Cake Walk

We've all heard the expression, "Let them eat cake!" In the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette uttered that phrase, which exemplified how out of touch the royal court was with the realities of starvation in the largely peasant society they ruled over. If they can't eat bread, they can surely still eat cake, right?  "Let them eat cake" is an expression we use on our ranch, too, sort of tongue in cheek.  I assure you it's not for the same reason! Our animals are far from starving. Although, in a sense, we are giving a certain group a little something different that the whole herd isn't getting...

We are really starting to get close to calving time here, and with that, we are feeding bales of hay and straw to the herd daily. By now, the young cows and heifers have been split from the main herd. This would be any animal who will be having either her first or second calf. These are the soon-to-be mamas that are more likely to need a little extra help calving or might be more likely to encounter difficulties, so by separating them out, it becomes easier for whoever is walking through the herd to identify them. To this group, we like to feed a little extra in addition to the hay bales they munch on.

Enter the range cake.

Range cake is a nutrient-dense feed comprised of mostly mulched up grasses and molasses to hold it together. It's aa all-natural, highly fortified protein, vitamin and mineral supplement, shaped like large pellets. Our young cows get a range cake supplement to their diet of hay once a day, in the morning. Yesterday, I had the honors of feeding the range cake to the girls!

They really go crazy for this stuff. I had walked over to say hello to the girls and snap some photos on my phone. Meanwhile, Jeff was getting a few things ready in the barn. I had a few minutes with the young cows and heifers, and they were pretty curious about me! They were all looking at me, and several came over to the fence for a curious sniff. I'm sure they were thinking, "Stop looking at us and give us our range cake!"  But we had fun anyway! I just love spending time with the cows.

Take a look at the ear tags. The A cows are having their first calf this year, while the Z cows will be second-time mamas.

Cattle are very curious animals! The blonde cow on the left got very close to me, as you'll see in the next image...

I think she would have licked my phone if I didn't step slightly away...

Harvey likes visiting the cows, too! Especially when there's a fence in between him and the animals. He really likes to lick their noses, and they don't seem to mind, either! He'll come right up to them, stick his head through the rungs, and give them a lick!

Z-35 is one of my very favorite cows. She is so pretty, and very gentle. Always one of the first cows to say hello to me!
She and Harvey get along pretty well, too, as you can see.

All told, I'd say 7 or 8 cows came to the fence just for Harvey! Gotta love animals! :)

As soon as the girls heard the sound of Jeff pouring cake into the buckets, Harvey and I became old news. They immediately clambered over toward the small gate where Jeff normally enters the pen, as if they'd be able to sneak a few pellets here and there!

I would be the one to feed the pellets today. I had done it before, but quickly ran through my mind the order in which I would do things, where I'd walk, how I'd pour the cake, and so on. When dealing with large, hungry animals, even animals as gentle as these, it's best to have a plan. Then, I grabbed the first bucket and tucked myself into the pen. The girls were really crowding me for space, excited as they were for their morning snack!  I flailed my free arm toward them and gave them a few shouts of "Ha! Ha!" and they flitted away a bit. I walked over to the farther away feeder and poured the first bucket of cake into it, so that it would be evenly spread out-- to lessen "fighting" among the girls. Plus, by feeding into the farther away feeder first, I would have much more space to freely walk back for the second bucket and feed it, which I did with no problems.

By this time, Jeff was ready for me to walk back to the larger gate and let him in with the tractor so we could feed a bale. And on we went with the rest of our rounds of feeding for the day. Feeding the range pellets to the young cows was as smooth as ever. A real cake walk! So, you see here that, like in the times of the French Revolution, cake is a treat. The difference is that we keep all of our animals fed and happy at all times. And, unlike Marie Antoinette, I love walking among the fray, being with them, and making it possible to let them eat cake! I don't think I'll be guillotined by this bunch. :)