Under the Wire

Every cowman who has ever calved out a bunch of cows knows the stages an old mama cow goes through leading up to the big day.

Signs begin early with “looking calvy” to “springing up," “making a bag.” The list and descriptions goes on and on.

Since I tend to give cows credit for being smarter than most humans there is no doubt in my mind that they have developed a list of the things us cowboys do as calving rolls around, too. I admit to being more than a little surprised, after thinking about it, of our own predictability.

We, of course, begin our own nature dictated routine by moving the herd...