A Day In The Life of a Ranch Hand During Calving Season: Part I – Night Checks

11:50 PM: I groan as I roll over to shut off the alarm on my phone, playing music way too cheery for this tired young lady after only 2 hours of sleep. I rub my tired eyes as I sit up out of my warm bed, exposing my bare arms to the cold air that fills the room from the cracked window. I quickly bear crawl around the room, grabbing the barn clothes I left out just for moments like this. When I’m fully dressed in sweatpants, sweatshirt, Carhart jacket, stocking cap, gloves, and my all-important Muck Boots, I grab my flash light, bracing myself for the cold that awaits, I close my eyes behind my glasses and head outside to the barn next door.

12:00 AM: I walk into the corral to find the heifers all comfortably laying down in the clean straw. Careful to not wake them, I walk around the edge of the corral, checking to see if anyone has started labor. Most night checks, I simply find sleeping heifers, but tonight, I hear grunting coming from inside the barn. As I head inside, I spot a heifer lying on her side with two little feet coming out of her. Since I have seen both front feet and they are coming out pointing up, I know all is good so far. I head back into the house and will check on her in thirty minutes.

12:30 AM: As I am walking up to the barn, I hear a low bawl and I know that she has calved because she must be talking to her baby, it’s a different kind of bawl than normal. I walk in and see the heifer standing over her baby, licking it clean and talking to it. All is in order and Mom is doing her job, so I leave them to be until the next check in an hour and a half.

The night goes on like this for the next 7 hours, someone checking every two hours between my fiancé and I. We have been doing this now for a month and a half, but oddly enough, even though we are tired, there is still nothing more precious than a happy, healthy calf, wobbling over to mom to get its first milk. We love what we do and I’m not sharing a day in the life of a ranch hand to get your sympathy, I just think it is important to share our story and let people understand what happens on farms and ranches, day in and day out. Then all my friends back in the Twin Cities and beyond can see what it means to live on a ranch in McLaughlin, SD.