With all those baby calves being born, they have to have some way to identify them and to whom the baby belongs. With calving in full swing, there are new babies being born almost hourly during the mornings and day. We have about 800 mama cows that are calving this season. The ranch is averaging about 20 calves born per day. Some days it’s less and some days it’s more. The cows should be done with calving sometime in April.
(Just for clarification from the last post, they only bring in mamas/babies that seem to be struggling for some reason or they have to pull a calf. They were bringing in almost every mama when we had negative temperatures and really cold days. When the temperatures are above a certain degree, they leave all healthy and non-risk mamas/babies out in the pastures.)
Matt will take her in the evenings or during the day to help tag the calves. She’s a pretty good helper.
The process:
First, they look for any newborn calves. Mamas like to tuck them down in snow or hay out in the fields. Then you have a staring down contest with the mama to see how protective and crazy she is about the newborn.
When the mama’s attention is elsewhere, you quickly snatch the newborn by the tail.
If the mama isn’t too crazy, you can do all your work right near her. You just have to make sure you look over your shoulder.
Sometimes, you have to drive around and make the mama confused. Then you can park and do all your work.
The babies get a shot, iodine sprayed on their umbilical cord, banded if they are a boy, and get a tag in their ear. The number on the tag is the same as the mama. They also have a little letter up at the top telling what week they were born. A,B,C,D,E weeks. After all that, and the general health is looked over, the baby is released back to the mama. It takes about 5 minutes total for each baby calf to get tagged.
Thankfully, we are coming to the end of calving. It’s been super, super busy.
