Calf cage photos

Below are photos of the calf cage Don built last summer to bring newborn calves out of the pasture. These photos are to illustrate an article I wrote for Self-Reliance Magazine (a superb spinoff of Backwoods Home Magazine), and are posted so the editor can choose which ones she wants to use.

Editor: Photos 17 through 25 are low-resolution only. Everything else is high-resolution.

Photo 1

Photo 2

Photo 3 -- Corners are screwed together

Photo 4 -- Calf cage, opened. The roof is hinged in the middle. Horse blanket on the floor.

Photo 5 -- Calf cage, opened.

Photo 6 -- Calf cage, opened part-way

Photo 7 -- Door folded back and resting in open position. Note corner bracket for strength, shelf bracket for strength.

Photo 8 -- Roof hinges.

Photo 9 -- Calf cage with door open

Photo 10 -- slatted sides, some of which came from the old bed frame

Photo 11 -- Hinge in roof

Photo 12 -- Hinged roof

Photo 13 -- Door in "down" position; note unmovable OSB base used to strengthen structure

Photo 14 -- Side made from bed frame

Photo 15 -- Calf cage

Photo 16 -- Calf cage

Photo 17 -- Newborn calf peeking through cage slats: "What's going on?"

Photo 18 -- View from the tractor, driving home with calf cage on the tines

Photo 19 -- View from the tractor, driving home with calf cage strapped to the tines

Photo 20 -- Don driving the tractor with the calf cage strapped to the bucket tines

Photo 21 -- Curious cows following the tractor with a calf in the calf cage

Photo 22 -- Curious cows following the tractor with a calf in the calf cage

Photo 23 -- Curious cows following the tractor with a calf in the calf cage

Photo 24 -- Curious cows following the tractor with a calf in the calf cage

Photo 25 -- Strapping the calf cage to the tractor tines

Photo 28 -- Curious cows (and one horse) following the tractor with a calf in the calf cage

Photo 29 -- Curious cows following the tractor with a calf in the calf cage

Photo 30 -- Curious cows following the tractor with a calf in the calf cage

Photo 31 -- Curious cows following the tractor with a calf in the calf cage

Photo 32 -- Curious cows following the tractor with a calf in the calf cage

Photo 33 -- Curious cows following the tractor with a calf in the calf cage

Photo 36 -- Transporting a newborn calf back from the pasture

Photo 37 -- Curious cows following the tractor with a calf in the calf cage

Photo 38 -- Curious cows following the tractor with a calf in the calf cage

Photo 39 -- Curious cows following the tractor with a calf in the calf cage

Photo 40 -- Curious cows following the tractor with a calf in the calf cage

Photo 41 -- Curious cows following the tractor with a calf in the calf cage

First death, then life

After our week's grim tally of lost animals, we gained one. Yesterday our last calf of the season was born.

Early in the morning, I noticed a lot of interest along the fenceline by some of the herd.

Following their line of sight, I saw a cow off by herself in the deep grass of the neighboring pond property. A solitary cow usually means one thing: birth.

So I walked down and sure enough, saw Amy (Matilda's adult calf) and a newborn.

Amy's first calf was born breech last year, and had a shaky start; so I was happy her second birth went uneventfully.

Don had some commitments in the early morning, so we didn't have a chance to fetch the calf until noon. We strapped the faithful calf cage onto the tractor tires and took off.

Incidentally, this calf cage has been an absolute God-send. It's worked beautifully at helping us fetch back every calf born at a distance this year.

By this point, Amy and the baby had moved to a much more distant point. We left the tractor at the gate to the property and scouted them out first, then I waited with Amy while Don walked back and brought in the tractor.

He parked about 100 feet away from Amy and the new baby, and I walked over and gently scooped up the calf. I staggered back to the tractor, gasping at the calf's weight. "I can't ---" I wheezed, "--believe -- someone -- thinks -- carrying -- a calf -- is an easy -- thing to do," I panted, referencing an earlier comment someone made last May about how hard could it be to carry a calf any distance? I'm a strong woman and can hoist 75-lb. sacks of chicken feed on my shoulder without a problem. I don't know what it is about calves, maybe the awkward way they have to be held, but carrying a 35-lb. calf against my chest for any distance is absolutely devastatingly difficult. And this doesn't count additional problems such as rough ground and a hormonally-deranged mama dogging my heels.

Anyway, I gently laid the calf in the box and took a peek under the legs. "It's a boy!" I announced. That brings us up to 5 bull calves and 2 heifers born this summer.

I climbed on board the tractor and we slowly rolled away, heading for the nearest gate.

Meanwhile, Amy milled around in some distress, trying to figure out where her baby was. Even though she watched me put the calf in the cage, the moment we close the lid the baby becomes "invisible" to the mama. No one ever claimed cows are bred for brains.

By this point the rest of the herd had caught up with us and were bellowing with excitement. We left by a different direction (to take the road) but we were confident the herd would move up to the gate by the house -- which, in fact, they did.

Here we are, driving toward the house.

Once in awhile the baby would peek through the slats of the cage, curious what was happening to him.

Sure enough, the cows went streaming up toward the house...

...including Amy.

We looped the tractor and cage around to the gate where the herd was waiting. The calf was very vocal, so in moments Amy had crowded close to the gate, drawn by the baby's bleats. It was a simple matter to scoot her through the gate. After this it took just a few minutes to put her and the baby into the barn.

She wasn't too pleased with being penned up, but we need to keep the baby close so we can de-nut-ify him in a few days. By the way, we named him "Armour." As in meat.

Amy is a good mama, very attentive.

As with all babies, Armour is darling.

So out of a week of death came a new life. It's never dull around here, that's for sure.