BEAR DOWN

BEAR DOWN

February is calving season on the farm. There is a rather small herd of Nate’s personal cows here, but alongside those is a herd of almost one hundred heifer cows that Nate was commissioned to calve out. Being a “heifer” cow means that they are still young and this will be the first baby they have ever had. That comes with its own set of challenges, as the cows are experiencing birthing hormones for the first time and it can really mess with their brains.

Our task is to watch over the first-time moms and help them through the process. This help comes in many forms. We check on the pregnant cows late at night and early in the morning, if not numerous times throughout the night. We keep an eye on them while they are in labor to make sure there aren’t any complications, and if there are, we step in to help pull the calf or even take it to the vet for an emergency cesarean section. After the babies are born, we watch the pair to make sure they bond well so that the new mom will properly help the calf in its little life. If the heifer is having a hard time, we step in to help it pair up with its baby better.

Of course, the weather is a large factor in a heifer’s success. When it’s sunny, the job is much easier and there is little interference on our part. Unfortunately, we have had a couple of very cold spells where the temperatures went into the negatives. During that time, we had to take the calves inside after they were born to warm and dry them up. As you can imagine, all of this makes for very long hours.

What Giving Up Looks Like

Sadly, no matter how hard we work at it, we can’t avoid calamity all together. On one of the particularly cold nights, we had checked on the cows into the dark hours of the morning. Everything seemed to be going smoothly and no cows were visibly calving. When we checked them again as the sun was rising, we could see one cow had started labor, but something was obviously wrong. The baby’s tongue and front feet were already out, but the cow had given up pushing. While its baby had hung there, partway out, the icy air had frozen and swollen everything it could. We immediately went to get proper tools to pull the calf.

The mom had given up to the point where she didn’t even move when we entered the pen to help her. We attached the chains to the calf’s legs and pulled. It wouldn’t budge. The mom cow moved in discomfort, knowing that it’s baby was so big it couldn’t get it out on its own. As we continued to pull, her pain grew, so she walked around the pen and finally laid down. The baby still wasn’t out, so we got down in the mud and manure behind her. I pulled one leg, Nate pulled the other. It was bloody, and dirty, and cold. Finally, mom gave a push and baby came sliding out. It was already dead. That moment, in the frosty air of a new morning, was very hard.

Don’t Give Up

              Dreams are not easy things to follow through on. Everybody has a calling, but sadly not everyone finds the bravery to follow it. Life, in all its beauty, seems to always find a million things to throw at you that get in the way. Nate’s saying of the year is “bear down,” and that is what I want to pass on to you. Whatever dream you’ve been chasing, whatever goal you’ve been working on, bear down! Whatever effort has been put in, you have made it so far. Don’t give up now!

              That cow had already put so much effort into her baby calf. The gestation period of a cow is a little over nine months. That means that she had nine months invested in growing that calf inside of her. Then, as she was in the final stages, all she had to do was push it out, but she convinced herself that it was too hard and gave up. Don’t convince yourself of that same thing!

I can attest to this personally. For over four years, I had been trying to pass my Level 4 test in the Parelli Natural Horsemanship program. Something always seemed to get in the way, whether it was lack of time to film my auditions or I didn’t think something was quite right. In the end, it boiled down to my procrastination. I felt I could pass, I just hadn’t put in the last bit of effort to get through the labor.

We All Need Support

I love the song “Lean on Me,” because, even though it’s a little cliché, I think it’s still very applicable. Everybody needs somebody to help them, to push them to be better, to encourage them to follow through. For me, I had numerous somebodies. The woman who introduced me to Parelli not only encouraged me to follow through with the program but also pushed me to video my audition. She spent hours with me going through the paperwork and working a camera while I struggled after my goal. Amy talked over points of my auditions. She encouraged me to make a plan for how I wanted to film, and then was available to work the camera for me when I was ready. Nate was my constant reminder, “Have you sent in your auditions yet?” I am so proud to say that earlier this month I got the amazing news that I passed my auditions with a Level 4+, which means with honors!   

Sadly, the cow whose baby died couldn’t call us up and ask us for help. We tried as best we could to keep tabs on her to make sure everything went ok, but we were too late when we found out she needed help. Luckily, you are not in the same boat. You can ask for help if you need it, and even if you don’t, support is never a bad thing.

But don’t forget that just as you need encouragement, so do those around you. Everyone has dreams, and all those dreams need someone to help feed them. Don’t just stand by. Be a puller! Get down in the mud, where it’s dirty and cold and be real help to somebody who needs it. Maybe they will fail, but so do you. If somebody isn’t failing, then they aren’t trying.

Final Thoughts

On the chilly morning that the calf died, we stood there covered in mud and blood and afterbirth. Later on, I was asked why it was so hard for me. At first, I was offended by the question because of the obvious reason that a baby animal died, but as I talked about it, I came to realize there was so much more. When you spend the hours and effort in helping, when you’re sitting in manure and your hands are covered in who-knows-what and you’re so cold your face hurts, when you’re losing sleep constantly checking in, all of that adds an extra level of pain when your hard work has no fruition. Whether you are aware of it or not, other people are invested in your dream too. Bear down.