So spring of 2006, we saw a really good deal come up on some longhorns. I had recently just had Isaac, and decided not take the long trip to go get them, but was home and waiting for the arrival of them. There was a mama long horn and she had a limping leg, the guy said, and calf at her side. Originally we were going to sell her for meat and take the baby, but after Tommy found out it was a heifer instead of a bull, he wanted to keep the mama for a little bit. Or so he thought.
They also picked up another mama longhorn (whose name will be Betty) whom had a heifer at her side, and a mama who was pregnant, and due soon.
So first they give them some shots, and first out of the trailer was Betty and her baby. They go off and look at their new home. Then while trying to get the baby of the limping cow, she got loose and ran off. With some help of the neighbors, Tommy and them tracked her down and got her baby. Thank God she was a little thing.
Letting her mama out was an experience no one will forget.. Im not to sure what the plan was, but I know that she was out and she was very angry. She first took a charge at my father in law, and I (and my mother in law) thought he was going to be severely injured. As he was trying to run away, he slipped and fell in the mud, and thank god she did too. She whipped right back up and came for Tommy, he had a steel pole in his hand. She was inches from him with her horns, he swong with everything, and hit her horns. She did a weird little dance thing, and walked off into the back of the pasture.
We called it a day...
The next day.. It was not over.. All of the longhorns had escaped, all 5 of them. They were out and running among the highway. It was a complete mess. We got them back for them to escape again. There were lots of running, and lots of wanting to give up. By the second time, a big investment and one of the best were made. Buying cattle panels. Once caught, they would live in them.
We did catch 4 of them. We were missing the crazy gimping long horn. She was later found, barely living by the train tracks, we tried to rescue her, but she didnt make the pull up and died.
After much determination from the calf, and putting them in a secluded area, Betty starting nursing the gimps' baby as well.
Now to think that would be the end of crazy stories from them, it wasnt..
Eventually the pregnant cow had her baby, One that Tommy and I actually got to watch first hand. It was very interesting, and unique, so to speak.
Later on, we decided we were going to load them up and take them to the big farm. We started pretty late, and it was dark. They were really trying to avoid getting loaded into the trailer which made it very complicated, the calfs were trying to go through the panels. Well we got the black and white longhorn (the one that was pregnant) loaded and one of the calfs. It wasnt her calf, and she was freaking out. We kept trying to get her calf and the other calf, or for that matter any of them in (we were loading some others as well).
That mama longhorn was just throwing a rucus in the trailer, it was really dark and you couldnt see much. After she had calmed, and we were trying to get another way of loading them, we peaked in to check on her, and seen she had jumped up over the middle door, and got her horns stuck between the door and the roof, and choked herself. It was very very aweful, even more so knowing we probably could of saved her life.
We did move some over, and the other mama long horn ran off to our neighbors, we did get her back and we took her home, and dehorned her, to avoid further problems.
We also try to avoid loading in the dark as well.
After she was Dehorned:
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