03/02/06 Good luck (1)

Good Luck You know that old saying "I'd rather be lucky than good." Well, that saying is still relevant. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be right back to tell you about our luck. It's a rare calving season that goes by without its share of problems. Our season got started on a less than desirable note and then we had an outbreak of twins that helped make up for earlier lost calves. Now twins can create their own problems as well as being a benefit. Problems like finding them both, one twin born after you have checked the cow, and then actually identifying them as twins. This can be a real problem with crossbred cows since twins might not quite look alike or even be different colors. That can be a little confusing to me at times. One of the biggest drawbacks to twins in a range operation is the cow being able to actually keep both calves together and realizing she has two calves to watch. It's a very special cow that can get that job done for a very long period of time. But this year, so far, luck has stepped in when the cows have had twins. The first set came a few ours apart but were both nursing the cow when I checked her the second time. The next set was born close to where other cows were calving. A day later as we moved these cows back to the feed grounds, two separate cows picked up and claimed two calves in the sagebrush that just had to be twins because of size, color and markings that matched only one of the cows. The two cows and calves were totally happy with the arrangement, but it just didn't look right to us and this is where luck paid us another visit and that will be tomorrow's story. I'm Jeff Keane.