06/22/07 Slow part II

Cows that get elevated above range cow status are few and far between. I'm Jeff Keane; today I'll finish the story about one of those cows. One of our range cows actually has a name instead of just a number. We found out a cow we had numbered 143 had been nicknamed "Slow" by the previous owners because of her slow and easy going disposition. Yesterday I told you Slow's calf had died at birth one year and another cow had had a set of twins about two days later. As I was moving the cow with the twins toward the corral the cow took one calf and moved away from the other calf. Slow came out of the draw where her dead calf had been and spied the abandoned calf. She came right to the calf and started checking it over. Before I could get Slow and the calf to the corral to put them together, Slow had adopted the calf and was letting it nurse. When I told my brother what had happened, he said Slow should stay on the ranch for her lifetimeI agreed. She is older now and gets to be wintered with the young cows so she can be boss and get plenty of hay. Slow gets to run in the easiest grazing pastures and gets to go to an irrigated pasture later in the year after our grasses dry up. She turned sixteen years old this year and had a set of twin heifer calves. One was given to another cow that had lost her calf so both calves get plenty of milk. Maybe Slow won't have a calf next yearIt doesn't matter she still stays on the ranch. I'm Jeff Keane.