I was thinking just yesterday I needed a new post topic. Unfortunately one came to me unexpectedly. My farmer came home with the news that one of our bulls is down with a broken leg. This is not totally uncommon, we had another break a leg a few years ago. At that time the bull was able to get up and walk and we were able to take him to the locker and have hamburger made. This most recent tragedy befalling our bull is not as lucky. My husband and father in law could not get him to stand, and in his own trials of trying to get up, he fell into the dry creek bed.
This is hard on multiple levels. Number one is we don't want our animal to suffer unduly. Number two it is and unfortunate waste of meat/life. State law is if an animal can not enter a facility on their own feet it is illegal to butcher them. That means there fore we will have to put the animal down and bury the meat that will waste. Of course some wild animals will feed, however it's hard to swallow feeding $2000.00 of bull, of meat to the predators we try to protect our cows from. The third issue is that now we will have to purchase a new bull that is suitable to breed with our heifers. Heifers are first time mothers, only a few years old. When breeding a heifer we want to breed them with a bull who has low calf birth weights. This will hopefully help to ensure easy calving the first time around.
It is a sad day to see an animal suffer for no sense or purpose. To make it worse it has turned cold again, and we are only one week from official calving season's start. This will be the
beginning of a busy month!!
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