By Tyler Trieglaff

Notes from the Chief

Notes from the Farm…Well, it’s been an exciting week with the numbers at 26 as of press time.  25 cows and 26 calves even after the loss of the twin last week. There is another issue this week though.  

There was a cow that showed up with a small heifer calf on Wednesday morning. She had gotten out and was down by the lake for a day and came back with a calf. This heifer calf was smaller than most for a single birth. Wednesday evening we discovered that there was an extra calf that didn’t have a mama. He was bouncing around and hard to catch, yet there were not any cows calling out for him.  

We loaded him up on the Ranger and went looking for some possible suspects, but could not find any mama cows looking for a calf. Cow 19-8, who I now assumed had a set of twins and abandoned one, was running away from us as fast as we could try to keep up with her and her other calf.  

Looks like we have a bottle calf now. We took him to the milk room and he drank down a quart of milk and is doing well so far. Normally calves would get 2 quarts of milk morning and evening but this guy is quite small, thus the thinking he is a twin, so 1 quart should be sufficient.  

We also had a calf that wasn’t acting quite right for being a 3-day old calf. He and mama had moved from their original calving area to up close by the waterer but he hadn’t moved from the area since.  

At first we thought he was being extra sneaky just hiding amongst some machinery, but I could tell something was off. This cow, #389 is something else when it comes to protecting her baby.  She is as ornery as an old wet hen and was making it very difficult to get her calf away from her.  She even chased the DA for a couple steps. I had the DA drive the pickup between mama and the calf. The DA distracted the mama and I was able to grab the calf and put him in the back end of the pickup.  

We high tailed it out of there with mama confused as to where her offspring went. She was left in the pasture while we took the baby to the milk room. I mixed up a bottle of milk replacer and he drank it down like nobody’s business. This tells me that for some reason he wasn’t getting milk from his mama. The next morning dad and I fed silage in the feed bunk and I was able to get ol mama cow into the corral and into the headgate chute.  

There are three main reasons that the baby wasn’t drinking… 1. Mama has no milk but her udder looked in good shape. 2. Mama has mastitis and very low quality milk, almost like milky water with no nutrients. 3. Mama has plugged teat ends which won’t allow any milk to pass through the sphincter muscle at the end of the teat. Most cows form a keratin plug that seals off the teat canal to prevent the entry of mastitis-causing pathogens. I started squeezing and trying to milk her and sure enough the teat ends were plugged. I really had to work to get all four quarters open and even the milk stream was very small. 

We helped the calf find the milk dispensaries and it took a while but he did get some of mama’s milk in his gizzard. It took about 3 days of putting mama in the chute and giving him some bottle milk and he finally started to latch on on his own. 

We will keep her in for a couple more days to make sure he is fully capable of nursing and running with mama and the rest of the cows. All part of life on a beef farm. 

Have a nice week!

Friday, April 19

1:38 p.m. Citation issued to student caught with a vape pen.

7:27 p.m. Female calling to report that she was threatened by another female over money possibly owed to a male party. Officer talked with the complainant about restraining order options.

8:44 p.m. Assist with a business that had a backed-up sewer line.

8:49 p.m. Assist with a medical.

Saturday, April 20

4:47 p.m. Complaint of an orange, lifted F-350 type pickup that was tearing around on River Drive North by the ballfields. Unable to locate.

11:19 p.m. Assist with a traffic stop.

Monday, April 22

5 a.m. Report of a burglary at an apartment building with male and female not getting along.  After an investigation it was determined that the male had been staying at the apartment off and on for some time and was kicked out in the early morning hours. When he tried to re-enter the apartment, the female called it in as a burglary. Parties were separated and male was given a ride to DL where he was planning on catching the train to Minneapolis.

Tuesday, April 23

10:09 a.m. Report of a dog running loose. Dog owner was outside with the dog and he was going to put the dog inside the house.

11:10 a.m. Male calling with questions about another male and ongoing problems. Issues appear to be civil in nature.

12:58 p.m. Assist with a background report for a neighboring jurisdiction.

1:03 p.m. Assist with a background report for an FBI background investigation.

1:56 p.m. Business asking for help in trespassing a male and female.

2:21 p.m. Dog at large on Balsam Ave. Coon hound type dog taken to Lucky Dog in DL.

3:35 p.m. Report of missing medication. Investigation ongoing.

Wednesday, April 24

3:11 p.m. Report of a dirt bike riding on the sidewalk on Lake St S. Officer found a young male and advised that that type of motorcycle was not allowed on the public sidewalk or roadway.  Private property is ok.

3:37 p.m. Report from the day before that a younger adult male was hanging around the high school with juvenile kids. Male was issued a trespass order from the school district.

Thursday, April 25

4:14 p.m. Assist with two damsels in distress with a dead battery in the high school parking lot.

4:24 p.m. Female reporting being harassed on social media. Advice given on a restraining order and blocking on social media platforms.

6:40 p.m. Complaint of same motorcycle dirt bike riding on the sidewalk again. Officer did not see the violation take place.