Part 4
Who is crazier?
pic of charolais cattle - crazy cows
One time a
friend of mine came along me to feed cows while working at the Apple Creek farms.
I decided on my own to show her how I could
call cattle. Now calling cattle is a little bit of an art, and if they don’t come
you might as well give up. But usually I can go just about anywhere there are
cattle, and have been known to call some I have never seen before and without
fail I can get their attention. Heck, if I had some grain I think I could sweet
talk them into a butcher shop if need be. But I hate to waste my talents in such
a way. This lady that was with me was already from a farm. She was a fellow
student whose parents were well off to say the least and in fact they owned a
250 cow calf purebred Charolais farm. Now Charolais cattle are blonde and dumb,
and no doubt cattle calling would have been wasted on them but still this lady
grew up around cattle and never experienced anything like I was about to show her.
We had just
received in about 104 head of mixed steers into the farm for feeding out on
grass which we had in abundance, they came in weighing about 650 – 850 lbs.
apiece and I was feeding them grain in the field on the ground from the back of
the old hearse van I used to haul students and whatever around in. Amy and I were
alone out in the field and the cows were nowhere in sight, and she asked if we
were going to drive on out and see where they were. I told her no, that this
should be good enough, and I started to unload about 400 lb. of feed and just
spread it out on the ground in a long line. Amy then she asked if I was going to
walk out and herd them in, as she had never been out here with me before, and couldn’t
figure out what I was doing. I said no, we will stay here and you just watch. I
told her I was going to call them in and she said no way. I said to watch.
I bellowed suck-cow
just as it sounds and always as I have heard real loud and waited. All 104 head
of cattle popped up over a hill in the
pasture on the first call looking for the world like Indians in a western film
and in a few minutes all were standing side by side and then as if on command I yelled suck-cow again, and all
104 head burst forth instantaneously and started running furiously for us in a
stampede, the dust bellowed up behind them and some stragglers were left behind
but, for the most part it was an all-out race, or die, for the rest, to be the
first one to get the grain. When they started their run, they were about 600 yds.
away, and as they neared to a football field length away from us they were
still coming strong and Amy grabbed ahold of me and hid behind me scared. I started
laughing and she must have thought I was a fool to just stand there, we were at
least 25 yards away from the old hearse and safety, and they could have easily
over taken us. I stood my ground and just watched them and calmed Amy down
saying I know they will stop. The steam was rolling out of their noses as they
neared and were breathing heavily, but suddenly as they neared they began to
slow to a walk, and then a reluctant shuffle, as if they were afraid of me. But by that time they had come to the feed
that was between them and I. their heads went down and eyed us suspiciously as
usual, and went about eating the feed on the ground.
Amy sensing the danger
was over popped out behind me and just watched in wonder as they spread out and
commenced to eating the feed fervently until all traces of the feed were gone
and after some milling about had returned to eating the lush grass before them.
She said she had never seen anything like that. In actuality it was the first
time I ever saw them spread out like that and run that fast, but it was the
neatest thing to watch 104 head of cattle bearing down on you. The only thing I
was missing was a horse, a six shooter, and a cowboy hat and I would have been
in a western. They would have killed us if they ran right past the feed and
over us, but I knew what made them run and that was the feed as I had watched
similar exhibitions from the cattle before, here and other places. I had been
feeding them all along for about 3 weeks prior to that day, and they were
familiar with the sound of my voice. Amy’s parents and their Charolais cattle
would have surely ran over us and kept running for at least a couple of hours. I
hated anytime we had Charolais cattle at the Apple reek farm, as I saw one jump
a six foot high fence running up hill. Others and I, that day could not believe
he cleared the fence the way he did. The Charolaise were just plum crazy, and
only fitting at the crazy farm but like I say thankfully we only had a few. Amy’s
parents had 250 of them. I couldn’t imagine what life was like at that farm or
what kind of fences they had to keep them in. Good ones for sure.
Now appearance
wise and if you can keep them in the Charolais are a very pretty muscular
animal and a great beef breed out performing other cattle. But I guess it is a tradeoff,
you either get great beef and crazy cattle, or docile and slow gaining cattle. Pounds
are the name of the game in finishing beef. You need to put those pounds on the
cattle daily and get them to the butcher as fast as you can. I am so glad I am
not into raising beef any more. I have seen some large farms and at one farm I where
I was employed, we had over 250 cow calf pairs on six acres of feedlot. This is
the next series of blogs I am going to write, and in that I will explain a
little more of that cattle business. Nowhere in either of these jobs did I ever
get rich though, and having barely enough money to go around was the norm and
not the exception. The only way you could ever think about making money at
farming was to own your own farm. Unfortunately no one was giving any away. So it
would require a major investment for a lifetime to get into farming. And at the
time cattle prices were still not that great. It was just too much for a young farmer
to even think about having your own farm. It would have been nice to be able to
work with mom and dad as an option but it never was, as me and dad obviously
never was able to get along till he had Alzheimer’s and then he was a bit more sociable
at times. By then it was too late. I was already getting old myself.
So there you are,
you never make any money working for farmers because they are always broke and
can barely pay the bills, so to hear them speak. And you can’t work with mom
and dad as they never want to relinquish control over the farm or to allow you
to leverage it and get a loan to start farming, that is till they can’t do
anything themselves anymore. By then like I say it is too late. A day late and
a dollar short seem to be my motto at times. Think I should have gone to art
school. I tried farming several times and find myself to soft hearted to
animals I easily make into pets. And once you name them that in itself is the problem.
It’s hard to take old Sally to a butcher shop and then eat a T-bone from her.
Now I can take a
worthless pine log most people would normally let rot and I can carve it into
an animal shape and make a couple hundred dollars off something like that. It
is almost pure profit. I never came close raising cattle to the success I have
had carving. Had I started earlier when I was able to carve easier and didn’t have
the health problems of a bad back, it is hard to tell how much better off I would
be? Hindsight is 20-20 vision they say. You can easily see where you went wrong
after you do it. But when you are doing whatever wrong it is you are doing, you
think it is the best you can do and you are doing right, and sometimes you just
do wrong because you have no choice. Oh well,
I guess setting goals and not being disillusioned or side tracked is important
also. It seems I did a fair share of being sidetracked also. My varied work
experience opened me up to a wide variety of jobs and gave me a lot of experience
and a lot of confidence on taking on almost any project, but I was moving from
job to job all the time. I was beginning to party and drink and smoke my way
through school also.
I was pretty
confined here on the farm and finally getting out and having friends who wouldn’t
leave me alone , kind of made me a party animal at times and soon it began to
get ahold of me affecting my work till I was bored with a job and moved on for
one reason or another. I was young, dumb and I forget the last part of that
probably due to loss of brain cells from drinking in my early years, and I guess
in ways I needed a good woman to settle me down and even back then I was having
a hard time finding Ms. Right.
So as I go on and on, and I find myself at one
point tonight not feeling like I have enough to say here on the blog, and at another, saying too much so will wait
for another time before continuing.
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