Local rancher saves calf amid arctic blast conditions

LOMA, Colo. (KREX) — Weather, for a rancher like Brady Pearson, is everything; it can make or break their livelihood.

Now, he and other ranchers across the country are finally making it out of the toughest challenge this season – an arctic blast.

MCCA President Brady Pearson takes care of several hundred head of cattle in Loma.

What made this freeze so dangerous was the timing, perfectly aligned with his calving season.

At last report, he had 11 new babies. Now, he has 14.

He tells WesternSlopeNow, “everything was great, no problems,” until Wednesday morning, when the temperature dropped to 2 degrees.

“I saw some cows kind of arguing about a calf, so I drove over there, well there’s a new calf on the ground,” he recalls. “The mother that had the calf this morning was trying to claim the calf that was born yesterday.”

He tells me the calf’s ears were frozen icicles in the morning, so Pearson took the newborn baby to his truck and put him on the floorboard, cranking the heater to warm him up.

He then fed him and put “orphan-no-more” on him to hopefully help reconnect the young and his mom.

While the baby is certainly not out of the woods yet, thanks to Pearson, hope is growing stronger.

He predicts within the next week; he should be left with about 25 babies.

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