Our beef cows are not accustomed to being milked by a human. They have to be "persuaded" to stand still long enough to get the job done. We hope Clampett's mama is about to put her bovine head into the head catch, to the right in this photo. As she tries to walk between the vertical bars, her shoulders will push them shut and she will be immobilized.
On second thought, "immobilized" is not quite the right word. The milker girls will still have to be cagey and careful, in order not to be stomped by this mama's 1000 pounds of beefy frame. John is giving the cow incentive to get her mind on something other than nailing his daughters with a back hoof. Attitude is everything, mama cow, and we want you to have a good one.
Lots can go wrong when you're trying to milk a beef cow. First is the aforementioned projectile back hoof. Even if it doesn't hit you, it is likely to knock over your bucket of milk.
The cow's second line of defense is her tail. Unlike the hoof, a cow tail can't maim you. But a powerful, wet, stinging swish to the face can be a strong deterrent to milking, which is what the cow hopes to provide. So John and Greg, our employee, take turns keeping the tail out of Audrey and Merrill's eyes. 
The milking was a success and Clampett has gained enough strength to drink from a bottle--no more tube feeding. The next step is for her to learn to feed herself. We'd like to get out of the loop, but her legs are crooked and not very strong.
Just take a look at that back left leg!
Audrey gives her a boost.....
....and points her in the right direction.
All the attention has paid off. After a day of human intervention, Clampett's appetite is strong, and her legs are strong enough to satisfy that appetite. 
She's ready for an ear tag and life in the calving pen with all the other cows.
Ain't life grand?
3 comments:
This was so interesting! Thanks for posting Aunt Alice and I'm glad Clampett's OK.
Sooo... what happens to a calf with crookedy legs? Will she grow up to be more beef? Will her legs ever straighten out? Why are they crooked in the first place? Was it because she was crowded as a twin? Was the other calf's deformity like Clampett's, or was it something else? Can you tell I have a 6-year-old in my house? This is how it is ALLLLLL DAAAAAAYYY LOOOOOOOOONG, question after question, after question... :)
I remember those "question after question after question" days. What a privilege to be responsible for feeding those little minds! Enjoy the planting; you will eat of the good fruit some day.
A calf with crookedy legs will, most times, grow out of it and go on to be a normal animal. This is what's happening with Clampett. The more she uses her legs, the stronger they get and the more they straighten out.
I THINK the legs were crooked because she was crowded in the womb, but I'm not sure. On the other hand, we have very occasionally have had a single calf born with legs that don't work quite right at the beginning. Maybe the muscles are weak on one side, or the tendons too tight on one side. As the calf walks, the weak things are strengthened. What a spiritual picture that is!
The other calf was REALLY deformed, not just a little crooked. Her legs were very, very short - a normal newborn calf's legs might be about as long as an adult person's arm, but these legs were maybe six inches long. And her face was smooshed up flat....her nose never grew out into a nice cowy nose. She was shaped more like a pig than a calf.
It flashed across my mind to take a picture of her, but deformity is never a pretty thing to look at. Sometimes little kids are less squeamish and more curious - I'm wishing now that I had taken a picture so that I could email it to your curious child. But I didn't.
The other twin was born dead. After we reunited the mama cow with Clampett, who had been residing indoors for a time, the nervous mama kept trying to escape the barn and go back to where she had given birth. We took the dead calf back out of the pickup where we had laid it, and put it in with Clampett and the mama. Then the mama settled down. She KNEW she had left a calf in the field, but it took her a few days to let go of trying to mother it. After she lost interest in it completely, and after Clampett was up and nursing and taking her attention, we took the dead calf out to a lonely place, to be food for coyotes, foxes, or other scavengers.
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