Back to Reality

If you've been reading my blog this week, you know that I've been completely enamored with my experience at the MFU Women's Conference last weekend. I'm still riding the high and trying to keep it flying, while taking all of the positive vibes and transferring them into my everyday life. It's easy to feel like you're on an isolated island of fun while you're at such a conference like that but reality hits as soon as you drive away from the conference venue and you're faced with the challenge, immediately, of putting what you've learned into action.

Adria and I drove down together and met Stephanie at the conference. You might remember Stennie from this past summer and early fall when she was here to help us out around harvest time. Here are a few posts relating to her from that time:
Meet Stephanie
Goodbye, Girl Friday

Stephanie is here for another visit, so after experiencing the conference with us, she followed me and Adria back up north to the Hi Line, and then on home with me. We dropped our bags off and went directly to the farm, where we found Jeff, said our hellos, and then went with him to check the cows and calves. We are now full swing into calving and more and more calves are born every day.

Sunday evening, walking through the herd, we only found one new calf and it had been born dead. Talk about a reality check. This was the first test to all the positive energy from the weekend. Immediately, the three of us were faced with the task of bringing in the dead calf to the shop so he could be skinned: his cape would be used on another calf to hopefully graft the new calf onto the dead calf's mama. A bit gruesome, but necessary.

I wrestled a bit in my mind with reconciling that this animal was no longer a cute, baby cow. In fact, he never was alive. Now, his skin, his body, his spirit, would be put to use in order to give another calf a better chance, and to keep the mama productive and happy. We had some discussion, the three of us, as we did this, about how our society "cute-ifies" animals maybe too much at times, and about the disconnect people have between seeing a live farm animal vs. seeing a package of hamburger in their grocery store. People need to eat. Food comes from farms. Meat was once a live creature. That's how it goes.

Jeff had called around and found another calf from a nearby farm, and made arrangements to pick it up the next morning while I was at school. He and Stennie attached the new coat from the dead calf onto the new calf and worked throughout the day at trying to make a pair. Mama cows and their calves normally attach and bond to one another with aid of the calf nursing from its mama, just like people. The new calf wears the skin of the dead calf because the mama recognizes the smell of its own baby, and in this way we can trick the mama into accepting the new calf. Typically, once the new calf nurses a few times and the milk makes it all the way through its system, the mama will eventually take it on as its own. Sometimes this process happens quickly, other times it is tedious and takes some time.

In this case, this mama wanted nothing to do with the new baby at first. Jeff tried locking the two of them (safely) in the barn together, and eventually had to resort to putting the mama in the squeeze chute to get her to hold still long enough so the calf could nurse. Several days passed, progress slowly ensued. Mama eventually allowed the new calf to get nearer and nearer without freaking out and the calf was able to suck and cycle the milk through its system.

The mama is in the squeeze chute and the baby is trying to suck.
His cape is lying on the ground, if you can see through the shadow. 

I've been taking the first-thing-in-the-morning shift to walk through the cows and check on everyone. I'm up early to get ready for school anyway, so it's easy for me to get up, get dressed, walk through, and still have plenty of time to get ready for my day, while allowing Jeff and Tom to sleep in a little extra. Thursday morning, I went out for my walk through and was greeted right away by the new little calf we had been trying to graft. She hopped right over to me to say hello. The adoptive mama immediately stood up from her resting spot in the straw, gave me a wary look and a snort- protective instincts. When I went inside, I told Jeff that I think they successfully had made a pair out of the two.

We lost one calf (so far) on our ranch this calving season, but were successfully able to graft another one on to the mama, so still net 100%. That's the cycle of life. That's reality. Sometimes are great, sometimes are no fun, and sometimes are just so-so. Sometimes we are lucky enough to have days, entire weekends, or only short moments of brilliance that make a positive impact on our lives. It's up to us to recognize the good around us and harness that energy to sustain in the times that aren't that great.

As I walk through the calving pens in the early morning, the sun just beginning to rise, I feel lucky that I get to start my day by looking at and caring for animals. It's a great feeling to see a little black calf, an orphan calf, adopted by a big red mama cow, hop up to me and say hello.