If you know my brother you can probably tell it’s been quite a few years since this picture has been taken and believe it or not, this cow still resides on the .7 Ranch. Better yet, she is still producing calves! The average beef cow lives to be between about 9-11 years. We’ll just say this cow is definitely above that average.
Quite some time ago, my mom decided to get my brother and I involved with 4-H (hence the reason my brother is leading Chipper in the picture above). My grandfather told my brother and I that we could pick our 4-H heifers out of his herd and if we kept up the project and worked hard we could put the money earned from selling the cows towards our college fund. I LOVED this idea and most everything about showing cattle. My brother, however, would have much rather been playing on the haystack or in the dirt. Although he didn’t much care for 4-H, he had the opportunity to show a very special cow. When sale day arrived the 2nd year he showed, my grandfather was in the stands purchasing her so she would come back to the .7. I still think about how lucky we were to have had a grandfather that not only gave us the animal to begin with but then bought it back so we could keep the cow AND have the money for our college funds. (Can I please be like him when I grow up?)
Chipper (most definitely named after my brother’s favorite baseball player) has become a favorite and very much a part of the .7 family. She is such a kind, gentle old soul. To this day, you can walk up and scratch her with a stick while she’s standing in the middle of the herd out in the pasture. The couple times a year that we have to gather the field she is in, she is always the lead cow and takes the others right into the corrals.
I’m not sure how many more trips to the corral Chipper will have but one thing is for sure, she has earned every right to live out her life on the ranch. My point in telling this story is this: ranchers care about their animals. I understand that this is a special circumstance but so often you read in the news or see on some animal activist website how cattle are inhumanely treated or there’s some misinterpreted picture that largely skews what’s actually happening. There are certainly a few bad eggs in our industry, I won’t deny that, but 99% (and that’s not a scientific number) of the people producing the hamburger or steak that’s sitting on your plate CARE about these animals. They would not last this dang long if we didn’t. Go with me on this.
I’ll leave you with a picture of the giant bull calf Chipper just had two weeks ago. This is when he was fresh out of the oven and only a few minutes old!
Do you guys have animals that tell a story? I would love to hear about them!