Permsteading.com

Took the kids to the swimming hole today. While they frolicked in their youthful nievity, I made a round for May apples. While doing so, I spied some buzzards sitting in a tree on the edge of Youngblood's pasture. As I approached the field, about thirty or forty of them took off from a particular part of the field which drew my attention to the tell-tale red colored fur that let it be known instantly that Youngblood had a cow die.

Continuing to advance, and lookin through myriad tree limbs, I couldn't turn the image into a cow. No matter how I mentally rotated the image, it kept coming up with too many legs. It wasn't until I was in the field with the cow and able to inspect the scene close up that I was able to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

I rushed home, told Youngblood about what I'd found and then accompanied him back to the field. He came to the same conclusion I did - during the birth of an exceptionally large and obviously strong calf, the calf kicked out with force sufficient to rupture the cows abdominal wall which then prevented further efficacy of the cow's uterine contractions. This caused the calf to become stuck and the cow to bleed to death.

The amount of ground torn up around the cow indicates her demise was far from peaceful.

Whoah, that's unbelievable. And really gruesome. Ugh.

What a horrid thing to happen, to cow, calf and Youngbloods animal count.

One day last week I spied at least a dozen carrion eaters clustered in one area. Several of them on the roof of an abandoned house trailer didn't even flinch as I drove by. I wondered what might be big enough to draw so many birds at one time. Now I wonder if whatever it was, was still dying.