De-berried

Once James' parents arrived at the barn I knew we were in for some work. You see... James and I being out at the farm is a win/win for everyone. Since I am so easily amazed at everything there is to see and do, his parents get to show me all of the work they do. By showing me these things they are training me. Once they have trained me they get a whole day of free work. Well. Not free. We always get a big country dinner that puts my cooking to shame.

So, I get a fun day with animals and outdoors, and they get free labor. Sounds about right. Well, today I was in for a totally new experience. Banding. Those of you who already know what that is are already wincing.

Banding is how bulls are made into steers... ok.. let me break that down for you a little more. A bull is a cow that can mate, a steer is a sterile male cow. So, if you're following... we were sterilizing some cows today.

The babies that his dad had bought were all supposed to be banded, but sure enough, there were two that still had their manhood intact. We were going to take care of that. When they are banded they are a lot easier tempered and put on a lot more weight, and let's not forget what the end goal is here - a big fat beef cow. Sorry. If you don't get over that whole eating-your-friends thing now you're going to have a hard time on this farm.

I watched as James' dad explained to me what was going to happen. He pulled out this tool that looked like a cross between a scissors and a nutcracker (Seriously! I can't make this up). You take a very small rubber band and hook it around some prongs. When you pull the handles of the tool together (like opening scissors), the prongs stretch the band apart. You *gently* slip this around their dingleberries and release the handle. This leaves the band around the.. ehem.. you know whats. They soon go numb, due to lack of circulation, and fall off. I don't know how painful this is, but I imagine it isn't a good day.

They didn't even know what they were in for...

We got the banding tool ready while James' mom prepped some syringes of penicillin, since some of the babies had been coughing. We were going to get all of the traumatizing over in one day. So much for all that bonding earlier.

He can't even believe you would do such a thing.

I watched as James and his dad grabbed a cow and wrestled it to the ground. They struggled and pulled and the little babies put up a good fight. Ultimately, though, they lost. I am sure they would have fought a lot harder, had they known what was about to happen. They held down their legs and neck and everything was over within 2 minutes. Whew.

Not happy with you.

The cow would then lay there for a minute, pouting. Understandable. Then he would get up, twitch a little and within minutes they were back to eating. Whew. Trauma over. Sorry, baby cows.

I was shown how to feed them and I checked on them several times that night and the next day. If anything they were back to normal, eatin' and poopin', doing their cow thing. If anything, the cough was already a little bit better the next day.

We even helped repair a fence so that they will be able to go outside and wander around once it isn't 16 degrees out.

I tried to stay out of their sight while all the scuffling was going on, so I am hoping Rico doesn't hold a grudge. Manti, I know, won't be happy with me, but I don't think he ever was. Midgie is mad. #32 has requested some space while he thinks about our relationship.