The Bovine Bugle

The little lost calf, not so little or lost anymore

Walking through the barn one morning last week I saw Thelma, the mother of Kathy, the calf that was lost in the woods for two days. [Use the archives, left, to see October 28, 2005 entry: "The Next 'Survivor' Contestant Is..."]I just thought I'd send a picture and let you know how they are doing.

Kathy, the "Survivor", never missed a beat and has had no ill effects from the ordeal. She is now 4 months old, eating hay and grain, and is keeping pace with her herdmates. By the time May rolls around she will be ready to go out on pasture with a bunch of her buddies. One of the organic standards we have to follow is that animals over 6 months of age must be out on pasture during the growing season. This means from May to October all our stock over 6 months must be outside and have access to adequate pasture.

Thelma, the Mom, is doing great, too. Our breeding technician, Bob Cole, artificially inseminated her several weeks ago. At our next monthly clinic with Dr. Steve, I think she will be far enough along to pregnancy check. If she is pregnant, she will be having another calf about the same time as last year, late October. Hopefully her third delivery will not be quite so stressful as the one last year.


--Jonathan (left), Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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And the next "Survivor" contestant is...

Kathy, the newborn Survivor, safe and warm in her pen and nonplussed by her adventure.

I'm still shaking my head in disbelief over what happened Tuesday. It has made me marvel at the strength and hardiness of animals, and it taught me a good lesson in completely checking out a situation before giving up.

Tuesday morning we had our monthly herd clinic with Dr. Steve. The fresh cows were all doing fine, and every cow we pregnancy checked was, indeed, pregnant. The only down side was when Dr. Steve checked a cow that was due to calve. I had found her over in the woods Sunday morning and had wondered if she had calved that day. But, I found no signs of a birth taking place, I searched the immediate area and found no calf, and the cow, Thelma, took off for the barn showing no signs of wanting to hang around because she had a calf nearby. Steve's exam found that Thelma had calved. Needless to say I felt terrible. What had happened to the calf?

I just had to go back to the spot where I had found Thelma and give it one more look. In the afternoon, I took the four-wheeler and drove over to where I had seen Thelma Sunday morning. Again, nothing caught my eye. I crossed over the fence to look further into the woods, pushing pine branches out of the way. As I pushed one branch it broke with a loud snap!, and out jumped a calf from the underbrush. I was stunned. I could not believe a calf born over two days ago was still alive out here. She looked fine. I spoke to her, and when I got close she started nosing at my knee, telling me that she was very hungry.

Back at the barn, we put her in a nice warm calf pen and got her a bottle of warm colostrum from her mother who had just been milked. I had never seen a calf drink a half gallon of milk so fast. We saved a second bottle, and gave that to her later in the evening. I had to hold tight to the bottle so that she wouldn't pull it out of my hands. When I told my wife, Karen, about the calf, she said we should name it Kathy after Kathy O'brien, the Vermont resident who had appeared on the CBS show, "Survivor", twice. We thought that was a great idea. I never would have imagined a newborn calf could survive the elements, and the coyotes, for so long before being found.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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Left: Some other creatures left out in the elements at Howmars Farm this week!

The tale of the wandering steer, and his buddies

After we got back from our run/walk this morning, Karen could hear one of the livestock crashing around in the woods behind the house. That isn't where it was supposed to be, so we walked out back to see what was going on. One of the steers had managed to get on the other side of the fence and, of course, was crying because he couldn't figure out how to get back.

I called to the steer as I walked out into the pasture, and he came down off the ledge and headed in the direction of the gate. When I called, all his buddies came running over to the gate, too. I kept them all occupied by shaking some apples off a nearby wild apple tree. While they butted each other around trying to get the apples, I let Guy, the wandering steer, back through the gate.

I can't believe how much the heifers and steers love apples. They will even take them from my hand, just like a horse would. We kid that the livestock are fighting the deer to get to the wild apples first.

With everyone back together, I led them back towards the house and into a fresh paddock of grass and clover. Soon they were all munching contentedly, enjoying the benefits of the warm fall weather.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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A young heifer really gets into her food

Our oldest nephew, Jason, and his wife, Nikki, were just leaving the farm after Sunday dinner when they noticed an odd site. They backed their car up, and when we asked what was wrong they said one of the heifers was inside the stock tank we use to feed them hay. We all walked out to see this oddly funny sight.

The young heifer was indeed inside the tank. After debating how to get her out, Jason and I decided to try tipping the tank so that she could get her feet over to top edge and outside the tank. It worked like a charm. Must be she wanted to get every last bit of hay that was left in the bottom of the old stock tank. Jason commented that tilting the stock tank a bit was lot easier than helping Ben and me move into the house the new woodstove we had just purchased. The Hearthstone stove weighed just under 500 pounds, and gave the three of us all we could handle. This will make the 2nd woodstove we have in the house. We hope to cut our heating oil consumption by a lot. With the price of fuel oil well over two dollars a gallon, we should almost pay for the woodstove in one heating season. Of course, it means Ben will have more wood to split, and Justin will have more wood to stack.

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