09/04/2026
0084 is a walking miracle.
So is any cow here whose eartag begins in 00.
It means they were born in the spring of 2020.
This cow’s story actually begins in 2019.
In 2019, her mama had her a** kicked all year long.
First, her mama survived the most horrendous winter in recent memory. Then calving season began, the same week as the event known as the March 2019 Bomb Cyclone.
We ran ragged for weeks, that spring. Every heifer calf was born in the barn. Every cow and calf got extra TLC and feed. The humans here, aged in 2019.
It wouldn’t stop raining that summer. The day we turned out bulls, a monsoon storm came in and flooded things. Again. Still, we had to go on. The summer was terribly difficult. The grass was what we ranchers call “washy.” When fall came, the calves we weaned were disappointingly light and prone to being sick.
Then came time to preg the cows. One by one they came through, the disappointment was no more prevalent than on the face of our sleeved up Veterinarian and the rest of us running the alley and paperwork.
By the grace of God, this cow you see was in Utero.
The cows went to winter cornstalks, and 2020 began.
Who knew what our whipped butts would soon face.
Then Co*** and shut down and calving season. A perfect storm of hard, unlike anything we had ever seen. People screamed at us across the plains, accusing us of not following the rules and not doing what was necessary to keep people safe. Then they started screaming about food shortages and demanding that “we” do something about it.
We couldn’t win.
So we just kept doing what we always do. We stayed quiet and we worked.
We worked and we worked and we worked. With a hand tied behind our backs because we weren’t supposed to call the vet, or go in a store to get our medicines, or get cattle shipped.
Meanwhile the hungry public stood by, wanting farmers and ranchers to take care of business.
By the grace of God, this cow you see, was a calf born that spring. Born into the most difficult times for business since World War II. Not only that, she has now bore five of her own calves, to help care for mankind.
And no one cared.
I can’t be mad at the public. They had no idea how hard it was to exist. They were trying to swim too.
The difference was, I have never railed on them, for what they did or rather don’t do.
They didn’t see us.
Not the su***de. The bankruptcies. The divorce. The piles of dead calves after blizzard and flood. The hogs that got euthanized by the truck load and the milk poured down the drain because we farmers got told our product wasn’t “allowed” to go anywhere.
Where were you when we were suffering? Where were you?
That’s right. You didn’t know.
Because you chose not to.
And we didn’t want you to.
Modern America has always been fat and happy and well fed. You have not very often ever had to stop and consider that you might not get a meal. That’s the way it’s supposed to be in 2026.
But now you do know.
And hopefully it will help you decide that we are not the villain. Your food producers are not the villain.
If we were, 0084 wouldn’t be raising her own calf today, with our help. So that she can feed you, after you never cared about her all those years ago.
