“Do You Name Your Cows?” Is sure a question that we get more often than you would think. Well, the answer is sort of.. There is a reason behind our “naming” or “numbering” process.
We just had a little “doggie” this morning, the mama and the calf were sure thankful that the cowboys built plenty of shelter for them. You can easily lose a calf in this weather. The cowboss checks on the ladies a lot during this type of weather. Anyways, if you have a closer look at the picture, you will see that the calf has a tag that shows 16/11. 16 is for the year she was born and the 11 is after her mama. (Yes, it is a little heifer aka girl). Her mama’s number is 12/11. 12 is for the year she was born and 11 is her cow number. Meaning she was our 11th cow on this outfit. Little 16/11 will get a new cow number when she is about a year old. We number all new calves after their mama, so we know who belongs to who when we transport them to their summer pastures. Nobody wants to end up with the wrong mama. It also helps us to collect valuable information on the mamas and have a track record of their previous calves and how they have performed. It is important to know, when the mama cow typically delivers, does she struggle with delivery and may need help, does she have big or small calves and keep track of the lineage.
12/11 was our first calf that was born on 3T Ranch. The cowboss helped during the delivery as her mama ran out of steam at the end. He was sure happy to see that mama and our first calf were just fine. You can tell from the pictures that we did get attached to her and closely followed her first year and even know, she has a special place on our ranch.
We do name our bulls, they have numbers too, as they do the “hard” work around here. We have Phill and Bob. Bob’s number is 12/00. The cowboss got creative with the double 00..