In life we never know how something simple will impact an event, a day in your life, or a day in someone else’s life. Sometimes in life we just happen to be in the right place at the right time. I am reminded of these moments very often and as I get older, I realize the importance of these sometimes small insignificant interactions. A kind word to someone, a smile, or going out of your way to help someone can make the difference and create a moment that makes a connection. I have numerous things I can think back on over my life that created a huge connection somewhere down the road and at that specific time was such a small thing that you would never think that it mattered. My kids always thought I was being silly when I talked of such things, but now that they have gotten older, they are seeing how those same things really do matter.
One moment that took place over a year ago happened on the property line of us and the neighbor. My husband and I had been casually working on fence between us when we had time, stretching some wire here and there. The neighbor does not live on the property and only has a few head of cows. The fence between us is ok but it does need to be updated, so there we were on this particular day working on fence. That morning, the neighbor had put hay out for his cows and he has this hay feeder that I was always interested in as it was covered and the sides collapse as the cattle eat. I now know that this is a sheep feeder as the neighbor used to have sheep and I am no longer intrigued by this feeder.
While we were working on the fence, all the neighbors cattle came over to see what we were doing. There was a new baby calf that had been born a few days before and it was jumping around being spunky. They are pretty friendly cattle, and they poked around in my wagon of tools to see if I had anything worth eating and sniffed around my husband who was working on our side of the fence. Once they decided we had nothing but work, they wandered off and went back to their business. While we were working on clipping up a section of fence, we hear a bunch of ruckus coming from just over the hill. We look over and we can see that the neighbors cows have knocked over the hay feeder but since it is just over the hill, all we can see is the top half and the cows are still standing around it eating. At the time we were just thinking they were looking for more hay, but then I was also thinking, how could that be when he just put hay out? We went back to working on the fence and after about 20 minutes I said to my husband, I sure hope that baby calf wasn’t under the feeder. As I turned to look back up over the hill at the hay feeder, I see 2 legs flailing in the air. I dropped all of my tools and screamed at my husband “OH MY GOSH, THERE IS A COW TRAPPED UNDER THAT FEEDER”. She somehow managed to wedge her head over the top and once she realized she was stuck, panicked and pulled the feeder over on top of herself. I take off running the 100 yard dash in my muck boots and coveralls and I get to the feeder and think, alright I will just lift it up off her. I try to pick it up and it will not budge! I turn and scream at my husband that I can’t get the feeder off her and he is already thru the fence heading my way to help. We realize that the cows head is stuck between the top of this hay feeder and one of the collapsible sides and her head is also turned back at a weird angle. The bale also put pressure on that side and wedged her head in tight. At this point the cow has been stuck for 20 minutes and is barely breathing and gasping for air. I am in compete panic mode and my husband is calling the neighbor, who is an hour away and unavailable. My husband checks out the feeder and sees you can unpin the sides, so we get the opposite side undone and get the bale rolled out, but we can’t get the other undone due to the pressure the cow has on the side and top. I don’t know how we managed it, but we finally got one of the pins out and we were able to slide it enough we were able to move the feeder off the cow. She was still in a lot of distress, and we rolled her up so she could set up and get some air and I was certain she was still not going to make it! Meanwhile all the other cows are just eating their hay and going about their business unaware of the dire situation their friend was in.
I do get over the top panicked about this kind of stuff where my husband is just calm as can be. This was a freak accident and I know my husband and I could have been doing several other things that day besides working on that fence. But in that moment, it was a reminder that sometimes we are in the right place at the right time and for me, this was one of those moments that mattered in the life of that cow.
Debbie Elder is a native of Ottawa County, Okla. and lives on her farm in Webster County, Mo. To contact Debbie, call 1-866-532-1960 or by email at [email protected].
