Onbei
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Joyce B'
Dusk. My favorite time of day.
The time of day especially
through this hectic planting season
when you begin to sk>w down,
pause and reflect on the how many
more acres of com planting are
completed.
Mulching the garden at dusk on
this chilly. May evening, I reflect
ed that we were far from finished
planting com or even the day’s
chores. The Farmer was still run
ning a disk ahead of the planting
equipment, evening feeding of the
dairy herd was yet to be completed
and there was a brand new calf
in the maternity pasture. While I’d
missed seeing Mellis and her calf
at milking time, they were clearly
visible from the garden. The
the wheelbarrow and mulching
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progress were temporarily set
aside while I retumedlo the bam
to thaw som6 frozen colostrum, to
make sure the baby had that criti
cal first meal of rich nutrients and
antibodies against disease.
Dusk was deepening by the
time the colostrum was thawed
and warmed. I slipped out the
back of the bam quietly, avoiding
Solomon. Protective cow mothers
and dogs are not a compatible
combination. Even with the most
gentle of our old cows, I have
great respect for the protective,
mothering instinct.
This was the second calving for
Mellis, the new mother, and her
pretty, almost-all-white baby was
a welcome heifer calf. Though
Mellis watched me like the pro-
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verbial hawk, kept moving around
her baby and making irritated,
short mooing warnings, I didn’t
feel threatened by her.
Strong and healthy, the calf
showed not the slightest interest in
nursing the bottle and Mellis kept
coaxing her away. After trying to
corral the newborn for several
minutes and not succeeding in
generating an ounce of coopera
tion. I was about ready to bag the
whole business.
A long, low bawling sound
went up from about SO yards away
and I glanced up to see a large,
black animal headed right for me.
The bull.
How foolish of me. That he had
been moved into this pasture with
the springing cows and heifers had
never entered my mind, even
though I had known he’d been
temporarily removed from the
heifer herd.
His name is Bold; I wasn’t an
xious to find out how aggressively
he would live up to it. In the brief
time he’d been in with the heifers,
Bold had been well-behaved and
non-aggressive to people. But, it
was nearly dark, there was a
somewhat agitated cow, a
no
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bom calf, and this pesty two-leg
ged interloper fussing around the
pair of them. (And no one knew
where I was not even the dog.)
Bold came trotting to do what
bulls do protect his charges.
Though he’s just a youngster, not
much over a year and weighing
less than a thousand pounds, bulls
are NEVER to be taken lightly.
The pasture is along the woods,
with lots of old limbs on the
ground. Grabbing a thick solid
stick in my hand, I began backing
toward the fence that divides the
lots.
Bold took a couple more warn
ing steps in my direction. I picked
up another stick and winged it at
his head. When the stick connect-
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Uncnttr Fanning, Saturday, May 21,1W4-B5
ed, he turned tail, took off toward
the other comer of the pasture,
making bawling, complaining,
noises.
Despite my pounding heart and
shaky knees, I had to laugh. What
a wimp.
Thank heaven! And believe me,
I did, walking back to the bam still
clutching the stick, hanging close
to the fence and keeping an eye
on the bull, rapidly disappearing
in the dusk toward the cluster of
animals in the far comer of the
pasture.
Dusk. Time for reflections.
Methinks I better reflect on
paying closer attention to where
the bull is. Even a wimpy Bold
one.