SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE WESTERNER

Talking to the animals-- the sounds of the new moo

By Julie Carter

It is one of the few places where a full grown man will chose to look and even sound like a fool. If he ever gives it a thought, he doesn’t care. It comes with the job.

Trying to outsmart Mother Nature and in this case, a cow, is a talent honed over generations of cattlemen. One of the jobs that come to all cowmen is fine tuning his own personal replica of the “baby calf cry.”

Wandering around in the pasture alone and bleating like a newborn calf is not something portrayed by the glossy magazines when detailing the cowboy’s life on the western range.

It is almost Spring and new baby calves are hitting the ground (being born) all over cow country. The “hide the baby” game that momma cows play so well presents an annual challenge to the rancher who wants to move, tag or otherwise check the new little one.

After hours of searching trying to find where momma cow stashed her offspring, and they can and do hide them amazingly well, the cowman will resort to imitating the cry of a baby calf.

His intent is to trick the cow into thinking she needs to check the safety of the hidden calf, or at least look in its direction. That gives a clue to its hiding place.

This bleating and blatting noise can go on for a long time, hours in some cases. If civilization were to drop in for a visual at that time, like a candid camera moment, that full grown seemingly sane responsible human being would appear to have none of those characteristics.

Every now and then, the old biddy will actually make a small mistake and give up the location of the new baby. The little one will be curled up tight under a yucca, cedar tree, or a cholla cactus daring not to move as per the instruction given by Mom.

Often none of it works. The cowman is resigned to leave for home with the score Cow 1, Cowboy 0. He will return to the challenge again tomorrow.

Calling cows to the feed ground is another “noise” made by the cowman that defies description. Sounding somewhere along the lines of Tarzan’s call to the jungle animals, a rancher will bellow a tone repeatedly that will echo through the pasture. The intent is to alert the cows in the distance that it is “chow time.”

Each call is unique to the caller. My grandfather’s cow call was much different than my father’s. The many I have heard over my lifetime have sounds of their own and the source could be identified sight unseen.

Standard equipment to replace the vocal chords has been the honking of the pickup horn until it is worn out. Then they return to the “beller.”

More modern ranching techniques have brought in the use of the air horn or the siren to alert the cattle. There is nothing more disconcerting than to be in what you think is the middle of nowhere, tuning into nature’s sounds on a cool crisp morning, and then be blasted with what sounds like a semi truck on approach or the cops in hot pursuit, siren blaring.

Cattle seem to adapt to any and all methods used to “call to chow”, as long as they are fed when they get there. Now that I think about it, that same concept works for the cowboys too.

Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net

© Julie Carter 2005

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