When I went out to the field Monday morning, I had a little surprise waiting for me: Dusty gave me a new calf. He was already running around and very healthy, though a bit thinner than I’d like. Dusty seemed to be a good mom.
My biggest question was whether I would be able to tag the calf. If they start moving around, they are liable to move too fast for a human to catch them. Now, if I had a rope, catching a very young calf could be a possibility, but the larger calves would knock you off your feet unless you let go of the rope as soon as you landed a hit.
I was able to walk up to the calf, grab the tail, and sit him down. The tag went quickly, and on a scale of 1 to 10, I was only an 8 for worrying that the mom would trample me.