A Different Calving Season

So, here we are, with the great wheel of the seasons rolling around to calving time again. What a different spring it is-caused mainly by the really DIFFERENT (that’s the nicest thing I can call it) winter. With the snow still well over a foot deep out in the woods pasture there was no way we could leave the cows out there to calve. Even if a straw bed was provided there was still the danger that a cow could seek a private calving spot and dump the poor baby in the snow. So, the cows are all in the big corral with a good straw bed but, with the snow beginning to melt and with the busy bowels of 35 cows, the area around the bale feeders is rapidly turning to mud and muck. Outside the corral there is still enough snow to endanger a small calf trying to walk through it. So, we have a dilemma. Inside is bad. Outside is bad. What to do? I guess, like all things, this mess will eventually pass and, believe it or not, there will be green grass.