Calving season is a round-the-clock job for mother-daughter duo
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KREMMLING, Colo. — At 10 p.m., Caitlyn Taussig trudged through the darkness toward her Chevrolet Blazer. The car groaned to life as Taussig maneuvered through the pasture, shining a flood light outside the car window to search for cows in distress.
Calving season is one of the most stressful times of year for Colorado ranchers like Taussig. Cows give birth with little warning and ranchers must vaccinate, tag and care for newborns. When births go awry, ranchers must act fast to save calves.
Beginning in April and lasting through June, Taussig and her mom, Vicki Taussig, alternate checking their 140 mother cows and calves throughout the night at 7 p.m., 10 p.m., 2 a.m and 6 a.m. In mid-April, roughly half of the heavies had given birth, most without issue.
“From an economic standpoint, every calf is a big percentage of our bottom line,” said Caitlyn Taussig.
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Caitlyn Taussig often wears waterproof rain pants over her pajamas in case she has to help with a late-night delivery. The two leave notes for one another in their ranch truck as a way to document problems throughout the night.
“All that takes so much time, and then you can't go back to sleep,” said Vicki Taussig, who turned 77 in April.
According to the 2022 Census of Agriculture, just eight percent of farms in the U.S. are run entirely by women. Women make up 36% of the country’s total producers.
“I think a lot of women are exceptional at calving because we can empathize with cows who are going through labor and then getting these little babies up and going,” said Caitlyn Taussig.
Vicki Taussig was a vegetarian until she tried cattle ranching. While earning her teaching degree at Western State University, she joined a local rancher on an all day cattle round up and caught the bug.
She moved to Kremmling, Colorado for a teaching job in 1972. She rented a room on a local ranch, started helping to raise cattle and later ended up marrying the owner, Jim Taussig.
In 2000, the family moved to their current ranch near the Wolford Mountain Reservoir. Jim Taussig died in 2019. Today, Vicki, 77, and Caitlyn Taussig, 39, run the ranch. Caitlyn Taussig’s sister, Cameron, also helps the pair.
“That parent child relationship sort of turned into a roommate relationship. Now we have houses right next door to one another, and we've been in business together for a long time, we work together side by side every day. We're best friends. She's my person,” said Caitlyn Taussig, of living and working with her mother.
The two eat dinner together every night.
The spring was mild, but when temperatures plunge, the Taussigs often resort to warming calves with space heaters and blankets in a shed.
This year, they bought a shotgun to shoot rubber bullets if they encounter wolves, and they’ve worked with Colorado Parks and Wildlife to put up flagging and electric fences to hopefully deter wolves from entering the calving pasture.
Although the Taussigs have not had any direct encounters with wolves at their ranch north of Kremmling, wolves killed nine cattle owned by Grand County ranchers in 2024.
“We have spent a lot of time trying to prepare and learn about wolves, which in and of itself is frustrating, because probably the main thing that ranchers don't have any extra of is time,” said Caitlyn Taussig.
During calving season, the line between life and death is razor-thin.
“I have no memory of not knowing what reproduction was. And you see death from a young age,” said Caitlyn Taussig.
Although most cows give birth without assistance, ranchers must occasionally help a cow deliver her calf. In April, the pair noticed a cow struggling to give birth. They rushed her to a chute and used pullers to help extract the calf.
By the time they delivered the calf, it was dead. The calf was wrapped in the umbilical cord, preventing its mother from giving birth — an extremely rare circumstance.
Caitylin Taussig said that over the years she’s learned “to accept” when calves don’t survive, “but this one stings pretty hard.”
The same pregnant cow had appeared in good health hours earlier during Vicki Taussig’s first check of the morning.
The Taussigs plan to move their cows to their summer pasture by mid-June.
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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