Hi I’m Mike and this is Our Wyoming Life
A couple weeks ago, I introduced you to the Moocall.
This small device, which is strapped to a cow’s tail and will send you a text when
a cow is in labor and ready to have her calf.
We brought Bambi, a pet cow was bottle raised as a result of her mom dying during her birth
into the corral and because she was bottle raised and very friendly that made her a great
test subject, we put the Moocall device on her and powered it up.
After that it was just a matter of waiting for a text, which we got quite a few of.
As it turns out there is a trick to putting the Moocall on your cow, too tight and you
get false alarms, and too loose and she will manage to get it off and leave it laying in
the dirt, but I can tell you that the folks at Moocall have great customer service and
they will not stop until you get the hang of putting this thing on.
You want the Moocall working for you, not the other way around.
Each alert I got, I would check Bambi out, but, just like the Moocall manual says, the
it is not a substitute for actively checking your cows yourself, so every few hours I would
poke my head in the corral to check on Bambi, as well as 80 and Gunther.
Bambi has apparently been struck with stage fright, what I thought would just be a couple
day wait for her to calve has stretched out to a week but that’s ok, Bambi you keep
your legs crossed, because we have a winter storm coming in tonight.
The national weather service is calling for 9 inches of snow overnight and winds up to
50 miles per hour, and with about 10 calves on the ground and out in the pasture where
they are subject to the weather and more calves being born every day, it’s going to be a
long day and even longer night.
New calves don’t have the experience or the instinct to deal with this weather so
they rely on their moms to keep them alive, but their moms are cold and tired too and
sometimes they drop the ball.
That’s where we coming in, we will first get some straw out for the cows and put it
in the windbreaks.
The windbreaks are structures built to do exactly what the name implies, break the wind
and because during most of our winter storms the wind will blow from the north, that’s
the way they face, giving the cows and calves someplace to hide out.
Putting straw in them adds a layer of insulation and is kind of like the continental breakfast
at the Hilton, it gives mom incentive to bring them in.
As the rain starts to fall and the temperature plummets the smart cows start to head in,
closer to home where they have more protection from the storm.
But some wont, some cows and usually those with newer calves will stay out.
It’s part of their instinct to separate themselves from the herd, at least for the
first few days of their calves life, they do this to move away from more dominate cows
that might disturb the bonding process between them and their calf.
Older cows and more dominate cows won’t do this, and it’s just another of the interesting
quirks in cow behavior.
Rain quickly turns to snow and although some cows find the windbreaks and use the straw
to keep their calves warm, others don’t and it’s the cows that don’t take their
calves to the windbreaks that we really need to keep an eye on tonight.
By nightfall, the snow is really coming down, and even finding calves becomes a real challenge,
but it’s not long before we find a calf, frozen and cold in the snow.
Its mom nowhere around, we gather it up and get it in the warmer.
And after that another, then another.
The cold weather is really doing a number and it’s just me out here all night, but
I’m trying to keep up and as we head back out that’s when it happens….
A Moocall alert, 1:03am, we finish checking for lost calves and head back to the corral
where we find Bambi hanging out in a corner by herself.
Great timing Bambi, on one of the busiest nights of calving, well better safe than sorry.
I move Bambi into the barn, and into a corral.
The Moocall works by tracking the tail movements of a cow in labor.
Certain tail movements and patterns are triggered by labor contractions.
So when they meet a certain level of intensity over a certain period of time, it triggers
a text message just like this one.
Our second alert.
It’s now 2:30 am and it looks like Bambi might be serious about having her calf but
we still have some time.
And we take advantage of the break to check our latest calf in the warmer and get her
out and moved into the calf corral.
Next we check Bambi we can see her water bag is out.
I’m sure that’s not the technical name for it but it’s the first real exterior
sign of calving.
Usually when a water bag comes out we only give a cow a couple of hours to have her calf.
Soon after it breaks when triggers intense labor, Bambi lies down and has her calf.
Afterwards she takes a little break for herself, I wouldn’t know of course but it looks like
hard work, but soon the maternal instincts kick in and she’s up and cleaning off her
calf, beginning the bonding process.
The calf gets up, and drinks and all is well.
And its 5:15am, and I can go get an hour sleep, before I’ll be back up to survey the aftermath
of the storm.
The calves that we brought in to the barn last night to keep warm can be reunited with
their moms and we check all the cows, who have now found the windbreaks.
Mackenzie wakes up to the good news and soon is out in the barn, bonding with Bambi’s
calf as well, which she named….
Princess Bliss, she begins her life on the ranch and thanks to Moocall.
Really, I mean it; Thanks to Moocall we had Princess Bliss without any complications or
problems.
I was so busy that I hadn’t checked Bambi all night, she could have had her calf in
the snow and wet ground which could have really caused some major problems for her first few
hours of life.
I was out and picking up freezing calves all night, getting them in the warmer and I probably
would have never noticed Bambi had her calf until morning, by then it could have been
too late.
Thanks to Moocall, I received a message telling me what was going on with plenty of time get
her in barn, a warm and dry environment to have her calf.
So, is it worth it?
Yeah, it might have saved a calf already and it’s already paid for itself in that aspect.
Cows that we are waiting to calve that we bring in for one reason or another will all
get a Moocall, and we can monitor them from anywhere.
I’ll be the first to admit it, cows that are in or near the barn are the easiest to
check on but when things get busy and hairy, they are also the easiest to forget.
Thanks Moocall for keeping me in touch with my cows.
We really do hope you’ve enjoyed this episode.
I’m going to get some rest but we hope that you subscribe, like and comment, and I’m
going to ask you to take an extra minute to find us on Facebook at Our Wyoming Life.
Erin posts stuff on Facebook that isn’t available anywhere else, you can track calving
through the week and see what we are up to, so take that extra time as a favor to me and
like and follow.
Have a great week, and thanks for joining us in Our Wyoming Life.