Welcome to part II of our “Who is top cow at Shady Grove Ranch?” series. First we introduced you to Gordita. Now we will introduce you to another cow that we bought alongside Gordita, one of the first group of cattle at Shady Grove Ranch.

Tilly and Gordita on late-winter pasture in 2013.

We call her Tilly. She is solid black–a compact, well-built Black Angus. She and Gordita were the only two older cows kept as breeders from the first group of cows we ever purchased. They were selected using strict criteria for keeping good flesh on eating forage alone (aka no corn!) and their ability to breed in a timely manner. They had mostly uniform udders, a sign that they will not have issues producing milk for their young.

He had no idea how old she was, but Matt kept Tilly because of her ideal body shape and pretty black glossy coat, which indicates a well-functioning endocrine system. He believes she was an older heifer. She was “open,” meaning not yet bred, when we got her in 2010, so in she and Gordita went with our bull, Big John. Nine or ten months later, a calf was born—a pretty, little brown bull calf.

We check the cattle twice daily, and after we confirmed the birth of this calf, the evening check revealed no sign of him. We hadn’t been at Shady Grove Ranch for very long at that point, so we were not accustomed to the habits and threats of predators in our area.

Generally speaking, cows are immune to the smaller predators in our area, like coyotes, bobcats, skunks, etc. Even cougars and wolves, which we have heard stories about from close by neighbors, will not harm an adult cow. But newborn calves are another story.

Still, coyotes, which mostly eat very small animals, berries and insects,  will occasionally attempt to get a newborn calf. But they fear adult cows, because cows are programmed to hate dog-like creatures and will often chase them and try to stomp them. Tilly in particular, showed serious contempt for our dog, Toby. Before Toby got used to being around cows, we had to keep an eye on him near Tilly, because she would charge him. We also keep an eye out for ourselves, though she has never actually done anything threatening. But Tilly’s feisty. She’ll let you know if you’re bothering her. If you’ll forgive the expression, she don’t take no bull!

With Tilly’s personality, and the overseeing protection of the herd, it would seem that a smaller animal like a coyote, would not be a problem for our herd. But this little calf was gone without a trace. We began to wonder about the presence of a larger predator…

We walked the pasture. We walked the fenceline, stopping every 10 feet to listen. Matt made frequent and thorough investigations of the surrounding forested area. Calves sleep a lot, and they like to sleep under shelter, so we tried to train our eyes to scan the leaves at the edge of the woods. Meanwhile, Tilly trotted frantically around the pasture, wild-eyed and worried, mooing for her calf. Her udder was turgid, indicated that the calf had not nursed in some time, if he had ever nursed at all. We began to fear the worst: One of our first calves at SGR, eaten. Carried off by some wild animal. All that time and work for nothing.

A day or so later, Bailey walked down to check on the herd during the routine twice daily check. There was the calf, snuggled up right in the middle of the pasture! Apparently Tilly hadn’t even seen him yet, because she was still off with the rest of the herd. The calf, startled by the appearance of a human, stood up, and Tilly recognized him at once. She ran over, and they were reunited at once. What an answer to our prayers, even our seemingly hopeless prayers!

She never lost that calf again, and raised him up to be a fine little bullock. Now she is raising a second calf, a fat little heifer who looks like a fuzzy black sausage with legs. Tilly carried her during a tough winter in Kentucky, and raised her through a hard drought here in Texas, and yet she’s probably the fattest calf we have! Tilly is a keeper. And a feisty one, too!

Tilly’s second calf–a fat little heifer who is almost as feisty as her mother!