Anyone who has ever worked with cattle knows that on occasion cows can have trouble calving. Allowing heifers to be bred too young can contribute to calving problems, but many times selecting breeding stock with poor confirmation is the cause. Bulls that throw larger calves can also contribute. Sometimes, however things just go wrong. A calf’s leg may get pulled back as it comes down the canal or some may come out backwards. Regardless of the cause, when a calf cannot be delivered or dropped naturally, speed is of the essence if the calf is to be dropped alive. During calving season it is important that the cows be checked at least twice per day.
When I was in high school I worked for a large animal veterinarian. He would take me with him on calls and several times I assisted him with pulling a calf. The vet had a jack that rested against the cow’s rump. Small chains were attached to the calf’s front legs and when the jack handle was operated it applied pressure to pull the calf. The jack was designed to give maximum allowed pressure without damaging the cow or calf. The rest was up to the operator. Straightening up legs and lining up heads sometimes required quite a bit of effort. Delivering a calf, alive, made it all worthwhile.
On my way home from school one day, I noticed a neighbor’s cow having calving problems. I stopped and went to get the neighbor. He called his vet, but it was going to be two hours before he could get there. The neighbor began to panic. I went with him and we got a rope on the cow. I took a short piece of rope and tied the ends around each leg. This left me a loop to pull on. After much difficulty the calf dropped out alive. We watched a few minutes and when the calf got up to nurse I left. From then on, every time the neighbor saw me he called me his hero. I didn’t think much about it because I knew that a blind hog can find an acorn every now and then.
After college I worked on a farm near Rome, Georgia. The operation consisted of five dairy farms and three thousand hogs located on three different farms. My job was to look after the hogs, but sometimes priorities dictated other tasks. One day, I got a call to assist with a problem calf delivery just up the road from me.
When I got there, one of the farm hands had pulled the calf with his pickup truck. I had heard of people doing this, but this was the first time I had ever experienced this ill-advised activity. The calf was out and the cow was lying there bleeding profusely. I took my un-sanitized wire pliers out of my pocket and started crimping bleeders. After a few minutes I got the main bleeding stopped. I had a gallon of iodine in my truck that was used when we tied off baby pig navels. I got a roll of gauze, soaked it with iodine and inserted it into the hurt cow. When the vet finally got there the cow was up and he was satisfied that we had done all that could be done.
In my career I have pulled over a dozen calves, but I have never seen anything like the damage done by using a truck. So if you find yourself needing to pull a calf, before you get a truck or a four wheeler or a tractor, call the veterinarian. The outcome will be much better. I don’t know what became of the guy who did this. He is probably out there somewhere giving advice on the internet.
