A day with Filene

Ok Spring is finally coming and it is time to start anew and post some of my recent adventures. Many of you may remember that my wife had a "run in" with a mean cow about this time last year. The cows name is Filene. She caught Lindsay off guard and sent her flying. Lindsay was on bed rest for about a week but luckily didn't break anything. Ok so the reason she got hurt was because Filene doesn't let her new calves latch on and nurse the first week after birth because she is engorged. So we were in the process of putting her into the squeeze shoot to milk her when she turned on Lindsay. Filene just had another calf. Don't worry Lindsay kept at least 3 fences between her and Filene. First we got last years calfs into the squeeze shoot so we could measure them.

This is Filenes calf from last year. I think Bonnie named her Storm or Rain or something. She was born during a storm or...well rain.

I am rereading a book written by Temple Grandin called Animals in Translation. It's a great book for anyone with an interest in animals or autism. Temple is autistic but she has used animals to help her understand and overcome her autism. One of the things she talks about in her book are squeeze shoots. Cattle are "fear driven" animals. They obviously get a little worked up (especially Filene) when you move them around and do things they are not used to. The thing that Temple noticed is that the cows calm down when the squeeze shoot is closed on them. The pressure relaxes them. In fact she learned that a similar pressure could help her when she had panic attacked. She actually built herself a squeeze shoot her size that she could use when she was stressed out. If you aren't going to read the book you should at least see the HBO movie Temple Grandin. She has designed close to 75% of the slaughter houses in America. She designs them so that the animal has less stress and easily walks through the facility. Anyway the picture above is a very calm calf in the squeeze shoot.

Here is little Storm running off to play after her measure and retag.

I was goofing off a bit in between cows.

Ok so there was a bit too much excitement going on when we moved Filene into the squeeze shoot for Lindsay to catch any pictures. She was keeping her distant. In this picture you can see Filene is giving Lindsay the "I am gonna come getcha" look. She really is mean. Bonnie is milking her. Abel (pronounced Avel) is holding the hoove back so Bonnie can keep her fingers. I am just standin there lookin good as always.

Don't worry I got my chance to milk her. I actually was thinking I would enjoy having a milk cow. It's a good thing I don't have enough room for one or I would be getting one.

You can see the calf in the background. Bonnie is trying to feed it some of the milk. Filene is still staring at Lindsay.

Calves look small but they really are amazingly strong. Even when they haven't had anything to eat since birth.

Here is one of his first gulps of milk.

Calf fur is so soft.

He kept falling asleep as we would feed him. So I would have to shake him a bit and he would jolt awake and start eating again.

He is very cute.

I got to try next. You can see the quad in the background. We had to chase Filene in with that and the tractor. At one point she started to charge me right as the engine died. Luckily she didn't hit me before I could start it up and move.

Any ideas for a name for him? I know I know you shouldn't name cattle. Bonnie does, so it might as well be something good.

Everyone made it out alive today. It was a lot of work but it was also very fun and rewarding to help out the baby calf. There definetly is something about saving something defenseless that makes us feel important.