Calf Story

This beautiful part of Iowa is home to many cattle. This morning, Jonathan and I were invited out to watch as a church member's calves were vaccinated. They knew we are interested in the way of life down here, and not being farm kids ourselves, assumed we'd never seen anything like that done. They were correct. So at 8:00 a.m, we came to this pasture. The vet arrived and set up the at the end of the chute. All in the line, the calves went through the chute one by one (unless they were frisky--some tried to go in twos), were weighed (350 pounds average, I'd guess, some as heavy as 400 pounds), given their vaccinations (through the nostril), and nose weaners inserted.

Nose weaners prevent the calves from reaching the teat, but allows them to remain with the cow. Within a week, they'll be weaned and the weaner will be removed.

As they were released from the chute, they took off back towards the herd.

A few times, a cow came to investigate.

Some calves were in more of a hurry than others.

When they were all done, in less than an hour, it was time to move the herd to a lower pasture.

The cows knew the routine, but Jonathan stood in the way just in case any of them decided to go rogue.

Down the road they went, heading straight into the pond:

These were some happy cows.