Wild Cow Stories

[farmers_son]

Just came in from getting a calf which had not sucked some milk. Which turned out to be a bit harder than I expected causing me to have to run a little faster than I have had to for a while.

It reminded me of a wild cow story I heard (from a reliable source) of a fellow who was tagging or treating a new born calf. The cow, a black cow by the way, was really on the prod so the fellow got the brilliant idea of driving up alongside the calf with the pickup and pulling the calf into the truck to be treated. The cow came after the calf right into the truck pretty much wrecking the inside and the fellow had to escape out the other side.

What other experiences have people had with wild cows?

[rkaiser]

Not really "wild cow" stories but I had a bit of a rough last week of March. Delivering bulls out in Manitoba and SE Saskatchewan and had one to unload in a barn. Opened up the whole back door on the trailer and poked at him a bit before jumping in with him and trying to push him off. Pushed and poked for about five minutes before he finally had enough of me and tried to put me in the front compartment of the trailer. I had it in my head to get up on top of him rather than underneath and grabbed some rails on the side of the trailer. As he was pumpin me with his eyebrow, I kept heading over the top of him and all the bangin and crashin was over in a couple of seconds. Banged me head on the top of the trailer a couple of times and bruised me back a bit, but at least the pace maker didn't have to kick in. LOL The bull walked off the trailer like a ***** cat when we backed in to a pen with some other bulls.

A couple of days later I surprised a little cow when we were doing some sorting and she put her foot on the top of my hip bone. The bruise is starting to disappear after two weeks of hard purple blood filled grossness.

God I love my job....LOL Gonna love it even more when that cheque comes from the feds for their clowin around with BSE.

Oh yeah --- happy easter FS and the rest of you yin yangs.

[per]

Thankfully no wild cow stories to report this year. I know there were some in the past but I have successfully blocked them out. If they all came flooding back we would have to quit out of fear. Glad you came out OK f_s and Randy you need to be more careful.

[grassfarmer]

Had a bad night recently too - kind of like Randy's it involved a bull and a confined space. Long story short I finished up underneath rather than on top. I was doing quite well avoiding feet and trying to figure out my exit strategy when to add insult to injury he moved and I got crapped on - but it was strange, instead of green or brown crap it was more like black and white. Then I noticed what appeared to be writing on it - I could only make out a few letters "A,B,P" Then I woke up ;o)

Smarten up Randy you're getting too old to take these kind of risks. Stay safe folks it's not worth taking any risks.

[smcgrath76]

We had some fun loading a 5 year old bull to go to town this spring, but my favourite cow was a purebred I bought when I was 12. Had her for years and only successfully weighed one calf at birth. She was a killer cow at calving and would chase you out of the pen and then back up and hit the gate. I remember one day loking for a calf I let out a bawl and she wound up chasing the horse for nearly 1/4 mile while I was popping her with a rope. She kept getting pregnant and raised a series of the the nicest, quietest calves you would ever want to own until she was about 15 years old.

[kato]

This one happened many years ago when we were much younger and less wiser than today.

It was before we converted our former dairy, then pig barn to a calving barn, so we were making do with less fancy facilities. In the back of the cow shed we had a large plywood calf warming box that had a heater in it for emergencies. We had just bought some bred cows, and didn't know much about their dispositions yet. Anyway, one was calving, so we got the bright idea to sit in the box, with the heater running to wait and see if she would have problems or not.

She had no problems, but we did. As soon as the calf hit the ground the former quiet cow did a Jeckyl and Hyde on us. There was no way she was going to let us out of the box! This was a fine state of affairs. As soon as one of us poked out head out, she was on us, and ready to kill! It was looking like we were going to be there for a long time. This was going take some explaining if anyone came to the yard right then. Embarrassing? You bet! Finally Hubby took a run for it, and leaped over the fence with her breathing down his neck. Then he distracted her while I made my run for it.

Lessons learned? Don't trust a new cow. Don't get any bright ideas. And if you need to set up a calf heater box, make it closer to the exit.

[wd40]

Bull story email from son in NE,

Bikes or Bulls, which one is more dangerous? It’s subject to opinion I suppose, however, Mike might have his opinion handy today. Yesterday at 4:30 a bull hit him in the leg, threw him in the air, from which he landed on his head, and then continued to mess with him until one hired man managed to distract the bull. So far he has a broken sternum, a bruised leg, a tumor on his kidney (not related) and more test results to come. I told him he was probably too old to be riding bulls.
Not fun!

[kato]

OUCH!!!!!!!

[bombay_43]

Great Stories! Had to add mine too.

This one happend just as Kato's many years ago, when our finest facility to tie a cow up, was to run around the tree in the corral several times, and hope she didn't run the same way, and as fast! However, first you had to get the rope around her neck. My husband determined that the best way to get the cow to come close, was for me to hang on to her newborn calf and make it bellow. He stood behind me, ready to throw the rope, while I knelt down with the calf.

The resulting bellow, saw not just the mother, but the entire herd of around 45 cows barreling toward me, before I blacked out! As realization again returned, I was certain, that I had been run over by a 1200 pound angry mother cow!

It was then I noticed hubby behind me, bent over in pain, wrestling with what he thought was a broken hand, and saying words, that should never be coming out of anyones mouth!!

When he went to throw the rope, he forgot my head was in the direct path between it and the cow, and a good swift backhand to the head rendered me unconscious!

[coppertop]

And just how many of these stories involved a LIMO ????? I have only had one snot to deal with this calving season. Three year old that decided to have her calf one night in the middle of one of those nice March blizzards. I found the calf shivering in the snow, and got between it and the cow with my pickup but couldn't get the calf by myself so called the neighbours. It took one Dodge Ram, and one Chevy, two redheaded women and one fairly husky man to get the calf in the corral and into the barn.
The Dodge hauled the calf in and the Chevy herded the cow......
After getting some colostrum into the calf and getting it warmed up, it was on the cow, and hasn't looked back but I sure as heck have eyes in the back of my head when I walk into the pasture because she is darn sure not letting me near the calf again !!!!