Win Some, Lose Some

I am a creature of habit and I like my routine. Each day of the week has a specific set of things that happen on them and I do not like it when my day does not go as planned. Wednesday is my column writing day. Sometime between 8:00 and 9:00 in the morning when I finish with chores I walk in the quiet house, brew a pot of coffee, find a snack and sit down with my computer. That is the way I like to write and the routine I prefer. My column is due at noon on Wednesday and in six years of writing I have had to ask for forgiveness and an extension three or four times. This week was one of those times.

Apparently, ewe 1601 and cow 56 did not know about my routine or how important it was to me. Really, I suspect they did and this was all a conspiracy to disrupt my day and cause as much pain as possible. The day started gray with a hint of mist in the air but warm. It was the perfect day to write my column and I was anxious to get chores done but not in a rush. We are coming to the tail end of lambing and just getting a good start on calving, so this is the time things can get hectic. However, nothing from the night before had indicated that might be the case.

I walked out the door right as it was starting to get light and made my way down to the lambing barn. Earlier the day before I had moved all the ewes with lambs into the bigger pen so when I saw a baby lamb wobbling around I knew the morning was not going to be routine. As I got closer I saw that the lamb belonged to ewe 1601. She was an old show ewe, and this was her first lamb, while not exactly in my schedule it was kind of exciting. About that time, I noticed the lump in the corner, another lamb and this one was not as ambulatory as the first. In fact, this lamb appeared to be lifeless.

With a sinking feeling I hopped over the fence and started toward the lamb. Just as I reached down it twitched and I could see that it was still alive. I quickly scooped it up and took it to the heated office. It was cold and weak, so I made it some colostrum and Dad helped me tube it. The effects were almost instantaneous. It started to bawl and hold its head up. While all of this was well and good it did put us behind.

Dad and I decided not to do the rest of the chores at my house, choosing instead to go and check cows next. For some reason I decided to lock 1601 and her other baby up and to tube the stronger twin also. Occasionally I make the right decision, and this was one of those rare times. Since I had tubed both lambs with colostrum I would not have to worry about them for at least a couple of hours.

Cow checking went fine, we had a heifer with a new calf. Mother and baby were doing very well, and she did not even mind our short intrusion on her day to tag her baby. Life was good. I was still going to be writing my column and drinking my coffee by shortly after 9:00. We had one more place to check and they were our older, usually more problem free cows. I guess no one told cow 56 that we were on a schedule.

I found cow 56 on a hillside in a grove of trees. As soon as I saw her I knew things were not good and we were going to need help. She was obviously in labor but had fallen down the hill with her legs out behind her. A call was made to the vet immediately and we went to work pulling the calf. We got the calf pulled and unfortunately this was not one that ended well. The calf was big, and we were not able to save it. That brought our focus on cow 56. With help from our vet we got her feet under her, gave her some iv fluids and left her alone, hoping for the best.

Chores were finished at about the time I had hoped to be wrapping my column up. Luckily, I did not fall feeding the ewes because I am quite sure all anyone would have found of me would have been the metal handle of the feed buckets. I checked on my twin lambs who seemed to be doing well with their very proud first-time mama. It was with a twinge of sadness because cow 56 was one of my favorite cows. The morning reminded me of two absolutes in agriculture. First, you win some and lose some and in many cases all in the same day. Finally, schedules and routines are nice in theory but they are just that, a theory.