Familiar sounds, sights and the aroma of range cubes prompted westward movement in the ET Farm & Cattle herd one crisp day in February.
Bovines stomped through a corn stubble pasture north of Deerfield, Kansas. They intercepted a dark pickup truck, where farmer Ervin Ploeger offered up tasty treats.
His grandson, Trevor Ploeger, appeared on foot, holding a bucketful of the alfalfa-based manna.
Among the first in line was a mammoth steer, Norman, a white, 7-year-old Charolais-Angus. His Goliath-like presence made it clear who was in command, towering over much smaller females, all demonstrating an insatiable urge to devour the forage candy.
“They’re like M&M’s to them,” Ervin Ploeger said.
Stretching to nearly 6-feet tall while gently accepting nourishment, Norman snared more than his share of attention in the cluster of beefy creatures.
“He’s just fun,” said Trevor, 19. “We always talk about the funny stuff he does.”
That same day, some 250 miles to the east, Hazel, a mix-breed Red Angus cow near Hope, Kansas, was receiving special treatment from the Mike and Annette Jacobson family.
The cow, with offspring in their cow-calf operation, was photographed while providing a soft leaning spot for one of her best buddies — 18-year-old Colton Jacobson — youngest of the farming family behind firstborn Chance (wife, Emma) and Cami Moon (husband Nathan). (Colton and Hazel are pictured above.)
“It’s special having Hazel out there. She makes choring a lot easier and a lot more fun,” said Colton, a freshman at Fort Hays State University in Hays, with aspirations of being a wood-shop teacher.
Both critters are beloved at their family farms. Each conquered challenges early on.
Born April 6, 2018, Norman — sharing a name with a calf that appeared in the 1991 movie “City Slickers” — had a difficult start.
“His hooves were all messed up, turned backwards,” Ervin Ploeger said.
The calf couldn’t stand, much less walk, and had to be lifted to his feet.
“(Norman) was a mess when he came out,” said Todd Ploeger, Trevor’s dad. The calf was bottle fed. Abe Berg, the Ploegers’ longtime employee, helped out as well.
To aid in Norman’s rehabilitation, splints were fashioned out of tree bark or plastic pipe to straighten his legs, Ervin said, or they were purchased ready-made from a veterinarian.
Norman slowly improved, and as months and years passed, climbed in the Ploeger rankings, while packing on size on a diet of corn stalks in the winter, weeds in the summer or hay if the weather gets bad.
“He likes ear corn, if he’s in the mood,” Ervin said.
This past October, Norman weighed in at 2,795 pounds, nearly twice the weight of a slaughter-ready steer.
“He’s basically had a rough life and now just wants to be part of the family. He comes up to you and just likes to be a friend,” Ervin Ploeger said. “Some people have dogs and cats. We’ve got Norman. I’d doubt whether we’d ever sell him.”
Some of the cows have earned names as well: Hillary (Clinton); Rasputia from the 2007 Eddie Murphy movie, “Norbit”; and Whitey, who has been on the farm longer than Norman.
“We called her (Whitey) and it just stuck,” said Trevor, a freshman at Fort Hays Tech | Northwest in Goodland, majoring in precision agriculture technology. He’s on the farm most every weekend.
“I want to learn stuff in my program and come home and try to implement it into our operation,” he said.
Mike Jacobson was at Farmers and Ranchers Livestock in Salina for a cattle sale in 2018 when a young calf entered the ring alone.
“It was a really nice, healthy calf, probably weighed 80 pounds,” Chance said.
Bidding started high, Mike said, more than $150.
“Nobody wanted her that day,” he said. “They kept lowering it. When it was at 40 dollars, I raised my hand and came home with a bucket calf.”
He gifted the calf to Colton, 12 at the time, to bottle feed.
The Hazel name just sort of happened.
“I just randomly thought of it,” Colton said.
A family video shows Hazel, as a young calf, chasing the siblings in their yard.
“Hazel followed Colton around the house, like it was a race,” his father said.
The price was “incredibly cheap,” Chance said. “Colton raised her into a cow, and she’s had several calves. The running joke is Colton is still working off the 40 dollars.”
Adding the calf was a big deal.
“Hazel’s pretty special,” Mike Jacobson said. “She gets all the perks.”
The red lady was a welcome addition, and she still is.
“I’m glad we picked her up.” Colton said. “My family doesn’t want to get rid of her. She’s a part of us. I hope she’s around forever.”
Colton aims to land a teaching job near home “so I can be part of the farming operation,” he said.
Hazel may not want this released, but in separate predictions, the Jacobson brothers guessed her weight range between 1,200 and 1,500 pounds.
Tim Unruh can be reached at journal@hpj.com.
Confession: Tim Unruh was raised on a hobby farm near Deerfield, complete with livestock, and his family followed a trend similar to the Ploegers and Jacobsons.
“We had a runt pig named Tiny, who ran and ate with the dogs,” he recalled. “Our best sow was Priscilla. Boar hogs over the years included Chester, Big John and Stedry, named after our school superintendent, who was honored to lend his name.”
FACTOID: Old Ben, the largest steer on record, weighed between 4,585 and 4,720 pounds during his life from 1902 to 1910 on a farm near Kokomo, Indiana. He was put down after slipping on ice and breaking a leg. Preserved by a taxidermist, the 6-foot, 5-inch animal is on display in Kokomo. – Source: Farm Journal
