Chapter Ten
S leet stung his face.
Billy swiped at it, and trudging through the muddy field, he searched for newborn calves in trouble or mamas in distress while urging them toward the barn. It was pleasant, in the fifties, only this afternoon, but a late-season storm bringing eight to ten inches of snow and temps below zero come morning meant the death of them if they stayed out here.
Thank fuck they had the cows sorted, with the ones due to calve the soonest pastured closest to the maternity barn. Billy pushed them inside, counting one hundred and fifty in the large group pen. Three had water bags bulging, two dropped newborns the minute they were out of the weather, and one had a pair of hooves peeking out her backside. No doubt another fifty would calve before his grueling shift was through.
He missed Emily.
It didn’t matter Billy saw her just a few hours before. That felt like forever ago. She and Arien came by with supper for him, his brother, and the boys. A hale and hearty beef stew, fresh-baked biscuits straight from the oven, thermoses of strong black coffee, and a blueberry pie. Just seeing her warmed his insides.
“I had to come kiss this handsome face,” she squealed, jumping into his arms. She didn’t care that he was dirty and reeking of cow. Emily clung to him, peppering kisses all over his windburned cheeks, before scrambling off him to see his brother.
She squeezed Jake, holding him tight while his hands skimmed up and down her back. If they exchanged words, Billy didn’t hear them, but then they were all too tired for talking.
Huddled together, they sat on hay bales, scarfing down their dinner. The girls sat with them, Emily between him and Jake, and Arien between Tanner and Kellan, wide-eyed with surprise they could consume that much food so quickly.
Her eyes flitting around the barn, Arien wrinkled up her nose. “The horse stalls smell better. It stinks in here.”
Billy couldn’t disagree. Cowshit . Not that horseshit smelled like roses. But along with the scent of sweet oats and hay, it hit different, he supposed. Maybe he was inclined to it, but like Arien, he was more at home with the horses.
“It’s a calving barn, baby cakes.” Kellan grabbed Arien’s face, and kissing her, he chuckled. “What’d you expect?”
“Baby cows are so cute and—”
And?
But Tanner cut her off, taking her from his brother and planting a kiss of his own on her lips.
Truth be told, that wasn’t the only source of the stench in here. No amount of antiseptic that could wash away the stink of piss and shit, sour milk, and bloody afterbirth.
Arien’s head shot up. “Wait, don’t they have their babies outside?”
“Most of the time.” Tanner’s fingers caressed her cheek. “Sometimes, like when the weather’s bad or if a mama is havin’ a hard time, we have to bring ‘em in.”
“Yeah, and it looks like tonight is gonna be one of those nights.” Kellan took a long swig from his thermos. “We’ve got a cold front comin’ through.”
“You can’t fit all the mama cows and their babies in here.”
“Don’t have to, girly.” He smirked with a shake of his head. “Only the ones that are close to calving.”
“But how do you know which ones those are?”
“Easy.” His fingertips traipsing down her thigh, they halted at her knee. Kellan squeezed. “We got a synchronized system here. See, gestation is roughly two hundred and eighty-three days.”
Two hundred seventy-nine to two hundred and ninety-two, but semantics.
“We breed ‘em in groups. The Angus bull gets turned out with the Angus heifers and has fun with them for a couple of weeks, then he spends a couple with the Angus cows. Then the Limousin gets his turn with his girls, then the Simmental, and down the line it goes. So, we know when each group is due to calve and who to keep a closer eye on.”
“Oh.” Her lips pursed, Arien accepted Kellan’s explanation with a shrug. Then her pretty eyes glazed over and she cocked her head. “Wait a minute, what do you mean the heifers and then the cows? Aren’t they the same thing?”
Exchanging a glance with his brother, Billy chortled. City girls .
Tanner’s arm came around her shoulders, drawing Arien closer to his side. “Heifer means she’s a first-time mama, pretty girl. A cow has calved before.”
“The boys are bulls—until their balls get chopped off, anyway.” Emily showed her, making a snipping motion with her fingers. “Then they’re steers.”
The look on Arien’s face. Priceless. She gasped, turning to Kellan. “Why the fuck would you do that?”
“Not all the boys get to play.” He winked at her, sporting his trademark smirk. “The best are for breedin’ and the rest are for eatin’. Testosterone gives the meat a strong flavor—most folks don’t like it, so…”
“I did not need to know that.”
“And yet, you asked.”
Most folks don’t know what it takes to get that nice ribeye steak on their table. Hell, they don’t want to know. The only thing they see is cuts of beef, prettily packaged for their consumption on plastic-wrapped Styrofoam trays at the grocery store.
Kellan followed in behind. Snapping him back to the matter at hand, he pointed at the cow with the hooves protruding from her backside. “How long she been like that?”
“Not sure.”
He thrust his hand past the hooves, into the birth canal. “Calf’s alive. Tongue’s wigglin’. Let’s give her another fifteen minutes. Might have to pull it.”
“Yeah, all right.”
“C’mon, get these girls into another pen,” Kellan ordered, lifting his chin toward the three with bulging bags. “Then come back here and check on her. I gotta get these new ones up and sucking. They’re cold.”
Billy shooed the laboring mamas into individual calving pens. Cows prefer to be alone when calving, and the set-up gave them a sense of privacy while allowing him access should he need to intervene.
After settling them in, he returned to check on the progress of the heifer. Nothing had changed. The pair of hooves hadn’t so much as budged. Noting the orange tag on her ear, Billy gave it a scratch. “C’mon, Miss 2079. I’m gonna help you get your baby out.”
Supplies at the ready, he brought her to an open pen and secured her in the headlock gate. Patting her flank, he soothed her. “It’s gonna be okay, Mama. Promise. I ain’t lost a calf yet.”
Now and then, a cow, especially a heifer, needed a little help. Exhausted Mamas. Dystocias. Breech births. Billy had just about seen it all.
Carefully, he wrapped the OB chain around the baby’s hooves and attached the calf puller to it. “Ready when you are, Mama. Lemme see that baby.”
With every contraction, the heifer heaved, and he pulled.
“Thatagirlll, push.”
Billy looked up. In a fountain of bloody fluid, forearms and a muzzle with a wiggling pink tongue appeared.
“Let’s get her done.” Jubilant, he whooped. It was a tight squeeze, but the calf was presenting in the proper position. “Do it again.”
At the next contraction, gripping the cold metal handles, Billy exerted steady pressure. Once the head was born, the rest of the calf needed to come out quickly or risk taking amniotic fluid into its lungs.
Mama lost the strength to make that final push. He let go of the puller, yanking the calf out by its forearms the rest of the way himself. Not moving, the baby just laid there.
“Oh, no you don’t.” Tearing away what remained of the membrane, Billy nudged the calf. “C’mon little buddy.”
A rush of fluid exited the newborn’s mouth, but otherwise, it remained still.
Vigorously, he rubbed the baby’s back and moved its legs to stimulate him. Then, with time in slow motion, after what seemed like an eternity, the calf took a feeble breath.
Then another.
And another.
And another.
“Thank fuck.” Billy got up off his haunches and went over to the heifer, who at last could rightfully be called a cow. He released her from the headlock. “Told ya, I ain’t lost one yet. You got yourself a little bull.”
“You done good, Billy.” Kellan leaned over the pen, his arms dangling inside. “Now, get him suckin’. Two more heifers dropped calves while you were wrenchin’ out this one.”
But the little guy wouldn’t suck and his mother wanted nothing to do with him.
Cows typically lick their calves clean, get them to stand, and offer them an udder. A newborn calf must feed within an hour of its birth. Sooner is even better. Its ability to absorb antibodies from colostrum, the mother’s first milk, rapidly diminishes in the first day of life.
“What’s the matter, 2079? Don’t you like him?”
She replied with a throaty moo.
“C’mon now, you gotta feed your baby.”
In the end, he did the mothering for her. Billy milked the precious colostrum from the dam’s udder and fed it to her calf through an esophageal tube. Next, he dried the shivering baby off as best he could and placed him in a warmer.
“Don’t you worry none, little fella. She’ll come ‘round.” Looking down at his big brown eyes, he rubbed the newborn’s head. “And I’ll be by to see how you’re doin’ in a little bit.”
Three hours and ten new calves later, with the storm raging outside, Billy sat on the straw-covered floor of the orphan pen with the sixty-pound bull’s head on his lap, coaxing him to feed from a bottle. His mother still didn’t want him. “I’m sorry, buddy.”
“She knows.”
He glanced up to see Kellan.
“His mama knows. Birth weight should be eighty pounds. Bull’s too small to make it.”
“So small I had to yank him out of her, right? He’s gonna be just fine.” Billy smiled down at the calf. “I’m gonna take him home to Em. She’s always wanted a bottle baby to raise.”
“He makes it through the night, you can have him.” Kellan squeezed his shoulder. “When you’re finished feedin’ him, I need you.”
By the time morning came, another forty-six calves were born. That made fifty-nine total, including Bodhi, during their time inside the barn. Yeah, he’d already picked out a name for the little guy. Billy didn’t know what the word meant, but he liked it.
He opened the gate to Bodhi’s pen, where he slept on a warm bed of straw. But as Billy came closer, he already knew. The calf was too still.
I ain’t never lost one.
“C’mon, open your eyes for me, buddy,” he whispered in vain, his fingers brushing over the baby’s head. “I’m taking you to Em. She’s gonna love you and she’ll be such a good mama.”
But Bodhi’s eyes never opened.
“I wanted to be wrong this time.” Kellen stood over him. “Sorry, Billy.”
I ain’t never lost one.
“Get cleaned up and go home. I’ll see to the calf.”
“His name is Bodhi.”
Something warm and wet trickled from his eye. What the fuck? He wasn’t crying over the death of a baby bull, was he?
I ain’t never lost one.
“Go on, now, and take tonight off.” Kellan crouched down on his haunches in front of him. “Spend some time with Emily. Wish her a happy birthday and love on her while you still can.”