Extra Spicy Calf
- May 27, 2025
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- Jan Swan Wood
Posted in: Featured, Ranch Life
When I finished high school, I sold my cows and left home, as had my older siblings. I sure missed having my cows but that was how it had to be. When I got engaged and my soon to be husband and I had a ranch job on the agenda, I bought some little dairy cross heifers with the purpose of making cows from this beginning. It worked as I’m still running cows descended from two of those heifers.
That summer I leased a Beefmaster bull from a good friend of mine and ran him at my folks for the duration of breeding season. All of my little heifers bred right on time and I was in business.
This bull I leased hadn’t been turned out at the friend’s place due to his nasty disposition, which is unusual for the breed, but he’d thrown back to something mean, that’s for sure. He was a spare bull, but they didn’t want to put his surly disposition into their cows, and I knew that when I took him. I figured that the sweet, quiet nature of my little heifers might counteract that to a certain extent, and mostly it did. On the steer calves. I got one heifer calf that next spring that was a dandy and out of the gentlest of the heifers, a Guernsey/Angus cross I called Frenchie.
Her week-old heifer calf got a mild case of the milk scours after a storm and the rancher we were working for decided to give her a pill to settle her tummy. Frenchie licked his arm and cheek while he
doctored her calf, but when the calf got up, the calf was on the fight! She nearly got him on the ground,
partly because she was intent on doing so and partly because he was laughing so hard. All 70 pounds of
her was boiling hot mad!
She was sure a pretty calf with good conformation, and shiney black with lots of extra ear from the
Brahman in her Beefmaster blood. I was excited to have a calf to keep for a replacement. I figured I’d
work with her and get her settled down and domesticated with time.
At branding time, there were two branding pots going and at least four sets of wrestlers working. The ropers were bringing them in steady and everyone was staying busy. I was proudly branding my calves and running an iron for the ranch too.
When Frenchie’s heifer was dragged out, protesting loudly in her deep Brahman voice, Frenchie followed her and nuzzled the ground crew while I branded her calf and she got her shots. I remember how nice her slick hide branded. As I turned away to go back to the pot, she was done and the wrestlers let her go while getting to their feet. That’s when things went south!
The calf was absolutely insulted and on fire mad over the whole deal, and boy, did she ever let us know! With her deep beller as a warning, she went through the ground crews, rolling calf wrestlers and others in her wake, both branding pots got upset and she even butted the legs of a horse that was going by. It was mayhem! Before she quit she had the crew treed on the panels and in the back of pickups before
Frenchie got her attention and led her away.
Laughter and teasing commenced as everyone got to thinking about what had happened and that we’d all been attacked and treed by a calf that was less than two months old. No one was hurt and no one was mad, but it took a while to put everything back to normal and commence with the branding.
In the years since, I’ve never seen another calf that size do what she did that day. Small but mighty, she didn’t take insult well! Furthermore, she never did. She made a great cow, but she was a bit spicy.
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Posted in: Featured, Ranch Life
About Jan Swan Wood
Jan was raised on a ranch in far western South Dakota. She grew up horseback working all descriptions of cattle, plus sheep and horses. After leaving home she pursued a post-graduate study of cowboying and dayworking in Nebraska, New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota....