Every year by the time fall is winding down and planting is in the books, I get a little excited for winter. I hate the cold, but I love the few extra hours a day that I get to have my husband at home. He still works until dark, but at least dark comes at 5:30 for a while. I think God had farmers in mind when he created the seasons. He gave them summer to work countless hours and wear themselves out, and then right when they have had almost all they can take, He gives us winter. I can’t speak for everyone, but early winter for us is so nice. Our days are spent feeding cattle and maybe a few little odd jobs. It’s still hard work, and there aren’t really days off, but it’s nice to get a little extra quality time as a family.

Then, just as I am getting used to my comfy little schedule, the winds change. In a day, we go from doing the normal chores, to round-the-clock care. For what, you may ask? Heifers. A heifer is a female cow who has not yet had a calf. Much like in humans, there can be things that go wrong during the birthing process. A calf can get stuck, be breech, or the heifer can go down. To make sure our animals get the best care and are always taken care of, they get checked about every two hours, even at night.

Once they look like they are close to having a calf, we will bring them up to the barn where we can keep a closer eye one them. They have unlimited access to shelter, water, hay, and once a day are fed range cubes for protein. The other night I went with Jake to check them on the 10 o’clock shift. We walked right through them all to check them, and most of them continued to lay down and barely pay attention to us. That’s how happy and calm our girls are. They are used to us and don’t bat an eye that we are in there so much.

We never like to intervene in the calving process, unless it is absolutely necessary for the health and well-being of the calf and/or heifer. If a calf gets stuck, it will kill the calf and the heifer and we do everything in our power to prevent that. In the event that we do have to assist the heifer, there are certain procedures that we do to make it go as smoothly as possible. We will move the heifer in to her own pen and put her in a head-gate to keep her fairly still. We have a device that is specifically made to help get the calf out.

We get a good amount of lube, and put the pulling chains around the calves feet. Yes, that sounds terrible, but they don’t hurt the calf when done correctly, and remember it’s being done out of necessity. There are handles on the ends of the chains so that we can slowly apply pressure to try to pull the calf out. If we’re  lucky you can get the calf out by just pulling yourself. If we’re not so lucky, we will have to use the pullers. They look like a medieval device, but they have saved countless animals.

We hook the chains that are already on the calf, onto the pullers and then place the long bar over the cows back-end to give support and help easier deliver the calf. The pullers work just like a come-along and we crank the bar to slowly get the calf out. Once the calf is out we lay it up on its breastbone and tickle it’s nostrils with a piece of straw or a finger to stimulate the breathing reflex.

Once we know the calf is okay and doesn’t need further intervention, we leave momma and baby together in a pen to get acquainted. Once their bond is established and the calf is nursing well, they are let back out into the pasture.

I know that the process I just described sounds less than gentle, but part of being an advocate is being transparent and not sugar-coating. The truth is that it’s not something we do for fun, and we hate when we have to pull one, but we would never let an animal die because we didn’t intervene, even if it’s not “natural”. What I just described above is also typically the best case scenario. There are still times when we may lose the calf or even the momma too. Things don’t always go how we want them, and it’s hard stand in the cold at two in the morning working to get a calf out, to find out it was already dead. It’s part of life on the farm, and it’s not part of the pretty side.

But what really hurts and makes me angry, is the “activists” who twist the truth. They take a picture of a calf being pulled, and they put on a caption that says we are torturing our animal. Well, when I was in labor it felt like I was being tortured, but I didn’t blame the doctors who were there to help me if I needed it. Had I needed intervention, you can bet I would have let those doctors do whatever they needed to save me and my baby. It’s the exact same thing.

I know that some of the things we do might look really scary to someone who doesn’t know the purpose. So please, if you have questions about something we do, ask a farmer and get the real story. Because I can guarantee you the activists aren’t out there with us helping us keep our animals alive and well. They also aren’t there when we shed a few tears feeling helpless with that newborn calf lifeless in our lap.