Sunday was truly a time-warp experience. We were about 45 minutes south of the ranch. In the land of dust. The farmers down there do not have much time to establish a cover crop because of the short growing season. Since there is little holding the dry arid soil in place it all blows off during the spring winds. Again, I do not know how anyone grows anything here. I guess industrial fertilizer is about the only way to grow these GMO potatoes and alfalfa. Well, yesterday was the first BIG windstorm this season. We were of course in the thick of it because we were surrounded by crop circles. The cattle even hated it.
This area is really like the 1930s Dust Bowl. The current modern agricultural practices do not really work here, but farmers are still doing it anyway. There are government incentives, I think, and they have the water they need.
Note no big blue sky or mountains. This storm did bring some rain...it lasted about two minutes.
This morning we started off slow, since we are recovering from the STORM. When we got out to do chores we found a momma cow having her calf. It was very nice to see her doing well too. By the time we finished all chores she had had a little baldy calf. At about 2:30 this afternoon I noticed he was not up and about like a good strong calf should be. I ventured out and checked him. He is sort of not all there. He did not want to get up and nurse. It did not look like he had even gotten up yet. I encouraged him and he just flopped over to the otherside. His mom was licking him and encouraging him to get up so I left him alone. I was worried his temperature might be dropping, but his mouth was warm like it should be. Later in the evening we went out feed him some warn raw milk. He had been up nursing a little, but I'm worried he wont make it through tomorrow. He just does not have the drive to live it seems.
Here he is right after birth.
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