November 6, 2024 • 19 mins
Horses and cows are so often found on the same ranch. Temple Grandin started something big that changed the cattle industry. But anyone can listen to a cow, a calf or a bull. Enjoy these cattle stories: there is a lot to learn form cows.
For more information on names or materials referenced, or to contact Ishe- please email. iabel.hhc@gmail.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
This is the Horse HumanConnection, a captivating
podcast where we extend into theworld of equine assisted
learning, horse training.
and gentleness in working withthese magnificent creatures.
Captivating stories from theleading professionals and
ordinary people alike unravelnovel ideas in being with
(00:25):
horses.
The Horse Human Connection is anidea, a place, and a voice.
The idea is to support the quietrevolution and recognize the
intelligence and true nature ofthe horse.
The place is a destination farmnear the Umpqua Forest and River
that slows down visitors andpatrons enough to experience the
(00:48):
shift.
The Voice is this podcast.
Welcome to today's episode.
Samson Q2U Microphone-4 (01:04):
Welcome to the horse human connection
podcast.
This next episode is about cows,not horses.
But before I realized whathorses were all about.
I realized it because I realizedabout the cows.
And having this herd of mixedcows that later were bred with
(01:24):
black Angus bulls.
To produce a black Angus herdwas one of the most incredible
experiences of my life.
It happened over about a sixyear period.
And the cows taught me what wasto come with the horses.
So I hope you will enjoy this.
MacBook Air Microphone (01:43):
I lived on a ranch mostly by myself.
It was 206 acres.
In about the middle of SouthernOregon.
Somehow I decided to raise blackAngus cattle kind of on purpose
and kind of by accident.
When you have a ranch with thatmuch grass, something's got to
eat it.
Could be the deer and the elk,but it made sense to get some
(02:04):
cows.
So I ended up buying some cowsfrom a neighbor out there and he
gave me a piece of advice.
He said, talk to your cows whenyou feed them, walk amongst them
and talk to them.
So they know your voice so youcan call them in.
That was the beginning.
That was the best advice I couldhave gotten from the old doctor
(02:25):
liquidating the herd of 16 mixedcattle.
So I'd had a cower too beforewith my ex-husband on the 10
acres that we'd had.
And now I had 16 cows on 206acres, and there was plenty of
feed.
I wasn't going to have to buyany feed.
There was plenty of water.
And as I look back on it, theway I describe it, as I became a
(02:46):
Taoist cattle rancher.
Now I'd had horses before, butI'd never done any roping or, or
any cowboy things that go withcattle.
And I didn't have any horsescurrently.
So my method of.
getting in these cows tocooperate with me was largely my
(03:06):
voice in a bucket of grain.
And I got pretty good with thevoice and I, I took the doctor's
advice and when I did feed them,I walked among them.
I tried to touch them blackAngus cattle.
Don't really like to be touched.
So they're not warm, fuzzy.
Going to be your friend kind ofanimals.
Because I know you're going toeat them one day.
(03:26):
But I did walk among them and Idid get to know them.
And.
I would lay down when there werecalves so that they wouldn't be
afraid and they'd comeinvestigate me.
And sometimes they'd lick mylong sleeve black or sniff about
my legs and my feet.
And they were really a joy tome.
Cows have a very.
(03:46):
Distinct social order.
They have a lead cow who's incharge.
And they have conversations witheach other.
And I am 100% convinced thatthey communicate with pictures
in their minds.
And there are a couple ofdoctors.
Who study herd animals who agreewith me?
But I realized this long beforeI read what those doctors.
(04:09):
Had to say.
So, what are the cows stories isI had some help.
Trying to rope and band andvaccinate some of the calves.
I had teenagers at the time boysand they had friends and so they
got together and one of themknew how to rope and somehow, or
another, we got these cattle onthe ground and got the little
(04:31):
machine with the band and, andthe vaccines.
And I was able to do that part.
We had the calves caught up inabout a hundred by a hundred
foot fenced pen.
And the mamas were on theoutside.
And one of the mamas was a firsttime mom.
And her calf was in there andshe was throwing a fit.
(04:54):
Her calf got separated when welet the others loose and it was
stuck in there by itself.
And it took some time to getthat calf out of there.
Samson Q2U Microphone-2 (05:04):
I used a technique that I learned from
reading and watching.
A horse trainer named MontyRoberts.
He's the one that's creditedwith the language of Equis.
And he learned that by watchingwild Mustangs in Nevada.
Oh, When he was a very youngman.
He learned a lot about horsebehavior.
MacBook Air Microphone (05:25):
Licking and chewing is part of what
Monte Roberts uses to.
Train animals.
It's a sign he looks for.
So I use this looking andchewing.
Imitating an animal.
Who is a Grazer by looking atshoeing and moving my jaw side
to side instead of up and down.
And I must've looked quite crazydoing it.
(05:47):
But the minute I started doingthis, not looking at the little
calf.
I'm using my body language tonot square off to him, but my
shoulders to the side.
And looking and licking andlooking down.
When I did this, that calftrusted me suddenly.
I was not a predator.
I was another herd animal and hetrusted me and I was able to get
him out the gate and reunitedwith the mom.
(06:09):
Meanwhile on the outside of thefence.
This mama, this new mom has beenhaving this very loud
conversation with the lead cow.
And in my imagination, theconversation was something like
this.
How could you possibly let thathappen to our babies?
Let them by the humans, withoutus there to protect them.
I will never trust you again.
(06:31):
And I think that this is theconversation that they had and
I.
You know, give me some leewayhere with imagination because.
Although I may be a littleclairvoyant at times.
I don't know for sure thatthat's what I was reading, but
here's what happened afterwardsto make me think that.
That mama did not let that calfout of her sight, away from her
(06:52):
side until it was over a yearold.
I know this because I wouldfollow the cows around sometimes
because I did daily meditationswith them in their wanderings.
I know that the hierarchy of theherd and the social structure
included a babysitter like.
Th this is what most, mostcattle will do.
(07:14):
Is they'll pick a babysitter tostay an adult cow, to stay with
the babies while the mamas can,can make a wider circle and
expand out a little bit to getbetter grass and to graze while
the babies are all in one place.
Well, with my particular herd, Ihad one, it was a very mixed
herd to begin with.
And there was one cow withhorns.
(07:35):
And yeah, if you don't knowanything about cattle, a lot of
people think that bulls or mailcattle are the only ones with
horns, but actually it's a breedthing.
And so within a breed, both themales and females will have
horns and less genetically theydon't.
And that's called polled in thatgets real complicated.
But anyways, the cow with thehorns is the one.
That was in charge of thebabysitting.
(07:57):
When they were like zero to amonth old when they were most
vulnerable, the lead cow putthe.
The cow best equipped to protectthe babies with the horns to be
the babysitter.
And and then it would switch offas I got older.
So.
That's how I know.
(08:18):
That this new mama.
Was having that type ofconversation with the lead cow
because she never allowed hercalf to go with the babysit
group.
She took that calf, With her allthe time.
And the interesting thing aboutcalves is when they are told to
sit still.
To stay in one place.
They listen so much better thanat least my human children did.
(08:40):
You stay there and they stay.
And that was demonstrated inanother one of my cows stories,
where I had this neighbor whoused to help me run them through
his shoot.
He had one of those fancy roundshoots designed by Temple
Grandin.
And you know what the blind.
Shoot at the very end in thecircle.
And if you don't know aboutTemple Grandin and cattle, it's
(09:01):
a fascinating story.
She's one of the doctors thattalks about herd animals.
Communicating in pictures.
Anyway.
There's a great movie about heras, as a side note there, but
this other cow story.
So we were running the mamasthrough we managed to get half
of them through the gate on theside of the cattle guard.
And somehow the baby's turnedaround and we lost him and we
(09:26):
eventually got the rest of theherd through.
Without the babies.
So the babies were told to stayupon this little Knoll, not too
far from the cattle guard.
And the rest of the cattle weresent over to the neighbors,
which I moved them with.
Whoops.
And yell ups and actually kindof this belly dance call that I
think comes from maybe Morocco,where you.
(09:49):
I don't even know what it'scalled, but it's like, ah, And
that's the noise that I woulduse to move my cattle, to scare
bears and coyotes away andwhatever else I needed to do
that was loud on this 200 acreranch.
So, yeah, I was probably knownas the crazy yodeling cow lady
(10:10):
out there by myself, but Ilearned a lot.
And I feel like what I learnedwas important.
And it's important enough to betelling you a story about it.
Anyhow.
So the cattle got run throughthe shoot.
Designed by temple Grandin andoperated by my nice neighbor.
and I came back first.
(10:31):
Without the cows, we left themover there for some reason, for
a little while I came back.
With the babies.
Oh, I know I had a helper andthey were bringing, the cattle
back.
So I went back to find thebabies and I sat with, I call
them babies, the calves.
I sat with the calves on thisKnoll.
They didn't let me get realclose.
Like I said, black Angus cattleare not real touchy, feely
(10:51):
critters.
But I sat with them.
And they got to know me and Ichewed sideways and made a point
of not looking them in the eye.
And pretty soon the other cattlecame back directly to their
calves where they had left them,where they knew they would be
because when a mama cow tellsher baby to stay, it does.
And when they found me there,they stopped.
(11:13):
They stopped in their tracks andthey looked at me and they
looked at the calves.
And I will tell you from thatmoment on, I was in, I was part
of that herd.
I was an honorary member.
Have a black Angus cattle herd.
That led to some other things.
There was another incident whereThere was a baby calf who was
(11:36):
wedged in this drainage canal tothe Creek.
The property had some Hills.
And on a south slope, there wereseveral places where there were
Springs along the south slopeand they would come down and
they would form canals as theygot closer to the Creek.
And this particular little canalwas maybe Maybe 20 inches wide.
And about three feet deep, twoand a half, three foot deep.
(11:58):
And it was surrounded by thatbunch grass that grows in
wetlands.
It's actually a reed, I think.
Anyway, it can get really thick.
And this calf was stuck and wewere up on the hill building
something and somebody come downa couple of times for tools and
materials and kept telling me,oh, there's a calf down there.
I heard it balling, but I justthought it couldn't find it
(12:19):
small.
And I wasn't paying a lot ofattention.
Finally, she went down there.
She said, you know, I think.
I think something's wrong.
And she described the situationto me.
She said, there's this mama cowand a and a bull.
So the bull was like he was likea little more than a yearling
and he had been the offspring ofthat particular cow that was
waiting there with the calf.
And it was, that was the mom ofthe calf, as well as the calf
(12:41):
was wedged.
In this area so that its headwas barely ground level.
And I came upon them.
And the rest of the herd hadmoved off and it was just the
mom and the brother that werethere.
And I came upon them and I waslike, oh, what am I gonna, how
am I going to get this calf out?
You know, I looked at thesituation and.
(13:02):
I had a Bobcat and I thought,why come over here with the
Bobcat and dig it out?
But that would just terrify thepoor creature.
So I investigated a little bitmore carefully.
And I was able to get in thereon my hands and knees and move
some of the brash and touch thecalf.
As soon as I touched the calf.
The mother and brother walkedoff to join the herd.
(13:23):
It was as if they were sayingshe's got this.
we got her attention.
She'll handle it.
We trust her.
We can go now.
And that's what they did.
They went off and joined theherd and left me to deal with
the problem.
Well, luckily.
The wedge was mostly created bythis bunch grass.
And so by pulling the grassback, And kind of giving the
calf a little bit of amotivation to move forward.
(13:47):
He was able to move forward andthen jump out on his own.
But it was quite an interestingexperience to be.
I called upon to help.
And trusted to that degree.
As soon as I made contact withthe calf.
There's another story that comesto mind.
I didn't always live at theranch when the cattle were
(14:09):
there.
Sometimes I would visit once amonth with grain and the grain
was mostly to say, hello.
It's not like they needed thefood.
And one bag split betweenanywhere between 16 and at one
point 34 head of cattle is whatI had.
You know, isn't really asupplemental feed.
It's a treat.
But it was enough that they knewwhen they heard my car to come
running from wherever they wereon the 200 acres.
(14:30):
And that's the kind of cows Ihad.
So this one day I had arrivedand I was going to do some
hiking and I set up off the hillwhere the trail was and the mama
cow, the lead cow.
Came after me balling.
Oh, she was making such a fussand this is not normal.
Behavior was just her.
It wasn't anybody else.
(14:51):
And she got in front of me acouple of times as if to block
my way up there.
And when I kept kind of goingaround her and make her way up
the hill, she followed me for awhile.
Balling the whole time.
Finally, she gave up.
And went back.
So my destination was a Knoll atthe top of the property with a
lot of Oak trees.
(15:11):
And it's quite steep at the top.
When I.
Got almost to the top.
Something made me stop.
I heard something wrestling inthe bushes and I thought it was
deer.
I thought they were just somedeer up there.
So I stopped and approached morecautiously, more slowly, more
quietly.
And and then I saw what washappening.
(15:32):
One of the cows was giving birthup there.
And the mama cow had been askingme to leave them alone.
So I did that as soon as I sawwhat was happening, I turned and
I went back down.
But if anybody thinks that cowsdon't communicate, if cows don't
have an advanced socialstructure, if cows don't know.
(15:53):
What's in your mind and yourheart, I'm telling you they're
wrong.
And I know this is reallyupsetting.
For cattle ranchers.
People don't want to think this.
They don't want to know this.
We don't want to think that ourfood.
Has that kind of consciousness.
But it does.
(16:13):
It certainly does.
In fact, there was a moment withthis neighbor.
Where he was helping me with thecows and he had some helpers and
we had all my cows in a big pen.
That had the ability to be splitinto two.
Cause that's helpful for thatsort of thing.
And his helpers were in there,like kind of prodding my cattle
with electric cattle prods.
(16:35):
And I was like, what are youdoing stops?
Do you don't need to do that?
Stop that.
What are you trying to do here?
And he said, well, what do youwant to do?
And I said, well, let's separatethem and run the moms through
first.
So I jokingly, like this wasabout midway through some of the
Cal stories that I just told.
So I didn't feel like.
My perceptions about myrelationship with the cows was
(16:59):
really cemented.
But it was good enough.
And I did this as a joke.
At first, but I got up there.
And I did my my thing to gettheir attention, which was to
move like a cow.
I did that a lot.
I did a lot of imitatinganimals, and so I imitated this
moon.
Got their attention.
They all stopped was when youput them in a pen, they do two
(17:21):
things.
They mill in circles.
Which is what temple Grandin'slike circle thing is based on.
And they make a lot of noisecause they don't know what's
happening and why they'recaught.
So when I got up on this fenceand I mood.
They all stopped and looked atme.
And that was probably enough tomake the neighbor and his hands.
(17:41):
Drop their jaws.
The thing I did next.
And again, I say I was halfjoking when I did it.
I didn't expect it to happen.
I said mama's over here andbaby's over there and motioned
to the two opposite ends of thisrectangular pen.
And they did it.
(18:03):
And these men looked at me likeI was a witch and they started
calling me the cow whisper.
The fact that.
I had exposed cattle to beintelligent.
Loving interactive creatures.
Was probably too much for theirworld of raising them for
Samson Q2U Microphone-3 (18:23):
Come to the horse human connection.
This podcast is mostly abouthorses.
So though it's about askingquestions and answering
questions, and I have to includethe stories about the cows
because before there werehorses, there were cows.
And that's where my awareness ofherd animals began.
(18:46):
So onward with the cows stories.
MacBook Air Microphone-4 (18:51):
So this podcast is about.
Horses.
And more than horses, but it.
MacBook Air Microphone (19:04):
beef
MacBook Air Microphone-2 (19:07):
When our belief systems become
challenged.
MacBook Air Micropho (19:14):
Especially the belief systems that drive
our behavior or our financiallivelihood..
Either.
We have to make a shift.
We have to acknowledge newtruths.
Or.
We just can't hear it.
And I think what happened isthey had so much invested.
They just couldn't hear it.
(19:34):
And so eventually I became thebad guy.
The messenger.
This is the Horse HumanConnection, a captivating
podcast where we extend into theworld of equine assisted
learning, horse training.
and gentleness in working withthese magnificent creatures.
Captivating stories from theleading professionals and
ordinary people alike unravelnovel ideas in being with
(00:25):
horses.
The Horse Human Connection is anidea, a place, and a voice.
The idea is to support the quietrevolution and recognize the
intelligence and true nature ofthe horse.
The place is a destination farmnear the Umpqua Forest and River
that slows down visitors andpatrons enough to experience the
(00:48):
shift.
The Voice is this podcast.
Welcome to today's episode.
Samson Q2U Microphone-4 (01:04):
Welcome to the horse human connection
podcast.
This next episode is about cows,not horses.
But before I realized whathorses were all about.
I realized it because I realizedabout the cows.
And having this herd of mixedcows that later were bred with
(01:24):
black Angus bulls.
To produce a black Angus herdwas one of the most incredible
experiences of my life.
It happened over about a sixyear period.
And the cows taught me what wasto come with the horses.
So I hope you will enjoy this.
MacBook Air Microphone (01:43):
I lived on a ranch mostly by myself.
It was 206 acres.
In about the middle of SouthernOregon.
Somehow I decided to raise blackAngus cattle kind of on purpose
and kind of by accident.
When you have a ranch with thatmuch grass, something's got to
eat it.
Could be the deer and the elk,but it made sense to get some
(02:04):
cows.
So I ended up buying some cowsfrom a neighbor out there and he
gave me a piece of advice.
He said, talk to your cows whenyou feed them, walk amongst them
and talk to them.
So they know your voice so youcan call them in.
That was the beginning.
That was the best advice I couldhave gotten from the old doctor
(02:25):
liquidating the herd of 16 mixedcattle.
So I'd had a cower too beforewith my ex-husband on the 10
acres that we'd had.
And now I had 16 cows on 206acres, and there was plenty of
feed.
I wasn't going to have to buyany feed.
There was plenty of water.
And as I look back on it, theway I describe it, as I became a
(02:46):
Taoist cattle rancher.
Now I'd had horses before, butI'd never done any roping or, or
any cowboy things that go withcattle.
And I didn't have any horsescurrently.
So my method of.
getting in these cows tocooperate with me was largely my
(03:06):
voice in a bucket of grain.
And I got pretty good with thevoice and I, I took the doctor's
advice and when I did feed them,I walked among them.
I tried to touch them blackAngus cattle.
Don't really like to be touched.
So they're not warm, fuzzy.
Going to be your friend kind ofanimals.
Because I know you're going toeat them one day.
(03:26):
But I did walk among them and Idid get to know them.
And.
I would lay down when there werecalves so that they wouldn't be
afraid and they'd comeinvestigate me.
And sometimes they'd lick mylong sleeve black or sniff about
my legs and my feet.
And they were really a joy tome.
Cows have a very.
(03:46):
Distinct social order.
They have a lead cow who's incharge.
And they have conversations witheach other.
And I am 100% convinced thatthey communicate with pictures
in their minds.
And there are a couple ofdoctors.
Who study herd animals who agreewith me?
But I realized this long beforeI read what those doctors.
(04:09):
Had to say.
So, what are the cows stories isI had some help.
Trying to rope and band andvaccinate some of the calves.
I had teenagers at the time boysand they had friends and so they
got together and one of themknew how to rope and somehow, or
another, we got these cattle onthe ground and got the little
(04:31):
machine with the band and, andthe vaccines.
And I was able to do that part.
We had the calves caught up inabout a hundred by a hundred
foot fenced pen.
And the mamas were on theoutside.
And one of the mamas was a firsttime mom.
And her calf was in there andshe was throwing a fit.
(04:54):
Her calf got separated when welet the others loose and it was
stuck in there by itself.
And it took some time to getthat calf out of there.
Samson Q2U Microphone-2 (05:04):
I used a technique that I learned from
reading and watching.
A horse trainer named MontyRoberts.
He's the one that's creditedwith the language of Equis.
And he learned that by watchingwild Mustangs in Nevada.
Oh, When he was a very youngman.
He learned a lot about horsebehavior.
MacBook Air Microphone (05:25):
Licking and chewing is part of what
Monte Roberts uses to.
Train animals.
It's a sign he looks for.
So I use this looking andchewing.
Imitating an animal.
Who is a Grazer by looking atshoeing and moving my jaw side
to side instead of up and down.
And I must've looked quite crazydoing it.
(05:47):
But the minute I started doingthis, not looking at the little
calf.
I'm using my body language tonot square off to him, but my
shoulders to the side.
And looking and licking andlooking down.
When I did this, that calftrusted me suddenly.
I was not a predator.
I was another herd animal and hetrusted me and I was able to get
him out the gate and reunitedwith the mom.
(06:09):
Meanwhile on the outside of thefence.
This mama, this new mom has beenhaving this very loud
conversation with the lead cow.
And in my imagination, theconversation was something like
this.
How could you possibly let thathappen to our babies?
Let them by the humans, withoutus there to protect them.
I will never trust you again.
(06:31):
And I think that this is theconversation that they had and
I.
You know, give me some leewayhere with imagination because.
Although I may be a littleclairvoyant at times.
I don't know for sure thatthat's what I was reading, but
here's what happened afterwardsto make me think that.
That mama did not let that calfout of her sight, away from her
(06:52):
side until it was over a yearold.
I know this because I wouldfollow the cows around sometimes
because I did daily meditationswith them in their wanderings.
I know that the hierarchy of theherd and the social structure
included a babysitter like.
Th this is what most, mostcattle will do.
(07:14):
Is they'll pick a babysitter tostay an adult cow, to stay with
the babies while the mamas can,can make a wider circle and
expand out a little bit to getbetter grass and to graze while
the babies are all in one place.
Well, with my particular herd, Ihad one, it was a very mixed
herd to begin with.
And there was one cow withhorns.
(07:35):
And yeah, if you don't knowanything about cattle, a lot of
people think that bulls or mailcattle are the only ones with
horns, but actually it's a breedthing.
And so within a breed, both themales and females will have
horns and less genetically theydon't.
And that's called polled in thatgets real complicated.
But anyways, the cow with thehorns is the one.
That was in charge of thebabysitting.
(07:57):
When they were like zero to amonth old when they were most
vulnerable, the lead cow putthe.
The cow best equipped to protectthe babies with the horns to be
the babysitter.
And and then it would switch offas I got older.
So.
That's how I know.
(08:18):
That this new mama.
Was having that type ofconversation with the lead cow
because she never allowed hercalf to go with the babysit
group.
She took that calf, With her allthe time.
And the interesting thing aboutcalves is when they are told to
sit still.
To stay in one place.
They listen so much better thanat least my human children did.
(08:40):
You stay there and they stay.
And that was demonstrated inanother one of my cows stories,
where I had this neighbor whoused to help me run them through
his shoot.
He had one of those fancy roundshoots designed by Temple
Grandin.
And you know what the blind.
Shoot at the very end in thecircle.
And if you don't know aboutTemple Grandin and cattle, it's
(09:01):
a fascinating story.
She's one of the doctors thattalks about herd animals.
Communicating in pictures.
Anyway.
There's a great movie about heras, as a side note there, but
this other cow story.
So we were running the mamasthrough we managed to get half
of them through the gate on theside of the cattle guard.
And somehow the baby's turnedaround and we lost him and we
(09:26):
eventually got the rest of theherd through.
Without the babies.
So the babies were told to stayupon this little Knoll, not too
far from the cattle guard.
And the rest of the cattle weresent over to the neighbors,
which I moved them with.
Whoops.
And yell ups and actually kindof this belly dance call that I
think comes from maybe Morocco,where you.
(09:49):
I don't even know what it'scalled, but it's like, ah, And
that's the noise that I woulduse to move my cattle, to scare
bears and coyotes away andwhatever else I needed to do
that was loud on this 200 acreranch.
So, yeah, I was probably knownas the crazy yodeling cow lady
(10:10):
out there by myself, but Ilearned a lot.
And I feel like what I learnedwas important.
And it's important enough to betelling you a story about it.
Anyhow.
So the cattle got run throughthe shoot.
Designed by temple Grandin andoperated by my nice neighbor.
and I came back first.
(10:31):
Without the cows, we left themover there for some reason, for
a little while I came back.
With the babies.
Oh, I know I had a helper andthey were bringing, the cattle
back.
So I went back to find thebabies and I sat with, I call
them babies, the calves.
I sat with the calves on thisKnoll.
They didn't let me get realclose.
Like I said, black Angus cattleare not real touchy, feely
(10:51):
critters.
But I sat with them.
And they got to know me and Ichewed sideways and made a point
of not looking them in the eye.
And pretty soon the other cattlecame back directly to their
calves where they had left them,where they knew they would be
because when a mama cow tellsher baby to stay, it does.
And when they found me there,they stopped.
(11:13):
They stopped in their tracks andthey looked at me and they
looked at the calves.
And I will tell you from thatmoment on, I was in, I was part
of that herd.
I was an honorary member.
Have a black Angus cattle herd.
That led to some other things.
There was another incident whereThere was a baby calf who was
(11:36):
wedged in this drainage canal tothe Creek.
The property had some Hills.
And on a south slope, there wereseveral places where there were
Springs along the south slopeand they would come down and
they would form canals as theygot closer to the Creek.
And this particular little canalwas maybe Maybe 20 inches wide.
And about three feet deep, twoand a half, three foot deep.
(11:58):
And it was surrounded by thatbunch grass that grows in
wetlands.
It's actually a reed, I think.
Anyway, it can get really thick.
And this calf was stuck and wewere up on the hill building
something and somebody come downa couple of times for tools and
materials and kept telling me,oh, there's a calf down there.
I heard it balling, but I justthought it couldn't find it
(12:19):
small.
And I wasn't paying a lot ofattention.
Finally, she went down there.
She said, you know, I think.
I think something's wrong.
And she described the situationto me.
She said, there's this mama cowand a and a bull.
So the bull was like he was likea little more than a yearling
and he had been the offspring ofthat particular cow that was
waiting there with the calf.
And it was, that was the mom ofthe calf, as well as the calf
(12:41):
was wedged.
In this area so that its headwas barely ground level.
And I came upon them.
And the rest of the herd hadmoved off and it was just the
mom and the brother that werethere.
And I came upon them and I waslike, oh, what am I gonna, how
am I going to get this calf out?
You know, I looked at thesituation and.
(13:02):
I had a Bobcat and I thought,why come over here with the
Bobcat and dig it out?
But that would just terrify thepoor creature.
So I investigated a little bitmore carefully.
And I was able to get in thereon my hands and knees and move
some of the brash and touch thecalf.
As soon as I touched the calf.
The mother and brother walkedoff to join the herd.
(13:23):
It was as if they were sayingshe's got this.
we got her attention.
She'll handle it.
We trust her.
We can go now.
And that's what they did.
They went off and joined theherd and left me to deal with
the problem.
Well, luckily.
The wedge was mostly created bythis bunch grass.
And so by pulling the grassback, And kind of giving the
calf a little bit of amotivation to move forward.
(13:47):
He was able to move forward andthen jump out on his own.
But it was quite an interestingexperience to be.
I called upon to help.
And trusted to that degree.
As soon as I made contact withthe calf.
There's another story that comesto mind.
I didn't always live at theranch when the cattle were
(14:09):
there.
Sometimes I would visit once amonth with grain and the grain
was mostly to say, hello.
It's not like they needed thefood.
And one bag split betweenanywhere between 16 and at one
point 34 head of cattle is whatI had.
You know, isn't really asupplemental feed.
It's a treat.
But it was enough that they knewwhen they heard my car to come
running from wherever they wereon the 200 acres.
(14:30):
And that's the kind of cows Ihad.
So this one day I had arrivedand I was going to do some
hiking and I set up off the hillwhere the trail was and the mama
cow, the lead cow.
Came after me balling.
Oh, she was making such a fussand this is not normal.
Behavior was just her.
It wasn't anybody else.
(14:51):
And she got in front of me acouple of times as if to block
my way up there.
And when I kept kind of goingaround her and make her way up
the hill, she followed me for awhile.
Balling the whole time.
Finally, she gave up.
And went back.
So my destination was a Knoll atthe top of the property with a
lot of Oak trees.
(15:11):
And it's quite steep at the top.
When I.
Got almost to the top.
Something made me stop.
I heard something wrestling inthe bushes and I thought it was
deer.
I thought they were just somedeer up there.
So I stopped and approached morecautiously, more slowly, more
quietly.
And and then I saw what washappening.
(15:32):
One of the cows was giving birthup there.
And the mama cow had been askingme to leave them alone.
So I did that as soon as I sawwhat was happening, I turned and
I went back down.
But if anybody thinks that cowsdon't communicate, if cows don't
have an advanced socialstructure, if cows don't know.
(15:53):
What's in your mind and yourheart, I'm telling you they're
wrong.
And I know this is reallyupsetting.
For cattle ranchers.
People don't want to think this.
They don't want to know this.
We don't want to think that ourfood.
Has that kind of consciousness.
But it does.
(16:13):
It certainly does.
In fact, there was a moment withthis neighbor.
Where he was helping me with thecows and he had some helpers and
we had all my cows in a big pen.
That had the ability to be splitinto two.
Cause that's helpful for thatsort of thing.
And his helpers were in there,like kind of prodding my cattle
with electric cattle prods.
(16:35):
And I was like, what are youdoing stops?
Do you don't need to do that?
Stop that.
What are you trying to do here?
And he said, well, what do youwant to do?
And I said, well, let's separatethem and run the moms through
first.
So I jokingly, like this wasabout midway through some of the
Cal stories that I just told.
So I didn't feel like.
My perceptions about myrelationship with the cows was
(16:59):
really cemented.
But it was good enough.
And I did this as a joke.
At first, but I got up there.
And I did my my thing to gettheir attention, which was to
move like a cow.
I did that a lot.
I did a lot of imitatinganimals, and so I imitated this
moon.
Got their attention.
They all stopped was when youput them in a pen, they do two
(17:21):
things.
They mill in circles.
Which is what temple Grandin'slike circle thing is based on.
And they make a lot of noisecause they don't know what's
happening and why they'recaught.
So when I got up on this fenceand I mood.
They all stopped and looked atme.
And that was probably enough tomake the neighbor and his hands.
(17:41):
Drop their jaws.
The thing I did next.
And again, I say I was halfjoking when I did it.
I didn't expect it to happen.
I said mama's over here andbaby's over there and motioned
to the two opposite ends of thisrectangular pen.
And they did it.
(18:03):
And these men looked at me likeI was a witch and they started
calling me the cow whisper.
The fact that.
I had exposed cattle to beintelligent.
Loving interactive creatures.
Was probably too much for theirworld of raising them for
Samson Q2U Microphone-3 (18:23):
Come to the horse human connection.
This podcast is mostly abouthorses.
So though it's about askingquestions and answering
questions, and I have to includethe stories about the cows
because before there werehorses, there were cows.
And that's where my awareness ofherd animals began.
(18:46):
So onward with the cows stories.
MacBook Air Microphone-4 (18:51):
So this podcast is about.
Horses.
And more than horses, but it.
MacBook Air Microphone (19:04):
beef
MacBook Air Microphone-2 (19:07):
When our belief systems become
challenged.
MacBook Air Micropho (19:14):
Especially the belief systems that drive
our behavior or our financiallivelihood..
Either.
We have to make a shift.
We have to acknowledge newtruths.
Or.
We just can't hear it.
And I think what happened isthey had so much invested.
They just couldn't hear it.
(19:34):
And so eventually I became thebad guy.
The messenger.
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