If you have followed my farm stories for long, you no doubt remember reading about our last calf who, when just hours old, bolted through several electric fences and crossed the road before Micah tackled her on the edge of the cornfields. If not, you can go back and read “She’s Here….And She’s Off” that was written last October. That same calf “Snickers”, when being carried to the barn shortly after her birth as we do with all calves born in the pasture, belted out the loudest cry I have ever heard on a newborn calf. She earned the nickname “Little Big Mouth” on that day and she has lived up to it many times in her short four-month life.
A week ago Tuesday, she said good-bye to her mom, Caramel, and joined her Aunts Hazel and Truffle and her Great Uncle Oreo in the pasture. Now, this isn’t the first time we have been through this process. Normally, in fact with all other calves before Snickers, three days has been the magical timing of when they decide their situation isn’t going to better itself and they may as well just shut up and make the best of their current situation. But, this calf again has made a name for herself and lived up to her nickname.
She mooed for a full five or six days and five nights….most of that non-stop! Caramel responded in duet with expected moos for three of those days, but conforming to our expectation that she would settle down in three days, she was contented after that. But, Snickers (LMB) kept it up…till she was hoarse! She would go over and eat hay with the other calves and then go back to the area of the pasture nearest the barn and start her complaining all over again.
Then one night, after she had begun to settle down, a neighbor’s dog evidently got bitten by our electric fence late at night and was yelping so loudly I could hear it through my closed window. Well, Snickers decided that was her cue to begin her song of woe once again. Thankfully, when the dog quieted down, eventually she did as well.
The other funny thing that has happened in the pasture since she arrived is the older calves have each “adopted” one of the calves as their protector/babysitter/trainer. When Hazel joined them several weeks ago, I expected her sister, Truffle, to take her under her wing and be her buddy/surrogate mom. However, it was big, sweet and gentle Oreo who became his niece’s buddy and babysitter.
When Snickers joined the calves, I was also hoping that Hazel would be a comfort to her because they had played together in the corral quite a bit and seemed to really enjoy playing with each other. However, Hazel stood and observed this noisy little creature with near disdain and a quizzical look as if to say “WHAAAT IS YOUR PROBLEM???? This pasture was a pretty peaceful place before YOU arrived!!!” It was Truffle who then seemed to have the patience and desire to help with Snicker’s acclimation to the group. Several times I have gone out to the pasture and they were standing two and two…Truffle and Snickers in one place and Hazel and Oreo in another. There are times that all four of them are in one place, either around the hay bale eating, or in the shelter for the night but this pairing up has surprised me.
I think she is slowly becoming one of them but Oreo, as sweet and as gentle as he is, still finds ways to let Snickers know he doesn’t really appreciate all the chaos she has brought to the pasture. I have observed him several times chasing her away from eating near where he was eating. As much as I don’t like this, I have come to realize it is part of how the calves establish the hierarchy of the pasture and I must allow them to work it out, as long as someone is still able to eat, drink and sleep without being bullied. Sometimes I wonder if somehow Oreo knows that Snickers is Caramel’s daughter and is paying her back for how Caramel bullied him when she was at the top of the heap in the pasture. If you remember, he was the one who broke through the fence and happily ate from the neighbor’s clover field when Caramel kept chasing him away from the hay. Guess what goes around comes around!
