Adventures in Calving - 2025

written by Yvonne Douglas *without the use of AI

Our first Hiccup of calving time this season was a little black heifer calf, born early and unclaimed by a unknown cow. We found her curled up and unattended each time we checked during the day. So, we made the decision before dark to bring her to the shop and feed her colostrum. She was a healthy and bright eyed and took to the bottle with no need for us to coach her. I tried to sell her before our youngest daughter Aniya got too attached, but no one was interested.

After a few days Aniya met the calf and named her "Princess". I became weary of cleaning up the concrete floor several times a day, so Emet helped me move Princess to the barnyard to live with the last group of market lambs. I delegated Emet (who has a soft spot for bottle calves) as Princess's milk delivery guy.

Princess the Calf

Calving was otherwise rolling along smoothly. 1/3 of the calves were on the ground when we found our first dead calf, a victim of coyote predation. The signs were everywhere: a healthy calf, the kill site, blood trail, trampled grass and the mother cow watching over and calling for the calf. The offending coyote was trotting around waiting for a chance to finish their feast. Making insurance claims is no fun. While the staff at Crop Insurance are excellent to deal with, photographing the evidence for the claim is one of my least favourite tasks. The thought crossed my mind to try to get the mother cow to pair up with Princess the bottle calf in the barnyard. But, it was rainy and cold and Curtis was at work in the oilfield, and we all had lots of other jobs to do with sheep, fencing, shop work etc. So I left it.

A few days later, "One Eyed Willy" (a cow, not the one-eyed pirate from the movie The Goonies) was experiencing labour dystocia: one foot out for 3 hours with no progress. That is not a good sign. It meant the calf wasn't presenting properly and might not be born alive without assistance. We chased One Eyed Willy into the corrals and pulled the calf. We have a resuscitator that is meant for sheep that we use on calves sometimes to clear their airway. While I located it, Emet used his rope and strung the big bull calf up by the back legs, hanging upside down helps all the mucous from a hard labour to drain out of the airway so the calf can breathe. I gave the calf some resucue breaths with the resuscitator to help open up the lungs, and treated the cow and calf for pain, swelling, and infection. We waited to see if the calf would survive or if One Eyed Willy might be Princess's new mom. The bull calf , survived! His name is (obviously) Willy.

Curtis and Emet working on the calf

Later that week we had another coyote predation. This time the herd was in a paddock very close to the barn yard, the weather was good, and there was lots of help available to bring in the young and skittish heifer - a first time calver. It was a dramatic chase and we were glad it was a short distance to get her into the head gate. We had our trusty old John Deere Gator, it is small, slow and has no power steering. Our newer side by side is bigger, faster and has power steering and Emet had his horse Baller.

Emet has the most experience with chasing cows because of his place on the Bar MW cowboy crew. At our ranch we usually move cows slowly by calling them and shaking a pail of grain. Because we rotationally graze, the cows get to practice this skill every few days, and are usually cooperative. This time though, we were in a hurry and were dealing with separating a single cow who looking for her dead calf while tired, sore, and angry. She was NOT going to follow us to the corrals and she became very combative! The cow charged Baller the horse several times, even getting her head and shoulders under him. Baller pivoted and kept his feet under him while the heifer kept working him over. Emet told Baller to stand his ground and then moved him into offence instead of defense. The two of them pushed the heifer the last few meters into the corrals.

Princess wearing the grafted piece of hide

Once the she was in the chute, we realized this heifer was much smaller than One Eyed Willy - who used the chute last. The headgate wouldn't catch her so Curtis made the adjustment, we moved her up, and the head gate caught her. I had a dirty job to do now. The polite term is "grafting". We had the carcass of this heifer's dead calf stored on the deck of our farm truck for the crop insurance adjuster to inspect, so I went to skin a piece of the hide to tie it to Princess so she would have the same scent as the original calf. We opened the side maternity panel so Princess could try to nurse .... and Princess went right to work nursing! The cow who had just tried to kill Baller and Emet, stood perfectly still and let down her milk. When Princess had enough we let the cow into a small pen and debated if we leave Princess or separate her overnight in case the cow hurt her. While we were discussing what to do, the cow called for Princess! A beautiful "Lowing" sound. When i hear that sound, I know that we have a bonded Cow Calf pair!

Willy and Princess are doing great, which makes all the hard work worth it! We are almost halfway done calving and hope it goes smoothly, but we will be sure to share any new adventures as they happen!