Done, but with errors

October 4, 2011

Hey fellow seekers,

I get that computer message sometimes when loading a Web page, but decided it can apply to a day of weaning calves, too. First lesson learned (again) in the first 10 seconds of that September day: don’t assume something will always work just because it always has.

The day looked promising, more or less. Predawn scouting showed most of the cows in the north 80 were in view of the gate on the road they had to cross to enter the alley and trap themselves in a catch pen. It’s been working, more or less, for 20 years.

The thing is, our home cows needed to be caught first or they might hear calves bawling and suspect trouble. I should not have loaded the 4-wheeler the night before, but no problem, I would just unload it and lure them in with a half-sack of pellets. Backing out, raising the carryall in the same level load position that always worked before. This time something caught and put the 4-wheeler past the tipping point. Long story short, it got dumped squarely upside-down,smashing the control console to where I could not even find the key. It was time for Plan B,the steering-wheel ATV that only goes 25 MPH. I called local high-schooler Lane to back off a half hour.

Soon, I successfully lured the home cows down the alley. Then loaded it onto the stock trailer and headed north for the acid test in a realm where all my experience included speed to get near the farthest off pairs, lead them through the heart of the herd across that road and down the alley, then circle around and haze in the suspicious few with the ability to outrun any holdouts. Not so easy with the slow ATV, but half the herd was caught when I got back to the north 80 (on a good day, that would be 90% caught).

There I saw most of the calves holding back with a half-dozen cows. Not good. I set up as though I had the speed and hazed them across. They seemed to know my handicap and headed down the road instead of down the alley. Leaving at least one pair behind, I took after them on the shoulder until I could turn them back toward the alley, but one heifer and a cow broke through the barbwire into the pasture at large. Not good, but I knew the tag on that heifer. Later, after we cut out all but one cow, we opened an alleyway for them to come back in and the interested bovines included No. 325 heifer.

It was going to work. Well, all except the holdout pair, that turned out to be two pairs still in the North 80.  As Lane and I got the last load home, I set up the alleyway to accept those 4 animals if they were so inclined.

I had tried them with one load to go, but they showed contempt for the slow ATV and ran to the north. I would be back with an SUV, not an ATV. After Lane and I gave all other calves shots and he went off to play football, I to truck calves, I checked the north with a Mercury Mariner and found the pairs resting 50 feet from the gate. I established position and maintained it till they entered the alleyway and followed them to shut the gate. Home to get the first load trucked west and then back to get the strays, so every calf got its booster shot.

I often quote the Kansas (and Starfleet)  motto: To the stars through difficulties.  As we get older, we’ll keep trying to reduce what can possibly go wrong, but there will always be something. Until next time… let’s aim for profit, target the brand and keep building tomorrow together

–Steve

P.S.  I’d hate to think what would happen without Plans A, B and C.  We have written in Black Ink about the need to plan for many years: Aim for low-stress weaning, Wean with care, Weaning: toward the ideal, and then there’s Miranda’s great article, Weaning with a plan.

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