Sunday, July 27, 2014

I promised a calf, right?

I'm sure you are all wondering, "Where's that calf you promised us?"

Yes, even relatives have been asking me that question.  Trust me, I am sick of having Crystal penned up in our front yard.  The other cows come up at night and keep her company across the fence, but when they go out to pasture each morning, Crystal bawls and bawls and bawls.  This has been going on for days now.  On the bright side, Cora has learned to say "Moo".  If I tell her to say moo, she goes to the window and looks for the cow, saying "moo" as she goes.  She's obviously a genius.

Here's the deal with the cow:  She got out onto the neighbor's pasture at some point.  When the grandson and Aaron went searching for her on a Saturday, I think it was, they didn't find her.  When they found her on Sunday, she was high atop one of the bluffs on the neighboring property, and although they tried to get her down to a place where it would be easy to cross the property line back home, she refused.  My daughter says that, as she remembers the story, they got Titan (the wonder dog) to sort of "sic" her and then got her to a point where she could come home.  There was no bull in sight, nor any cows, although the previous day they had seen the farmer's herd, and Arick had even taken a picture of them.  Crystal wasn't with them.  They concluded that she couldn't have gotten bred, since she wouldn't leave her perch.  When she came home, she was hungry and very thirsty. She obviously hadn't had anything to eat or drink for two days.

I watched for her to come in heat for weeks, and never saw her cycle.  That's when it hit me that she must be bred.  Even though she wouldn't go DOWN the mountain to Mohammed, Mohammed evidently came to the mountain.  But wait!!!!  What weekend was that, anyhow?  

I knew it was one of two weekends, three weeks apart, so I wrote both dates down.  If the first date was correct, she would be due sometime around July 21.  If it was the second date I wrote down, she would be due around August 10.  

It is still possible that she was bred on the earlier date:  I've had cows go as much as ten days past their due date, when I knew for certain the exact day they were bred (this was back when we used artificial insemination... God bless Emmett Kolster, who stored the Jersey semen I bought and came and bred my cows for free).  Otherwise, we may be waiting for another month.  And the baby can work on her mooing skills.  

2 comments:

  1. It's a great story. Will be waiting for that calf.

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  2. Just like you are waiting for a calf, I'm waiting for a new grandchild to be born. Nature takes it's own good time for sure. We'll see who gets here first your new calf or my new grand babe.

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