Wring in the Spring

The old timers speak of a month of wetting the prairie with rain, fog and snow sniffles. Back in the saddle again as the two and half inches of moisture brought by wet snow in several main features and even a mantinee or two has caught the mid -Dakotans with the familiar problem of spring calving.

Cattlemen are busy day and night with the arrival of the newborn calves. Pulling future dollars from the heifers or from the experienced senior herd member is familiar. Calves come forward and backward on their time not yours. Cowboys in denims are the OBY's on the prairie.
If it takes two to Tango it oft times takes two to untangle the problem delivery of a calf. DVM's are far away so a partner of the operation is the wife ( Medi-Vet )who can wind the puller or help sew em up after pushing the container back in place.

A report of a "mad" Santa Gertrudis cow recently. The ID program is not in place to trace the origin of the outbreak. I had a report that Ted Turner was at the Winner slaughter plant to negotiate the "South Dakota Certified Beef" that would be prepared at the plant. Turner(buffalo owner) has restaurants that would feature that branded product. The sheep industry has ID requirements for tracing scrapie, a form of that "mad cow" disease. I have a numbered tag to install in the lambs that is recorded at every sale transaction. The serial number of the tag is recorded by USDA.

A research fund has been awarded to a South Dakota college to study why buffalo may be immune to that "mad Cow" disease.

LH