Granger Delivers More Than A Calf
There are daily rhythms like watching hot water mix and froth with fresh coffee grounds as it drips into my husbands cup every morning. I smell it, I see it, he does it. It is something that happens everyday. Then there are rhythms that don’t happen so often, like calving season each year as the peak of summer takes hold.
Granger in particular is the cow we hinge calving season on. We love our cows, but then there is Granger. She was our first animal that Nathaniel and I picked out together as a couple and the first animal we brought to Big Rock. She holds a special place in both our hearts.
She is part Holstein, a high producing milk cow. When she gets ready to calve, her udder gets MASSIVE. I mean insanely engorged. She waddles her hind legs around her swinging udder as she slowly makes her way around the green grassy pastures. It is quite the marvel really!
It is easy to track her progression into labor, but just as with any mother, you never really truly know just when it will happen.
Everytime Granger calves, we feel the miracle of new life more so than with any of the other cows, sheep or goats that have given birth here over the years. We have some great birth stories of her from years of past. Because of that we worry more but also feel the triumph, miracle,and priveldge of new life that much deeper.
This year did not dissapoint, but in a very different way.
For context, one year, we had to have the vet and my mom out. Clancy was just a year old but it was all hands on deck. He was posted up in the stroller while 4 grown adults muscled a massive bull calf out of her on each contraction. We could have very easily lost them both. The Vet was shoulder deep giving it his absolute all to keep the calf’s head from twisting back while mom and Nathaniel pulled with chains on the calf’s front feet on every contraction. We had her snubbed up but I had to try and keep her from swinging her but away from us. I am sure it seemed absolutely brutal to her at the time.
Ever since that time, she always looks to us when she goes into labor. She finds us and stays near, sometimes calling to us to come aid her. Last year she delivered a beautiful heifer calf, we assisted gently out of consideration and with the prior trauma lerking in our memories, but she didn’t really need our assistance.
When you know a cow is in labor, they go on a mental clock. We think, ok, there is a contraction, she is actively calving now let’s give her thirty minutes. After that thirty minutes, progress better be happening. Then another thirty minutes goes on the timer. After 1-2 hours, you better have a calf. If you don’t, you better already be figuring out how to get the calf out.
During this time, we all stay near, ready to assist if need arises.
We watched over our breakfast as Granger clearly began to calve. But our clock was on a different timer. I had to take Clancy to his second day of summer camp, 50-minutes away. Clancy and I drove away knowing that the calf needed to be born on my drive there. I knew that Nathaniel would have to assist her by himself if she didn’t
It was not a good feeling driving away leaving one person to attend a cow we historically always assist, but we had a commitment to keep.
Nathaniel checked on her periodically and started to feel a bit uneasy as he referenced that mental clock these cows go on.
He had been driving around the ranch and had informed our current Hipcamp guests that we had a cow in labor. He joked that I was gone and he might need some help. They went along with what they thought was a joke. But when he came back with chains, dish soap, and gloves they quickly realized they were now Big Rock Ranch Hands.
They arrived back at Granger in the North pasture to witness the baby half emerged into the world!
Together they made sure the calf was breathing, checked for gender, and helped Granger clean him off. Nathaniel video called me from the pasture just as I was done dropping Clancy off and was headed back to my truck. I was so relieved that she had the calf unassisted and that the Hipcampers were able to be apart of such a magical moment on the ranch.
There is no better feeling than to feel the release of tension when a sketchy situation turns into simple bliss, awe, and wonder!
I thanked them and told them they needed to name the calf!
They named him Chico Maurice.
Granger always has the cutest calves and Chico does not disappoint!
Chico had been in there long enough to poop in the sac, you know that happens when they come out a little yellow. We definitely wouldn’t have wanted to let him linger in there much longer, but Granger handled everything perfectly and Nathaniel timed his potential intervention just right.
I can’t believe the experiences we have here and the timing of them sometimes. For these French-Canadian guests to be able to walk right up and witness new life being born is an incredible moment they will have forever. We cultivated that. Fate takes care of the rest.
A success at Big Rock that we unexpectedly got to share in the marvel at and remember forever.
Enjoy all these sweet photos of Clancy, so proud of Granger’s calf!
Chico will stay here for two years, growing up and living a dreamy cow life until we harvest him to nourish our bodies. Every time we take a package of Chico meat out of the freezer, we will remember this story, those Hipcampers, and the miracle of community and life.
