Monday, March 12, 2012

The Maternity Pen


I have been calving out heifers for about 22 years now.  When I started, I didn't know diddley about the back end of a cow.  We had a brand new calving shed that first year, and believe me, I used it.  I put every heifer in the barn that lifted her tail to do any kind of business....I wanted to be prepared,  I guess.  But over the years, I've seen a lot of calves born, brought a number of them into the world, with or without help from someone else.  I wouldn't say I'm an expert by any means, but I would say I have seen a lot when it comes to calving.  Dad says he always knows when a cow's going to calve....when she has feet showing.

In that nice calving shed Dad built, are eight stalls.  I have only had it completely full on one occasion back in the late 90's.  We had a terrible snowstorm and had heifers and cows both in there to calve.  I even had cows locked in the alleyway.  Anyplace out of the weather.  We saved a lot of calves during that storm because of that shed.  So I am really thankful we've had it.  It is a great little barn.

My biggest complaint about this little shed is that it does not have any sort of head catch device for restraining a heifer if we need to pull a calf.  So for 20 some years now, we have put the heifer in a stall and roped her around the neck, tied her as short as possible, opened the gate to her stall and set to work getting the calf out of her.  The problems with this method are if you don't get the cow tied short enough, she is going to have a lot of room to thrash around or she can choke herself with the rope if she fights it very long.  Over the years, we've had several choke themselves to the point I had to loosen the rope so they could catch their air.  I've only lost one cow to choke.  I hate it that it's even one, but it happened last year.  She was too scared and too wild. I just couldn't get the rope loosened up in time.  I felt terrible about it.  And that's when I really got to thinking about making some changes.

Now this thrashing around part is not good either.  Maybe I should explain how pulling a calf works and that will help you understand a little more why the thrashing is a bad thing.  As soon as I can get close to the heifer (she WILL fight the rope for a while), I need to get the chains around the feet, presuming feet are showing, which is usually the case.  I loop an end around each foot and secure them over the calf's dewclaws.  When the chains are on securely, the pullers come next.  There is a strap that fits over the cow's back which is hooked to a metal piece shaped kind of like a U.  It rests up against the cow's butt. Then the ratchet hooks into this metal piece.  There is a hook in the ratchet piece that the chains hook into.  This ratchet piece is a long pipe, probably about 6 feet long.  If a cow has too much rope, she starts swinging this 6 foot long pipe around with me at the end of it.  Also, the rope is usually tied off somewhere, so not only am I dodging the swinging 6 foot long pipe, I'm also ducking under the rope to get away from the pipe. Not to mention, making sure I don't get stepped on or kicked.  By the grace of God, I have never been hurt doing this.  But I've come close on several occasions.

So for several years now, I've been thinking there has to be something better than the "tie up the cow method" I've grown so used to.  By some streak of luck, I saw a thing called a maternity pen advertised in a ranch magazine.  I didn't know exactly what it was, but from the looks of it, it had a head catch and formed into a place where I could pull a calf or nurse one if necessary and I would be a lot safer.  I looked at one at a ranch sale and I also looked at one that a neighbor has.  It looked like a pretty good deal.  But then Matt and I were looking on a web site and found a video of what has this year become to me.......(cue angels singing)  THE GREATEST INVENTION EVER!!! 

The maternity pen I purchased is probably the most expensive one on the market.  I don't know.....and I don't care.  This thing has made my life so much better.  I cannot even explain to you how much easier it has made things for me.  I am so glad I bought it.  And the funny thing is, this morning, Dad says, "I didn't even know you could get something like this.  But it sure works slick."  That's about as close to a compliment as you get from my dad.  It's ok with me.  I'll take it.

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