A Reminder For Calving Season
It’s that time of year again, possibly the hardest and yet most rewarding time of the year: calving season. Not only is calving season physically exhausting, but often it quickly becomes emotionally tiring. When calving starts, we hope and pray that we get a zero percent death loss, but we are quickly reminded that the number is calculated for a reason, and as we mourn our losses, and celebrate our successes it’s important to remember a few things.
1. Some Things are Out of Your Control
You might be calving out first calf heifers, or maybe your eight-year-old champ. Either way, you never know what’s going to happen. When calving starts, there are a million things that could go wrong, from backward calves to prolapses, sometimes you just can’t change the outcome of this situation. It’s important not to dwell on the things you can’t change or the accidents you have. Especially when just starting out, it’s important to take the lessons you learn and use them to help the next time.
2. Heifers are NEVER Easy
There’s a reason there’s not many people will volunteer to calve out first calf heifers. First calf heifers are hard, and they have a knack for teaching you about loss. When my fiancé and I bought our first twenty heifers together, I never imagined that so many things could go wrong. It’s tested our relationship and started more than one fight. But, they’ve also helped us overcome hardship and loss together, and ultimately, we decided together that it is God’s way of showing us how to withstand hardship together.
3. If It was Easy, Everyone Would do It
This is something my fiancé has started telling me every time something goes wrong, and while I don’t love hearing those words, they do hold a lot of truth. Raising cattle isn’t for everyone. It takes strength, it takes investment, and it takes time. Not everyone can handle working 7 days a week, putting in long hours, or often working through the night. Be proud that you took the steps to be where you are because no, not everyone can do it.
4. It Will be Worth It
It might be hard now, you might be hurting, and you may be asking why you ever decided to raise cattle, but I promise, soon you will remember why you are doing what you are doing. Some years will be harder than others, but ultimately God chose this direction for you and your work won’t go unnoticed.
“And let us not be weary in doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not”
Galatians 6:9
Having livestock is hard, and nothing can prepare you for the hard times. But eventually, it will all be worth it. That may mean seeing a heifer calf you saved mature to be a great producer, or it may mean seeing a heifer that lost her first calf, produce your next high seller for your sale the next year. Either way, it’s important to remember why you choose to raise livestock and to fall back on that when things are tough.
