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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 2018 • 1C
THE PROMISE
OF NEW LIFE
KEEPS US GOING
Grace Hunt photos
A curious new calf checks out the camera at Nelson Polled Herefords in the Grays River Valley.
With spring comes calves at Nelson Polled Herefords
By ED HUNT
For The Daily Astorian
F
or the past 25 years I’ve owned in an old house
across the field from my father-in-law, Hank Nel-
son. Each year I’ve had the opportunity to watch
new life amid the green fields of the Grays River Valley.
Here, the Nelsons have raised polled Hereford cattle for
four decades.
It often feels still winter-gripped when the first calf is
born at Nelson Polled Herefords.
The house is 100 years old now, but boasts big windows
looking out over the fields. Often the cows will find a little
shelter against the blackberry bushes to have their calf, but
we keep a keen eye for the bright white of their new faces.
It is best to catch a new calf on their first day of life, for
they stand quickly after they are born so their mothers can
clean them off and warm them up. Within a day, they will
be quick enough that catching them will be tricky without
a rope or shepherd’s hook. Each calf is tagged with a bright
yellow tag and they are given a number: the year of their
birth, and the order of their birth in that year. Thus 1801 is
the first calf of 2018 and so on.
The ear tag is like a pierced ear; the daffodil yellow
makes it easy to determine if a calf has already been tagged
as we walk through the fields.
Their mothers nose close to you while you are tagging
them and giving them a little pro-biotic, but our polled
Herefords are naturally hornless and are renowned for
their gentle nature. Moreover, many of these cows were
4H show heifers in years past. My daughters still know
them and call them by name.
Nature’s trick
It seems the weather gets better as the calves in the field
become more numerous.
In truth, a warm early spring day sends a signal to the
mothers that the time is best to bring new life into the
world.
University of Arkansas researchers found that more
spring calves are born when barometric pressure is high.
Increasing barometric pressure discourages rain and helps
ensure dryer weather. Animals take their cue from these
weather changes to give their offspring a better chance at
life.
Nature’s trick is to be born after the worst storms of
winter, but early enough to grow strong and healthy before
the next winter comes. The earliest-born calves might
come on a dark day, but they may also have much longer
to grow and thrive.
It doesn’t take long before the fields are filled with an
entertaining herd of spry little calves that run with a gen-
tle rocking motion and seem to weigh nothing in the face
of gravity. They run at the slightest excuse and sometimes
Taylor and her new calf at Nelson Polled Herefords. Taylor was the authors’ daughter Lindsay Hunt’s 4H
show cow several years ago.
with no excuse at all. They race each other, they chase each
other, they explore the world, pink little nose to pink little
nose. They climb dirt piles to get a better look or play king
of the mountain. They meet each other hours after birth
and make fast friends.
Calf races are the best to watch, and we often stare cap-
tivated as the story plays out in front of us. One calf will
get another started, another will nudge a socially awkward
friend to join in, soon all of them will be running around
the field, fearless, and in no direction at all.
Nearby an old babysitter cow might keep watch as their
mothers graze a little farther away, finding nutrition in the
sugar-rich spring grass.
Life is a struggle
Spring here is a fickle thing. A cloudless day may be
followed by a bone-chilling dark wind and soaking rain.
Cold darkness following a glorious early spring day can
snuff the feeble light of your hope for outdoor hikes and
garden planning. Resigned, you tell yourself, “It is still
only March,” and this realization makes summer seem so
much further away.
We all have to live through the darkness of winter, and
it is still winter yet.
Even if a day here or there is sunny.
No matter the buds on the trees and the iridescent clover
lighting up the fields, we know well enough that there are
months of wet and mud and struggle stretching out ahead.
The promise of new life keeps us going.
It is why new life is so prominent a symbol of the Easter
season. In high latitudes, where winter is cold and freezing
and sunlight a meager ration, most animals try to tie their
reproduction to the promise of plenty that comes with the
spring. Baby chicks are in the feed stores, new goats and
lambs begin to appear in the fields of neighboring farms.
New nests appear in the trees. Predator and prey, farm ani-
mal and wild — all adjust their evolutionary clocks to
chime in the same season.
They do this not in celebration, but in resignation that
life is not all sunshine, green grass and cloudless skies.
Life is a struggle. It is not as easy as a loping little calf
in the field makes it look.
Yet maybe we can learn a little from the joy they bring
to their first days.
Even in the pouring rain.
You can follow the all the new calf faces at @nelson_
polledherefords on Instagram or at HankNelsonHerefords.
com
‘LIFE IS A STRUGGLE. IT IS NOT AS EASY AS A LOPING LITTLE CALF
IN THE FIELD MAKES IT LOOK. YET MAYBE WE CAN LEARN A
LITTLE FROM THE JOY THEY BRING TO THEIR FIRST DAYS.’