bovine – Living de Good Life

Midnight Romp

If you were to tell me that one of our calves would break through the fence during the night, I would NOT have guessed it would be Hazel! She has, from birth, been extremely calm, contented and seemed to have an uncanny understanding of her place in the world…well, at least on our farm. I would have guess it would be Snickers, the calf who escaped through three electric polytape fences when she was just hours old! But, no!

This morning, when hubby went out to do morning chores at 5 something o’clock this morning, everything SEEMED the same as every other morning! He walked through the back yard to the barn and had no idea of the happenings of the night. Eventually, he became aware that something was amiss as he was mucking the stalls. He heard a noise…a strange noise, like the sound of a new calf. He went out to investigate and THERE SHE WAS…laying in the front of the barn door, no doubt exhausted from her romp. She just wanted to let him know she was there and then patiently waited for him to come and make everything right again!

It is always interesting to me how hindsight puts the puzzle pieces in place. I had a very restless night…very few hours of sleep, part of which was caused by Odin, our livestock guardian dog, barking incessantly. I was tired, and all the other times he has barked and after waking hubby to go see what could be wrong, it was nothing. So, of course, I just figured it was the same and tried to go back to sleep. Eventually, he quieted down, but started up again a short time later. NOW, I know he was tattle-telling on Hazel, but I didn’t trust him enough to be alerted that something was not right. (NOTE to self: TRUST ODIN!)

Evidence of bovine two-stepping. I’ll spare you the pictorial evidence of the more fragrant type!

Jeff said there was evidence all over the back yard that she had been out for awhile and had found much to investigate. I wish I could ask her about her adventures. As I looked around at her hoof-prints, it looked like she was doing the two-step…eh, the “four-step” all over the yard.

It is amazing to me how cattle seem to know when the breaker gets blown and the fence is off. I’m sure if her nose had been bitten by seven thousand volts that she wouldn’t have broken through…so HOW DID SHE KNOW? Did she sense it was off? Or was her need for a midnight romp so overwhelming that she tried it first? And, why did no one else attempt an escape? Did she sneak out? Once she was out safely, why did no one join her?

staying unusually close to big sis, Truffle…not sure she was thrilled with her decision for independence!

So many questions to which I will never have answers. But, I am so thankful that the gates were all shut, preventing her from wandering out to the road and beyond! I am so thankful that the other three calves didn’t follow her through the broken fence. Her nighttime secrets will stay secrets unless she shares them with the other calves. I am just thankful that in the light of day, everyone is safe and back where they belong!

“Moo”ve over…there’s a new leader on the block!

Personalities are funny….but especially so when you are talking about bovine personalities! I know I have talked about this before, but we have a variety of HUGE personalities here at the farm. Jersey, the mom, grandma and great-grandma has her stubborn moments, but for the most part, she is quiet-natured and easy going…kind of a go-with-the-flow kind of girl.

However, her daughter, Mocha is definitely NOT those things most of the time. She is our “diva” cow…she knows what she wants, when she wants it, how she wants it, and lets you know if you haven’t met her expectations! One example is our morning and evening routine: Jeff cleans out the stall while I get the dairy feed ready. If he takes too long and doesn’t close the stall door, OR if I take too long getting the feed ready, she puts her nose on the stall door, shoves it open and walks out to where I am filling her feed bowl. Sometimes she just stands there and waits and sometimes she comes over to see what is taking me so long! Patience is definitely NOT one of her virtues! Mocha shows typical signs of PMS when she is in heat: moody, sulky, difficult to get along with, etc. But, she is smart! She is way too smart for her own good, and ours! Mocha is a leader and sometimes mouthy but seems to understand the way things work. When there is a variation in routine, she complains for three days, but after that seems to acclimate to the new routine.

Mocha has birthed four daughters: Cocoa, Caramel, Truffle and Hazel. Cocoa was fairly easy going, more like her grandma than her mama! Caramel is far more skittish than either Jersey or Mocha. Truffle is very smart like Mocha, but she is far more loving and docile than Mocha. Oh, don’t get me wrong…Mocha has her special ways of being affectionate with her humans… but Truffle is outwardly affectionate. Truffle is also a leader, much like her mama. Hazel is like the best version of Mocha and all of her sister calves put together. She is big, strong, sweet and so very smart!

Mocha with Hazel nursing for the last time.

Since Hazel turned four months of age in January, it was time to move her out of the barn where she has been with Mocha, to the west pasture. It is always emotional for me to know when that last time is that they will be together, so I always snap a few pictures to commemorate the occasion.

Mocha and Hazel (left); Caramel and Snickers (right)

I was eager to see how easily she would adjust to being away from her mama and living full time with her uncle Oreo and her sister Truffle. It has been so much fun to watch. Oh, she mooed incessantly for three days, carrying on a long-distance duet of sorts with Mocha but even during her vocal displays of displeasure at being separated from her mom, she emerged the new leader on the block! From her first moments in the pasture with them, she was self-assured and just walked around checking everything out.

Oreo and Truffle followed her around as if they were self-appointed babysitters, but it quickly became apparent that she was taking a leadership role with them. Normally, the youngest calf has the low spot on the pecking order, but not Hazel! She has claimed the prime sleeping spot in the shelter and has made her place at the round bale of hay in the MIDDLE OF THE FRAME. She climbs into the frame and eats from there. I guess she thinks she can’t be challenged or booted out of there since she is the only one small enough to get in there.

Soon, there will be another addition to the west pasture as Snickers, Caramel’s daughter, will soon be ready to leave her mama and join the other calves. She, like her mama is more skittery, so it will be interesting to see who she attaches to and where she makes her place. She isn’t as assertive as Hazel but really like Hazel, so I am eager to see how all four of them get along.

One of the interesting things that has developed is the fact that Oreo has seemed the most interested and attentive to Hazel since she has joined them. I guess I expected the sisters to bond the most, but he follows her most closely and is so interested in where she is and what she is doing. I will enjoy watching all four of them as they grow and enjoy the pasture this summer.

Baby Bovine Behavior (also named The Hilarious Antics of Hazel)

Oh look at that precious face: beautiful and seemingly docile; but, do not let that gorgeous face fool you! She is ornery and energetic as well as headstrong and fearless! She took us on a romp this morning that should have been no big deal except for a few special circumstances coupled with her strong personality.

First, let me say, she will be three weeks old tomorrow! From the first hour of her birth, I knew that she was different from Mocha’s previous three calves in that she was hitting “milestones” ahead of her sisters. Some milestones she hit days before her older sisters. She stood within her first hour. She only needed to be shown once how to nurse. She ran around Mocha in the stall within 24 hours of her birth. From her birth, she was too tall to duck under her mama. She drank from the water trough with her mom in the first few days. The list goes on and on!

She is like the other calves in that she doesn’t like to have the lead rope put on and be forced to go somewhere, whether to the barn, to the pasture or from stall to stall in the barn. She plants her front feet and sticks her chin up in the air with a fierce determination to stand her ground. In her first few days of life, she rewarded the person on the backside pushing her by defecating on them, which was a good thing as far as monitoring her food intake, but not nice for the person trying to push her to go where she didn’t want to go!

She is pretty independent too! From her first hours, she just had this settledness and confidence about her. She doesn’t seem too bothered to be put in a separate stall while I milk Mocha. The other calves would bellow and moo but for the most part, Hazel just lays down and waits until we come for her.

Well, her independence showed in full living color this morning. For the past several days, she and Mocha have had the full run of the front and side pasture but since there isn’t much grass to be eaten in the back pastures right now, we had to move Jersey and Caramel to the front and put a second strand of electric fence tape across to accomodate Hazel’s small size, thinking she couldn’t get through, allowing she and Mocha to in the side pasture. (A little side note of history, last week, she ran right under the electric tape and had some crazy frolics in the front pasture while Mocha stood in the side pasture yelling for her, unable to get past the single strand of electric tape.)

This morning, that little independent miss just ran and broke through the electric tape and frolicked with her grandma, Jersey, and her older sis, Caramel, running around so fast that her body was literally at a 45 degree angle to the ground! She roused Jersey and Caramel up something terrible! Caramel is due to deliver her own calf in about 8 days, so needless to say she doesn’t need to be frolicking in the pasture with her baby sis!

To make matters more crazy, while she was running around the pasture and avoiding being caught by me, (and I am talking around and around and around the pasture) Jersey decided to run interference for her by standing between me and her and then just as I would get close to Hazel, Jersey would take off which would clue Hazel in that I was getting close and off she would go again! At one point, I was so frustrated I wasn’t sure if I was going to cry, yell or just double over in laughter.

I’m not really sure how long I ran around like a fool, chasing the illusive Hazel, but the thought did cross my mind “I now know why they lasso calves!” I think it would be a skill that would have come in quite handy this morning!

Eventually, by putting Mocha back in the corral, Hazel could no longer overcome her innate desire to be with her mom, so she headed back to the corral as well. But, what a workout she gave us! I often think how cool it would be if some “eye in the sky” was videotaping the antics that happen here on the farm, so that we could relive them and have a good belly laugh from time to time!

Tag: bovine

Midnight Romp

“Moo”ve over…there’s a new leader on the block!

Baby Bovine Behavior (also named The Hilarious Antics of Hazel)

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