CATTLE BUSINESS 2020

2020 was a good year on our farm. Thankfully, we had six calves born and suffered no loses with calves or cows. The two coyotes from last December were back. They came out together at dusk several days a week. Then there would be weeks where we would not see them.

In early February, we took a short trip to south Georgia for a few days. The morning after arriving home we woke up to a snow storm and guess what? A baby calf! What a surprise to see the little one, probably only a day old, walking with its mama as huge snowflakes were falling.

Probably the most amazing event of calving season happened in late March. We looked out the window and saw a little calf, just born, out in the back pasture. There was another mama cow with the one that just birthed, which was odd. We sat out on the back porch watching because buzzards flew in and we were worried they would kill the little calf. Two hours later the second mama cow lifted her tail, hoofs appeared, she laid down, and in 5 minutes another little calf was born! Two new calves within 3 hours!

The following morning we only saw one of the calves and one of the new mamas was mooing on and off all day. Thinking something happened, we went out looking and found the missing calf laying in the woods. We were convinced something was wrong with it and it would die. Just before dusk, it came out running like a crazy calf, we could not believe it! It became funny when the two mamas mixed up their babies, or the babies mixed up their mamas. A day later all was straightened out. We’ve decided to name the firstborn Corona and the one we took for dead, Lazarus!

Guess who was back after the two “twin” calves were born? THE COYOTES. We believed they may have built a den on our property. It didn’t take long to find a round opening in a hill area in the back of the pasture that resembled an entrance to a den. Taking no chances, we took the tractor out with the hay spear on the front to break up the entrance. If it was the coyote den, they would leave. That seemed to do the trick. We did not see them again.

The next calf arrived in July, from our big splotched face mama. A couple of weeks later she began coughing, almost constantly. We were worried not only for her but for her calf as well. This went on for over a month, we had her looked at, she was not losing weight, so we left her be. The goal was to get her calf nursed as long as possible. By the end of the summer, the cough stopped entirely. Even still, we made the decision not to keep her. When we corralled the herd up to go to auction, she was very protective of her calf. He managed to somehow get out of the corral underneath the panels and took off. She went absolutely crazy, slammed her head under the panels lifting them, got out, and ran to her calf. Well, that ended that. We would not be able to get her back in the corral again so the pair would remain here until next time. She was doing ok, so all we could do was hope for the best for her regarding her health. Thank goodness the rest of the year was uneventful!