By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER
Ohio Correspondent

OXFORD, Ohio — The phone rang at 11 p.m. Neither Bill nor Bev Roe wanted to answer it, but they did.

A neighbor said his daughter had driven by the farm and saw a calf out on the road. The couple, owners of Pedro’s Angus, a cow-calf operation, described how they sprang into action. “We jumped out of bed, ran out and started grabbing some things to get the calf in,” Bill said.

“We were throwing things in the Gator so we could drive down there, and then the Gator wouldn’t start,” Bev added.

“This was so unusual because it always starts,” Bill said. “We put everything in the pickup truck, thought we would get on the road, put the flashers on … people coming would know there was something going on.”

Very quickly the couple realized that people coming from the direction in which the headlights were flashing couldn’t see them – they weren’t wearing reflective clothing.

“So, we’re out here walking at night, the calf is running up and down the road, we’re concerned the calf is going to run in front of the car, he’s going to swerve and hit us, we’re trying to move very slowly so the calf doesn’t get overly excited; it was about a 300-pound calf,” Bill said.

Neighbors came to help and they posted a pickup with flashing lights at either end of the road to warn drivers to slow down, he added. They corralled the calf with a strand of plastic fence, the same kind they use to divide pastures. The calf didn’t know it wasn’t hot.

“We herded the calf back in, but then the problem was, where did he get out?” said Bill.

“As far as we knew, he was the only one out but we weren’t sure about that,” added Bev.

They found the calf slipped out through a section of electric fence with a broken connection. Fortunately, only one animal had escaped.

“Some things that we realized right away; we really were in no way prepared for that emergency,” Bill said. “And there was a very good chance we may not have been at home. So we started putting together an emergency plan.”

Some of the first things they thought of were inexpensive and readily available. They bought flares and reflective clothing – specifically, vests. They obtained some of those large orange, reflective cones. They put everything in a designated location so everyone on the farm knew where to find them.

They made certain that neighbors had their phone number and put a reflective sign with their phone number, including area code, on the gate in front of their house. They put together a list of nearby cattlemen who were willing to respond if called in an emergency.
They gave the cattlemen a copy of that list, which included the Roes’ names. If someone was going to be gone for a couple of days, they would notify the others. Now, when the Roes leave home for a couple of days, they call-forward their home phone to their cell. Even though they’re not at home, they could call people to help.

The Roes learned that in most areas, the local law enforcement does not have people they can call for a farm emergency. Developing such a list might be a good project for the local cattlemen’s association.

“We know that every farm has emergencies and we thought we were prepared, but when it came right down to it we didn’t have an emergency plan in place,” Bev said.