Steiffie update

Posted on 30 December 2010.

Just over a year has elapsed since Around Davidson readers were introduced to “Steif, the Christmas Miracle Calf.” (12/22/09 DNN, AD) Listening to him bawl during the recent snow storm made his owners reflect on how far he has come in the past year. And what better idea for a last installment of Around Davidson for 2010 than to spend some time with this miracle calf and hear about his last twelve months.

How little I was just one year ago!

A STEIF UPDATE by Steiffie

Indeed! As I said last year, farm life is not easy. Born on October 8, 2009, I nearly died from tetanus but with the daily care of Farmer B. and his family, I pulled through and enjoyed a Christmas brew last December of warm milk and a calf ration full of corn, molasses and vitamins.

This Christmas was a different story. I stood around with the other cows and calves in the farm herd, covered with snow and feeling pretty dejected with dry hay being the only offering for holiday dinner. Then Farmer B.’s younger daughter appeared with a bucket full of sweet feed. Not as good as last year’s ration but still enough molasses in the mixture of corn and soy to make it pretty tasty. How nice to be remembered on Christmas Day.

I still am a Christmas Calf!

Yes, now I am 15 months old and weigh more than 600 pounds. Wow! I am getting big but I still like to have my ears rubbed and my head patted. Last year at this time, I probably weighed 150 pounds. Life has been exciting during the past 12 months. During the first few months of 2010, I still came running for a daily bottle but Farmer B. and his wife slowly weaned me as the new green grass began to grow and I could fill my belly by grazing. I did not come up to the barn at night to be in my cozy bed of hay but chose to stay outside where I could look at the moon and stars and visit with passing deer, possums, raccoons and foxes. Each morning I would hear the wild turkeys calling and delighted in their silly antics of chasing one another around the fields.

The spring weather was bright and sunny and soon apple and peach blossoms would land on my face and back. My mother still would not pay me any attention (she gave up on me when I was sick) but the other calves in the herd would lick my neck and let me run around the pasture with them. Of the eight other calves born in the fall of 2009, only one was a girl. She had a big ear tag in one ear that read “7” so of course, I called her Seven. She and I became very good friends to the point that the other male calves began to tease me about having a “girl friend!”

Wow! I have grown!

Just as I was getting fat and lazy in the early summer heat, there was a big change at Barger Farm. The calf crop, as Farmer B. calls it, was sold except for Seven and me. The mother cows were distraught not knowing where their babies were and to add to the confusion, Seven and I were moved to another pasture filled with pine trees and located way down the road. No sooner did we think we knew our way around the new pasture until the main gate opened and 43 new heifer calves charged into our territory, forever ending our peace and quiet.

It seems that Farmer B. wanted me to teach the new calves some manners. Fat chance! These were “wild things” who did not care about me or what I had to say. They spent a lot of time pushing me around since I was the only male in the herd. Thank heavens for Seven who tried to protect me.

Looking for my special Christmas dinner!

What a long, hot, dusty summer. Farmer B. and his cattleman friend thought we should all gain weight and kept trying different daily rations to go with the grass we were eating. A lot of us lost weight at first until the ration was increased with a mixture of corn gluten and soy bean hulls. Just when Seven and I were finding the special feed very tasty, Farmer B. moved us, just us, back to our original pasture to be with the mature cows.

Well I did miss the daily dinner bell but not those pushy, ill behaved heifers. There was lots of good grass to eat and very often I would spot Farmer B. or his wife who would brush my hair while letting me eat out of a special blue mop bucket (that the big old cows could not get their heads into!). I heard later that the heifer calves went to market soon after we left their pasture. Whew! Glad I was not included in the group that went to the sale barn.

Fall arrived and so did some competition as seven spunky new calves arrived on the scene. Seven and I remembered how just a year ago we were that size and enjoyed seeing them jump and play. No one was sick or needed special treatment so they did not understand when I told them about my time in Farmer B.’s basement or my special spot in the barn. Now that I have celebrated my second Christmas, I hear talk about sending all the big cows and their new calves to the auction sale in the New Year.

Here were a few of those pushy, mis-behavin' heifers.

Seven and I may be the only permanent beef cattle left on Farmer B.’s farm in 2011. New stocker calves will be bought this winter to gain weight and enjoy life in Davidson until it is time to sell them later in the summer. No doubt I will be called upon once more to train these unruly bovines. But that does not worry me too much since I still have a favorite teenager who likes to visit me and Farmer B. and his wife who make sure that I continue to have head pats, back scratches and sweet feed at least three times a week. They all tell me that I am still their special miracle calf and need to always stay on the farm to teach new animals how to behave. Good thing that I have my girl friend to help me. Stay tuned for another twelve months and I will report on my 2011 adventures. In the meantime, Happy New Year to all!