As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
Most of you think beef appears by magic, when in reality a great deal of problems occur for that hamburger.
After a most trying week, and having just carried a calf out of a snow field that morning, I finally sat down with TL for dinner at 2 in the afternoon. Yes most of you eat your lunch at noon. That has not happened in my world in years.
So I just sat down and I see this cow out the window in the yard. I think maybe it is the one which just calved that morning and got out, as I could not see through the trees. I noticed someone pestering her, and that is when I saw it was a bubble, as in the water bubble, and I knew it was that little heifer I was scowling over as she of course bred right away, instead of waiting like the other large heifers which looked summer months off.
So much for dinner as out I went and I knew it was a problem to get her in, as she was little, and of course she sprinted for the same snowfield from that morning. That is when I got the bad view of the situation as it was not enough that she was little, but that there was a leg sticking out.......suppose to be two, and the hooves were pointing to the sky.....they are supposed to point down.
I thought in chasing her into the barn which is falling down due to poverty and full of shit, that I had a calf upside down and breach, with one leg back. That with a small heifer meant death, as cows just do not make it with c section an the Vet is always sojourning at the sale's barn to pay his bills on a weekday.
So we get her in, she gets jumpy as she is in pain from the pain and I have to do some high stepping to not get run over, as my ropes have disappeared and my new one is coiled up like a snake.
I get her into the stanchion with TL's kind help and start the exam and I figure the calf is not flipped, which means I would have to flip it back, which is near impossible, but it is backwards, I am feeling pretty good at this point as the calf looks smallish by the hooves and all I have to do is fish that other leg out and then pull the call.
The hooves are still wet so I might be able to save the calf.
For those who do not know, cows just adore kicking you when you are shoving your hands up their what's it. For those of you who do not know, a cows nethers as a heifer are about as tight as your human nethers. So I got a foot stuck out, the tight pelvis, and my hand and arm going into a hole that is tampon size most days of the year.
So I am fishing around inside there, all the mess of birthing placenta and shit, while TL is "breaking the tail" which helps to keep me from being kicked, and I can't find that other foot. I am running my hand around in there as she is pushing, which is like having a horse step on your arm, and I get down in there and I feel a foot, and start pulling, as the hoof is turned back and I get it about 3 inches from the opening. I keep feeling and I get a hold of a little tail. So I have confirmation that it is breach and I put get the calf chains, as you have to have these slip chains on the ankles to attach to the calf puller for the best results.
That is what this review is about is a calf puller that I got a few years ago from Jeffers in how good it is, as it is good, in fact better than the expensive one the vets had which bow in the middle when pulling hard calves.
This is a heavy calf puller, feels like it weighs 30 pounds and more to the delight it is solid bar that does not like to bend.
I take things easy and kept trying to get that back leg that was in there even with the other leg, so I start pulling very slowly on the leg by hand and then let the cow do the pushing. I was helping the cow along and about that time the ass end was coming out and with some help in me pulling the entire calf came out. That is when I got the shock in I had both a front and back foot.
It was a miracle of God and a small calf as I have no idea how that calf came out, and I have no idea how I had a front leg that far back so that it reached the back leg.
It helps that God sends Holy Angels and it helps that I am very slow in trying to let the cow open up to get things through that hole.
Besides God, that calf puller was really a Godsend and am pleased I purchased it three years ago as a precaution as I would spend that on a vet .
This is what is supposed to be normal on a calf.....not what I had.
This is normal breach....not what I had either.
It is what it is, and the story of beef. My neighbor told me that he calved out 75 in that snow with a barn, and had 90 more to go.
I would not be able to sleep at night with those kind of disasters waiting, as he pulled one calf and almost pulled it in half.....he said it is getting better though. God's wonders never cease.
Nuff Said
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