06/21/07 Slow

Once in a great while a cow will get raised above range cow status. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be right back after this to tell you about one. On rare occasions a cow will stand out in a herd because of some exceptional trait. Cows that are superior producers are always noticed and become the benchmark for improvement within the herd. Other cows get noticed because of a flighty or particularly nasty attitude. These cows usually get a one-way ticket off the ranch. One Hereford crossbred cow that we acquired in a herd we bought a few years ago became one of our favorites since she raised top quality calves and had a downright sweet disposition. I told the previous owner we actually found we could walk up and scratch her back in the winter feedlot. He knew the cow when I described her and said she had even been nicknamed "Slow" because of her laid back disposition when she was just a calf. Slow quickly became the center of attention, especially on the weekends when the kids would help feed cows and have to find Slow to scratch her and make sure she had enough hay. About eight years ago, Slow's calf died at birth. We never knew why since coyotes had the calf 95 per cent eaten by the time we found it. Two days later another cow had a set of twins and while I was taking the cow and calves to the corral to keep them together the cow wandered off with one calf following her. Just as I was trying to get the second calf with its mother, Slow came out of the draw from her dead calf and spied the abandoned calf. What happened next will be tomorrow's story. I'm Jeff Keane.