Every year seems to be a little different and bring something new. This year I might not have many calves yet, three, but the cattle are reacting different.<br />n<br />nI always like to leave the heifer in the pen she has been in while she is calving. She is comfortable there and more willing to work at calving. Try to move them and they tend to clench up and quit trying to calve and give a person problem. Normally the other heifers don't bother the new mother and baby so it works out great. You do have to watch for another one calving trying to claim the calf all ready on the ground but I usually don't have too much trouble.<br />n<br />nThe last two calves though didn't work that way. They both had the calves on thir own but the other heifers didn't leave them alone. Almost every heifer in the pen had to come check out what that new, wet, wiggly mass was and get in the way of new mommy and baby getting to know each other. Last night the heifer was trying to take care of her calf while trying to fight the other heifers off so they didn't bother her calf.<br />n<br />nI really hate to have to move them when they are still getting to know each other but what choice did I have. With the weather forecast the way it was, snow, I decided to stall them for the night and call it good. I try not to stall the heifers unless I have to but I did for safety on this one.<br />n<br />nIt's always different around here and different things happen. You never know it all or see it all in this business. Your always learning something new or seeing something new. I guess that keeps us all young, at least that's waht I say to make myself feel better..<br />n<br />nOn last thing talking about the snow, the National Weather Service forecast had these exact words in it last night. They don't keep it so I can't link it, but I swear I read this.<br />n<br />n<blockquote>There will be 3 inches of snow tonight and an additional 3 inches of snow on Monday for a storm total of 7 inches.</blockquote><br />n<br />nLast time I checked 3+3=6, not 7. I guess this new math is what a college education teaches these meteorologists.<br />n<br />n<strong>I took a different path, one you might not expect. But along the path, I learned a lot about my life – about life. Jennifer Capriati</strong>