. The further the calf came out, the bigger it became. The whole back half of the calf was filled with fluid and it was bigger around than a five-gallon bucket. Finally the calf came out, and the cow breathed a sigh of relief.

As it turned out, even if we'd known better, a C-section would probably not have been successful. By the time there was a hole big enough in the cow to deliver the calf, it would probably have ended up killing her anyway. The cow is fine. She got right up after the calf had been pulled. She is a nice three-year-old cow with a good udder, and we will probably graft a calf from an old crippled cow onto her. We will keep her in mind, and will probably not keep any replacement heifers out of this cow in the future.

The calf was not right. It was normal to just behind the shoulder blades, but had no backbone from there on. It had gallons and gallons of fluid on the inside. I dragged it out of the barn, and it lay with the front feet straight out in front and the back feet straight out behind. The next morning I decided to measure it. From the tips of the front feet to the tips of the back feet, it measured 68 inches. I know that with just a bit of pulling on the feet, it could have measured a full six feet.

Here is a picture of the abnormality.

Gruesomedeformeddeadcalf.jpg
 
Them abnormal ones are pure hell-- over the years (especially when I was using the simmi cross bulls) I had a couple inside out calves that were a challenge to deliver....
 
We get some here called schistoreflexus or something like that. They say it's caused by eating pig weed. Do you guys have those? They're a hard pull they say. I've only seen one. The calves are inside out from the shoulders back or so. Odd looking.

http://caltest.vet.upenn.edu/repropath/Fetuses/calves/larger.htm#Schistosomus%20Reflexus2
 
I really like that first pic of cosmo kid...keep that picture.The young guys seem to like thier hats shaped like that now,our son reshaped his like cosmos.Pretty special gift that hat.

We had a calf like that last year,greg said it was like trying to lift a bowl of jello.
 

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