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For
years, New Mexico State University managed a ranch on the Jornada,
running Santa Gertrudis’ cattle. One of the vivid lessons I learned
was the intense protectiveness of the Braymer-blood mama cows. If you
stepped into the high-fenced corrals with the mothers and their young’uns,
you were asking for trouble. They were big, dark red, rangey and
high-horned. When one turned her head and locked you in her gaze, you
knew how it felt to look down the barrel of a cannon and see Darth Vader
peekin’ back!
In
genteel terms, in the cow business that behavior is called ‘good
mothering instinct.’ That’s like describing my teenage son’s socks
as "making a bold statement." The instinct is characteristic
in the females of most species, with notable exceptions in the seahorse,
the penguin and certain celebrities.
A
strong mothering instinct insures the propagation of the species.
Coupled with the male instinct to pollinate frequently and it’s no
wonder there are so many jackrabbits and rich child support lawyers.
But,
back to Braymer cows. My Canadian friend Don has raised rodeo bucking
bulls for many years. He selects his breeding cows and sires from
practicing-proven good buckers. Cow #19-L was a black brockle-face
Braymer with the face of a gargoyle. Don weaned her first calf last fall
and put him in a corral to precondition half a mile away.
Gargolita
(19-L) went apoplectic! She could not see her baby – he was gone! She
ran the fence line in the pasture in a bawling frenzy. Other, more
mature cows tried to explain why this was done, how weaning was a
natural process and when she could expect the soreness in her udder to
abate. All to no avail!
Gargolita
crashed through the north fence and raced toward the barn. She leaped a
Texas gate (cattle guard in Alberta), took the pavement into Black Falls
and turned south. Through a stop sign, the school zone, road
construction and the constables having coffee, she followed her nose! On
RD 189 she turned back west and ran the 2 miles back to Don’s place,
jumped another Texas gate and found her baby at last!
He
had been munching a starter feed-mix and hangin’ out with other ‘teenage’
calves, griping about their parents. Suddenly he heard his mother
bawling! "Where have you been? Why didn’t you call? I’ve been
worried sick! No more salt lick for you! Clean your room! Pick up after
yourself! Moo, moo. moo…"
Of
course, Don never heard all this. He just found 19-L standing outside
the corral and her calf cringing in the opposite corner. |
