Post by catherine on Feb 19, 2008 9:36:28 GMT -5
Hi Everyone...yes, Texas is apparently a hot bed for the Home Dairy Movement! We have recently inherited 40 acres of half pasture/half deep piney woods NW of Houston. I think we're just down the road from a bunch of KFC members in the Conroe area! How cool is that??? We have collected up a small herd of 10 American Milking Devon, and assorted pigs and chickens, but we don't yet live on the land. We've put our money and efforts into infrastructure for the animals, and now we hope to begin working on housing for ourselves out there! Anyway...most of our herd are calves a bit less than a year old, though we have a 2 year old bull, and our Mama cow, Katie Bell, is 7 years old. In fact, she just finally gave birth, yesterday!!! We've been waiting anxiously all week, and were absolutelly thrilled beyond belief to see her safely delivered of a little girl (at least I think it's a girl...I'm not totally sure as I didn't look at the umbilical cord/penis area closely) when we arrived yesterday morning!!!!
Now what?! lol.
Well, actually, yesterday became really busy, really fast...a rodeo, in fact! We've been learning Managment Intensive Grazing, using temporary electric fencing to enclose rotational paddocks, and everything has been going really smoothly. Famous last words! We have a new 5 strand barbed wire around 2 sides of the perimeter of our place, and two big ranches had run fence on the other two sides. There was a big crashing thunder storm over the weekend, and apparently 5 of our animals got spooked enough that they went through the electric fence, wandered around down in the woods, and then either found a hole torn in the fence by debris from the flooded creek, or else they must have followed strange cows back through a hole onto the neighbor's 1000 acre place behind us. The kids and I spent all of Sunday, tracking our cows down and walking them back to the hole...which unfortunately was in an extremely awkward bend in the fence, and bordered by a raging branch of that creek. We didn't get our animals through before dark caught up with us, and they simply refused to even try to go through that gap and into those dark woods. We had to leave them. However, we left the gap open, in hopes that our runaways would find their way home in the night, and low and behold, they did!!! All 5 were waiting for us on our place, the next morning! Woohoo! They had brought BIG BIG Brahma and Brangus bull friends, too! As we attempted to cut them apart to move our cows back into the paddock with their more mannerly herd mates, everyone took off back through the woods to that darn gap in the fence. We couldn't get ahead of them to block them! The neighbor was out in his pasture with his "mule" when we arrived. He seemed pretty nice, but he's of the old fashioned "whoop and holler" brand of cowman. He proceeded to really wind all the cows up, driving his "mule" right at, and even into our cows, as he attempted to "help" us herd them back to the gap! I finally thanked him for his "help" and told him that we'd handle it. I asked him if he'd either just sit quietly, or leave us to get them. He laughed at us as he drove off, saying we'd never get them back on our place, and he'd have to do it after the pasture dried up in a week or so. Well, no sooner did he exit stage left than our cows seemed to sense things were ok now, and meekly followed the feed bucket back through the quickly repaired gap, and home! Whew. One crisis over. And yes, we need to spend some serious time making sure that the whole perimeter fence is tight!
So...with everyone back in the paddock, we started counting noses...and kept coming up with just 10. Where was the baby calf??? Katie was acting protective around a little patch of trees and brush, where I figured she'd hidden the baby, but...no calf. In fact, she seemed a bit confused herself...as if to say, "well, I left the baby here earlier...but where did she go now?" We walked the entire paddock...no calf. We widened the search...no calf in the cow shed, or in other clumps of trees. No calf drown in the ponds, nor down in the woods along the creek...best we could tell. This couldn't be happening!!! Then...up along the ridge fence by the road, there's a moving shadow. Could it be the neighbor's dog...no! It was the calf, and it was trotting! My son had spotted it too, but I was closer to the calf, so I ran to try to intercept it. The calf cut through that 5 strand barbed wire fence, then stumbled through another neighbor's 3 board fence and bumbled into thick thorny brush on the far side! I was afraid it was going to be lost and gone forever back in the woods...food only for coyotes, if I lost sight of it! The kids ran back to get our own "mule" and I plunged into thickets of thorns. I could just barely see the calf stumbling and staggering ahead and to one side of me, as we were both caught and torn by the brambles. Finally, I steered her towards the road, just as the kids arrived on our "mule". The calf took off up the road, away from our place, running like a pro! We followed that newborn baby for more than half a mile before we were finally able to get ahead of her and turn her back towards home. Thankfully, she stayed on the road and out of the brush, almost all the way home. When she got back to that neighbor's board fence, she tried to cut through, the way she had come, and got high centered on the bottom board! We stumbled up to her and caught her...finally! All of us were out of breath and exhausted! We just cuddled that baby for a while as we all rested! Finally, I gathered her up in my arms and climbed onto the "mule" and my son triumphantly drove us home to the paddock. My daughter ran for our homeopathic kit, and I just sat there, cradling that precious baby until we both calmed down again. She nestled into my arms, and when Sarah arrived, we gave her a dose of Arnica for trauma, Aconite for shock and fear, and Hypericum for pain. Then I carried her back to Katie's side and set her on her feet by her Mom. I wish I could say that we saw her nurse then and there, but I can't. Katie licked her calf, as if to say..."oh...nice to see you back", and went back to munching her hay with the rest of her herd mates. The calf hung out with Mom, walked back and forth under her a few times, stood nose to tail some, but no nursing. Katie even nudged the baby in the general direction of her udder, as if to say...go on...drink! I gave Katie a bucket of sweet feed so that I could pet her, and worked my way down her side and tried to shoot out some milk for the baby to smell. One squirt was all Katie allowed me. But the calf paid no attention. At least the baby was home. And the fact that she was able to run faster than we could for a mile or so tells me that she's a good strong healthy little girlie! Hopefully, she'd already had a good nursing, before her Mom left her to nap in that clump of trees. The only thing we can figure is that she woke up and wandered off looking for Mom.
Anyway, much as I wanted to stand guard all night, I had to leave once full dark came. My own kiddos were tired and hungry from our various rodeos, and we had a Daddy waiting at home for a full report. I've been up all night, reading and posting, as I couldn't sleep for worrying, though. I hope the baby is still with Katie, this morning. I hope she's had some good feeds. And now that it's daylight, I'm out of here to go check. Sorry for rambling on and on like I have. I rather imagine everyone has had a cow or two get lose from time to time, but yesterday was wild! I really don't want a reprise, I can tell you! We did learn the real value of what we'd been practising, working quietly and slowly with our cows. We saw how vital that precious mother/infant bond is for the baby's survival. And we also learned not to rely on the electric fence, unless we are sure that the perimeter fence is as tight as we can make it! ;D I'm not sure what I'll find this morning, but if all is as it should be...I'll be back here, asking for more information on building a milking stanchion, as Katie is MUCH more skittish now than she was before the baby was born! If all is not right...well, we'll all be crying. Pray for us? Thanks!
Catherine
P.S. Interestingly, my hands, arms and t-shirt were rusty red colored, after holding the calf. It was like the "dye" in her auburn colored hair wasn't fully "set" and partially rubbed off on me! By the time we got home, a couple of hours later, the reddish color was almost gone, but it was really striking, just after I set the calf down. Does anyone know what that was?
Now what?! lol.
Well, actually, yesterday became really busy, really fast...a rodeo, in fact! We've been learning Managment Intensive Grazing, using temporary electric fencing to enclose rotational paddocks, and everything has been going really smoothly. Famous last words! We have a new 5 strand barbed wire around 2 sides of the perimeter of our place, and two big ranches had run fence on the other two sides. There was a big crashing thunder storm over the weekend, and apparently 5 of our animals got spooked enough that they went through the electric fence, wandered around down in the woods, and then either found a hole torn in the fence by debris from the flooded creek, or else they must have followed strange cows back through a hole onto the neighbor's 1000 acre place behind us. The kids and I spent all of Sunday, tracking our cows down and walking them back to the hole...which unfortunately was in an extremely awkward bend in the fence, and bordered by a raging branch of that creek. We didn't get our animals through before dark caught up with us, and they simply refused to even try to go through that gap and into those dark woods. We had to leave them. However, we left the gap open, in hopes that our runaways would find their way home in the night, and low and behold, they did!!! All 5 were waiting for us on our place, the next morning! Woohoo! They had brought BIG BIG Brahma and Brangus bull friends, too! As we attempted to cut them apart to move our cows back into the paddock with their more mannerly herd mates, everyone took off back through the woods to that darn gap in the fence. We couldn't get ahead of them to block them! The neighbor was out in his pasture with his "mule" when we arrived. He seemed pretty nice, but he's of the old fashioned "whoop and holler" brand of cowman. He proceeded to really wind all the cows up, driving his "mule" right at, and even into our cows, as he attempted to "help" us herd them back to the gap! I finally thanked him for his "help" and told him that we'd handle it. I asked him if he'd either just sit quietly, or leave us to get them. He laughed at us as he drove off, saying we'd never get them back on our place, and he'd have to do it after the pasture dried up in a week or so. Well, no sooner did he exit stage left than our cows seemed to sense things were ok now, and meekly followed the feed bucket back through the quickly repaired gap, and home! Whew. One crisis over. And yes, we need to spend some serious time making sure that the whole perimeter fence is tight!
So...with everyone back in the paddock, we started counting noses...and kept coming up with just 10. Where was the baby calf??? Katie was acting protective around a little patch of trees and brush, where I figured she'd hidden the baby, but...no calf. In fact, she seemed a bit confused herself...as if to say, "well, I left the baby here earlier...but where did she go now?" We walked the entire paddock...no calf. We widened the search...no calf in the cow shed, or in other clumps of trees. No calf drown in the ponds, nor down in the woods along the creek...best we could tell. This couldn't be happening!!! Then...up along the ridge fence by the road, there's a moving shadow. Could it be the neighbor's dog...no! It was the calf, and it was trotting! My son had spotted it too, but I was closer to the calf, so I ran to try to intercept it. The calf cut through that 5 strand barbed wire fence, then stumbled through another neighbor's 3 board fence and bumbled into thick thorny brush on the far side! I was afraid it was going to be lost and gone forever back in the woods...food only for coyotes, if I lost sight of it! The kids ran back to get our own "mule" and I plunged into thickets of thorns. I could just barely see the calf stumbling and staggering ahead and to one side of me, as we were both caught and torn by the brambles. Finally, I steered her towards the road, just as the kids arrived on our "mule". The calf took off up the road, away from our place, running like a pro! We followed that newborn baby for more than half a mile before we were finally able to get ahead of her and turn her back towards home. Thankfully, she stayed on the road and out of the brush, almost all the way home. When she got back to that neighbor's board fence, she tried to cut through, the way she had come, and got high centered on the bottom board! We stumbled up to her and caught her...finally! All of us were out of breath and exhausted! We just cuddled that baby for a while as we all rested! Finally, I gathered her up in my arms and climbed onto the "mule" and my son triumphantly drove us home to the paddock. My daughter ran for our homeopathic kit, and I just sat there, cradling that precious baby until we both calmed down again. She nestled into my arms, and when Sarah arrived, we gave her a dose of Arnica for trauma, Aconite for shock and fear, and Hypericum for pain. Then I carried her back to Katie's side and set her on her feet by her Mom. I wish I could say that we saw her nurse then and there, but I can't. Katie licked her calf, as if to say..."oh...nice to see you back", and went back to munching her hay with the rest of her herd mates. The calf hung out with Mom, walked back and forth under her a few times, stood nose to tail some, but no nursing. Katie even nudged the baby in the general direction of her udder, as if to say...go on...drink! I gave Katie a bucket of sweet feed so that I could pet her, and worked my way down her side and tried to shoot out some milk for the baby to smell. One squirt was all Katie allowed me. But the calf paid no attention. At least the baby was home. And the fact that she was able to run faster than we could for a mile or so tells me that she's a good strong healthy little girlie! Hopefully, she'd already had a good nursing, before her Mom left her to nap in that clump of trees. The only thing we can figure is that she woke up and wandered off looking for Mom.
Anyway, much as I wanted to stand guard all night, I had to leave once full dark came. My own kiddos were tired and hungry from our various rodeos, and we had a Daddy waiting at home for a full report. I've been up all night, reading and posting, as I couldn't sleep for worrying, though. I hope the baby is still with Katie, this morning. I hope she's had some good feeds. And now that it's daylight, I'm out of here to go check. Sorry for rambling on and on like I have. I rather imagine everyone has had a cow or two get lose from time to time, but yesterday was wild! I really don't want a reprise, I can tell you! We did learn the real value of what we'd been practising, working quietly and slowly with our cows. We saw how vital that precious mother/infant bond is for the baby's survival. And we also learned not to rely on the electric fence, unless we are sure that the perimeter fence is as tight as we can make it! ;D I'm not sure what I'll find this morning, but if all is as it should be...I'll be back here, asking for more information on building a milking stanchion, as Katie is MUCH more skittish now than she was before the baby was born! If all is not right...well, we'll all be crying. Pray for us? Thanks!
Catherine
P.S. Interestingly, my hands, arms and t-shirt were rusty red colored, after holding the calf. It was like the "dye" in her auburn colored hair wasn't fully "set" and partially rubbed off on me! By the time we got home, a couple of hours later, the reddish color was almost gone, but it was really striking, just after I set the calf down. Does anyone know what that was?