What Can Go Wrong When Tagging A Calf

The air was cool and fresh during the spring day, early in the year.

- Annamarie Harden

I was requested to help my landlord and her dad with a bull calf that was only a few weeks old. The bull calf needed to be banded (as to become a steer) and tagged.

The mother of the calf was known to be quite cantankerous and was especially ornery when her baby is separated from her; however, to begin, we had to get the mother away from her calf. As we did this the mother became agitated and upset, bellowing her frustration.

We got the mother, known as Blonde, on one side of a gate and her baby on the other. My landlord was sprawled out on the calf to hold him down on the ground so he could be worked.