Tagging Calves
I paused in the near darkness to make a phone call. One of the heifers had calved. Could she write up an ear tag? I’d be there in a couple minutes to pick her up and we could tag the calf before it got big enough to be really hard to catch. As opposed to just hard to catch.
By the time I got back to the house on the 4wheeler she was out the door and ready to go. She had brought along the tag for the cow who tagged yesterday. The one we hadn’t managed to get to yet. Did I want to tag that one while we were at it?
I did. And I appreciated not only her help, but her willingness. Barely even a teenager yet and she is making an hand. She is great assistance at tagging calves. She is every bit as good when pulling calves or working cows. She’s game. Happy to give it a try whatever ‘it’ might be.
As the sun sat further and evening faded to night we got the heifers calf tagged. As heifers usually are she was sweet, stupid. The calf was young and small enough still that we got its new earring in without too much difficulty.
It’s amazing how much difference one days growth can make. The other calf had been born out on cornstalks the day before and brought in to the relative safety of the corrals, but never tagged. He was up and running. His very protective mother right behind. Dark enough that it was getting difficult to tell the difference between black cow and black calf, we got the calf cornered against the fence and I jumped off to grab a hind leg. One of the drawbacks to being a woman is the lack of a man’s strength. I am not capable of holding the calf with one hand and effortlessly squeezing the tagger with the other.
Luckily I am a woman. A woman with a very handy daughter.
With the calf by one leg and the cow nose to nose with me I drug him back to the 4wheeler. Here. Grab his leg!
It isn’t covered in poop is it? There’s only so much she’s game for and poop isn’t among those things.
No, there’s no poop I assured her. Shw grabbed the leg, holding the calf there along side the 4wheeler. It is nice to have a safe-ish place nearby to jump for if the cow wants to get a little too friendly. She held tight with one hand and waved the paddle in the cows face with the other. I stepped forward to grab the ear, my knee pressed firmly into his back end. I felt the wetness soaking through to my thigh. There might not have been any poop on the leg, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t any anywhere else.
With two hands free because I didn’t have to hold the calf the tagging was accomplished quickly and easily. The calf was quiet. The cow didn’t eat us. The sky was almost fully dark. Sitting on the 4wheeler behind me she told me I stunk of calf poo. She tried to stay back far enough not to touch me. But she knew she had done a good evenings work. She knows she’s good at this cow stuff. Hopefully she’ll be around to help me tag many more calves. It sure does make life easier.
