It’s becoming a regular thing on my morning farm circle for Bridge to parallel me on the other side of the fence, hoping to make an observation of one of the coyotes who lay claim to all the territory beyond Bridge’s and my own pee-mail markers. This morning didn’t disappoint.
When Bridge spotted coyote, he simply lay down very close to the ground and observed. Coyote alternately did the same thing or stood up to register a very loud vocal complaint. I crossed my line fence into the bean stubble field to better get a photo of them both in the same frame, having to sit down on the ground to do it. Once seated, I sat a spell to see how long the face off would continue. It went on like this for about ten minutes, with neither advancing or retreating. Once I got back to my feet and continued walking along the fence line, coyote headed back over the horizon.
When I crossed the fence back to my farm, I noticed a first calf heifer still lingering in the back field after the rest of the herd had already headed into the front field for the day. When I got to where she was, I found the calf nearby, laying down at the edge of the pine thicket. The mother was heading off to join the rest of the herd and did not appear to have been nursed recently. Not thinking it was wise of her to leave her calf cached so far from the day’s grazing territory with coyotes about, I tried to solicit her to come back with my best imitation of her calf’s voice. She looked back, gave me a puzzled look, then continued walking away.
Mid morning I returned to find the calf still contentedly napping in pretty much the same spot while the mother was a good quarter mile away, with the herd, not seeming the least bit concerned. Sometimes when a cow caches a baby calf, she forgets where she’s put it and needs some help. I couldn’t tell whether or not that was the case here, but when the situation hadn’t changed by mid afternoon, I decided to make sure of it.
I always take the cows off the back field some time in April, keep them off until the grass has made all the growth it’s going to make, and cut that field for hay. I had not meant to take them off the back field for a few more days, but decided with several very young calves on hand, there would be less chance of one of them being hopelessly lost if the cattle’s overall territory was cut back a bit now.
I shut both gates leading into the back field. Tried to persuade the calf to walk along on its own but it wasn’t interested in going anywhere. Carried it about 200 feet. Rested. Got it to walk along 20 feet or so, with difficulty. Carried it another 200 feet, rested again. Got it to walk along on its own up to the gate. Got it through the gate. The herd had been munching their way back toward the back field and by now were only a couple of hundred feet away. Carried calf nearly all the way to its mother. She came running up to it. Calf began nursing immediately and was still nursing by the time I retrieved my camera from the back field gate crossing.
All is well, at least at the close of this day.
“Leave tomorrow for tomorrow.”
“Think about today instead.”
Seeing this diary on community spotlight, I decided to add a little update to it. Even with the cows now restricted from entering the back field, I made a full circle of the front field this morning without seeing new calf. I had walked within 15 feet of it on the first circle without seeing it and didn’t find it until doubling back where I had already been.
This patch of coral berry where calf is napping is within line of sight of where the cows were chilling out in the shade this morning.
Mommy saw me as I was persuading calf to stand up and came running over. Apparently she knew right where it was this morning, but that fact wasn’t clear in my mind until I got her to ping it.