The Hereford calves having fun running reminds me of a story my dad tells. As a young man in the early '40's, he worked on a ranch north of Gordon. It consisted of about five thousand acres of land on the Nebraska/South Dakota border. It was also located where Bennett County and Shannon County met in South Dakota, and where Sheridan County and Cherry County met in Nebraska. Dad said that every day while making his feeding rounds with a four-horse team and feed sled, he would travel through two states and four counties.
The owner of this ranch told my dad that the saddest thing he ever saw was on one beautiful spring day. He was feeding hay behind four head of horses, and about thirty or forty Hereford calves were running, bucking, and enjoying just being alive. The ran down along a fence, which went out into a Sandhills lake. The calves ran right out on the rotten ice, and their weight made the ice give way. All of that cluster of calves fell deep into the water to their deaths. It sure took the sunshine right out of that previously beautiful day.
