01/07/08
A Day in the Life of a Cow, Part 7
by Jason Williams

Author’s note:  This blog is about a real cow – “Old Number 5” – on my family’s ranch northwest of Kaycee, Wyoming.  While the cow’s “thoughts”and feelings are obviously conjecture, the day-to-day activities and movements of this cow are real.  We will follow her throughout the year to all of the pastures she grazes, and she will give her “opinions” about all of them and the happenings within her herd.  My family and I  expend a lot of time, energy, and resources to make sure the cattle have plenty to eat, fresh, clean water to drink, and are, for lack of a better phrase, Happy Cows.  Please keep in mind that my intentions for this blog are not to “humanize” cows – or any other animal – but merely to provide a look into what a typical cow here at Brock Livestock Company goes through in a given year, and her possible “opinions” about things.

Wow, I can’t believe that December is already gone and we have all started a brand new year!   Last month sure flew by fast, but I guess it’s true what we say: “Time flies when you’re on good grass!”   In early December our ranchers opened the gates for us to move in from the hills to the meadow pastures.   For those of you that read some of my entries earlier, these are the same meadows we had grazed last summer.   All of the meadows had been irrigated after we left them, so the re-grown grass is thick, tender, and a lot of it is still green.

Since the grass we are on is high quality and is so abundant, we have been able to keep our calves with us into the winter.   Usually, our ranchers wean our calves for us in the late fall, but because of the grass situation this year, our ranchers wanted to try leaving the calves with us mommas and let us wean our calves on our own during the winter.   Since at this point in our babies lives they need us more for companionship than nourishment or protection (not an easy thing for a momma cow to admit!), their theory is that our calves will be happier and healthier if they can spend the winter with us before they strike out on their own in the spring.   I know that us mommas sure like it!

It has been fairly chilly here in Wyoming this month – not getting above freezing much, but we haven’t had any bitterly cold, 35 degrees below zero nights either. So for us in our warm winter coats, the temperature has been pretty comfortable. With no major snow storms so far, my herdmates and I – and our babies – have been wintering very well!   I hope that everyone out there is having as good of a winter as we are and I will write again soon!

-Jason Williams, Brock Livestock (Jason is one of the valued partner ranchers raising cattle for Tallgrass)