New Life on the Prairie

We went to the HPR this past Thursday for some business. First on the schedule was to check on calving. After more than 100 Calves were born we had more Calves on the ground than Cows who had birthed! How could this be? It was because Urs, Elias and Cade did a good job of calving and because we had two sets of twins! But then, suddenly, we had three Calves die. Our staff grafted a twin onto a Cow who lost her Calf. Fortunately, the Cow accepted the Calf and gave him the gift of a normal life on the HPR range with a mother.

As is always the case, there are nearly an even number of Heifer and Bull Calves. Imagine that! Only Mother Nature could pull that off. Imagine how much more difficult it would be to manage our herds if there was not always an even number of gender among the Calves?

We are not calving out Heifers this spring so calving is not too difficult……….no pulling or dead First Calf Heifers, as is usually the case with calving out Heifers. With Cows, we just need to watch them carefully, and then get them tagged and banded as soon as possible.

I love to see the Calves frolic in the cool spring breeze. I love to see them lay on the fresh hay that Elias lays out for the Cows. I love to see the Calves first walk, first successful sucking of their Mother’s teats, first introduction to bunting their buddies in the forehead, and first chewing of hay or playing with the new spring grass. Of course, I am biased but the halfblood Black Angus X Braunvieh Calves that we have seem to have so much more personality and fun than other Calves in the Valley.

I remember when I first purchased the ranch I asked one of our daughters to come to the ranch to see the “new life”. The first exciting “new life” was when a Heifer needed to have her Calf pulled. Urs hooked up the winch to the Calf’s front feet and pulled. It was an arduous pull but finally the Calf dropped out……dead! What could have been such a beautiful thing (“new life”) turned into a tragedy

The next experience with “new life” on the ranch was to ride on a 4-wheeler out in the pasture to check on new Calves. It was a very cold day and we found a mother Cow without her Calf. We looked around the large pasture and finally found the Calf, dead, frozen in a small stream. So much for this “new life” experience.

Then, we decided to talk a 4-wheeler ride to spot some wildlife. We spotted a Cow Moose with a small Calf (small for a Moose!). We watched from quite a long distance, careful to not chase the animals, and saw the Cow jump a barbed wire fence. We then saw the Calf jump the fence but he never came back up on the other side of the fence. I knew exactly what had happened and we hurried over to the Calf to see if we could free his front feet from the fence, as his mother looked on. Unfortunately, the Calve broke his neck after falling when his front feet got caught between the two top strands of barbed wire. The Calf was dead…………..so much for that “new life”.

So it was not a good trip for Kristyn to see “new life” at the ranch. Later, we were fortunate to be able to hug and hold a new baby Calf. They are so cuddly and cute. I love to be around them. They do represent new life on the Prairie. I remember once lying down on the freshly strewn hay with the Calves and their Moms, trying to imagine from their vantage point what the Prairie looked like from the ground. It was as beautiful and inviting as it was at my level.

We will see the 2006 crop of Calves all spring and summer, moving them from pasture to pasture with their mothers. We will experience moving them for miles, finally to reach a pasture, and forming a circle to allow the Calves to “mother up”. Isn’t it amazing how out of hundreds of black Cows and Calves that within a few hours they would all find each other. The only interference between a Calf and her mother Cow during a 45-60 day period during June and July will be when those Beautiful Braunvieh Bulls follow and eventually mount and breed the mother Cow for the next generation of HPR Calves.