Calf Suprise!

Driving onto the farm today, I saw something quite peculiar. A tiny black calf, bolting across the field with it's little back legs kicking out behind it. Now, you might be wondering how this could be peculiar for a person who has a herd of cows. The strange thing is, I don't have any black calves ... Well, not until now that is.

As the calf quickly found its mother for a nice drink of milk, I gazed over the herd and found another cow fussing over something in the long grass. I went in for a closer look.

Hidden within the tall grass was another little black calf.

I was stunned for a long moment, imaginings what bizarre 'Calf Fairy' had visited to suddenly drop these into my paddock overnight, then reason and logic returned.  I calculated back, recounting when I bought the cows and the bull they we're running with.

The man I bought them from had run them with an Angus bull for only two weeks and wasn't sure how many, if any, were covered.

Angus bull generally equals black calves ... so that made sense, but the timing was off.  I was sure they had passed their gestation period and that any chance of calves had already passed.  I went through the dates in my photo library and realized I had somehow mixed up my dates. It was now just over nine months since I brought them to the farm - how I managed that mistake, I don't know.

Once I realised this, I took another look at the herd.  The low hanging stomachs on some of the cows made a lot more sense now, a  few were suddenly starting to show milk in their udders and that meant only one thing - more were on the way.

I'm now keeping a close watch over them and I really enjoy watching their interactions.

Let me tell you, they are clever things. They play, they argue, they groom each other, they have social circles, calves group together and even play tricks on the mothers who patiently tolerate their antics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8-AoMBWOZA

It makes me wonder how arrogant we people can sometimes be.  Unless an animal can stand on its hind legs, tip it's hat and say, 'Good morning, sir,' in perfect English, it is not intelligent, or deserving of our respect.

Some people have asked me how I can feel this way about animals, and then kill them to eat.

It is a good question and one I think I will always challenge myself with.  To state the obvious - natural systems of life have animals in it; I can't heal my land without them.  Although I may be responsible for their deaths, I am also responsible for the lives they lead.  For me this means cows being raised on grass and not grain or other ground up dead cows as the industrial system would have it.  They will be able to move around on clean pastures and not made to stand in their own filth as they do in feedlots.  They will be killed for meat, yes, although it will be done as locally as current laws will allow me to do.

When the time comes, I will have mixed feelings, yet I'm sure there will also be a sense of pride in producing a high quality food source that has respected the animal, from the beginning and through to the end.