Day 0 (The day before the storm): Calving season started today. First one born was a monster! Fortunately, Judy was home to help me pull it. Unfortunately, its mother isn’t very caring. She wouldn’t even lick it clean and doesn’t seem to feel the need to get close enough to allow it to nurse. We were surrogates and toweled it off and fed it some colostrum from a bottle; kept them penned together for the night. Maybe the cow will feel motherly tomorrow; weatherman says a bad snowstorm is coming, but I’m not too worried since he hasn’t gotten a snow forecast correct this entire winter.
Day 1: Dang. The weatherman was correct. Blinding snowstorm in progress with heavy snow, 40 MPH winds and frigid temperatures; had to feed everything with the tractor today, since the truck won’t make it through the drifts. The 10 mile round trip to the north farm was an adventure; missing a cow at the west place and can’t make it through the snow to even hunt for her. What a time to start calving; still bottle-feeding the calf we pulled. Judy took a few days worth of clothes with her to work. Looks like she’ll be staying at her office for a few days. Roads are impassable by anything other than the tractor. Three calves born last night – one dead.
Day 2: Sunshine today, but only six degrees this morning; final tally is somewhere around 16” of snow, but who knows with all the drifting. Judy slept at her office last night – probably tonight as well.
Day 3: Found the cow I’d been missing. The vet came and pulled her dead calf. I had to take him to her in the tractor. I was surprised he could even make it here. Eleven below zero this morning and I watched a cow have a calf while I was putting out hay. She had it licked clean in record time and it nursed. I think it will make it. The calf I was bottle feeding was dead this morning. Like I’ve said before, “It doesn’t take a village – just a momma that’ll take care of you.”
Day 4: Judy made it home this afternoon, just in time to help me bring a newborn into the house to warm up. It was chilled pretty bad, but by bedtime it was taking a bottle. Judy is sleeping on the couch to take care of it through the night.
Day 5: I awoke to find the new calf standing over Judy as I left to feed. A few minutes later she called me to tell me to put it back with its mother. It had defecated on her white, shag rug as well as the arm of the sofa (right beside her head where she slept), and she was pretty sure it was strong enough to return to nature; weatherman is predicting flurries tonight.
Day 6: Five more inches of flurries during the night; several calves born last night, but two more didn’t make it.
Day 10: Another five inches last night and ten below this morning. I’m still feeding at every farm with the tractor. Ice is getting harder to chop with every passing morning. I’m thinking of moving my operation to North Dakota before next year; up there, at least, you know what the weather will be and can prepare for it.
Day 14: Today, I finally decided to try and feed with the truck and let the tractor (and my posterior) take a break. It lasted until the first bale. I got stuck, on level ground, and had to call my neighbor to bring my tractor and pull me out. Only 35 days until spring.
Jerry Crownover farms in Lawrence County. He is a former professor of Agriculture Education at Missouri State University, and is an author and professional speaker. To contact Jerry, go to www.ozarksfn.com and click on ‘Contact Us.’
