We raise beef cattle. I've been saying for years that small live calves are better than big dead ones any day. Big dead ones are hard to sell and they attract predators. By the way, our worst predator on newborn calves are the black headed buzzards. They will attack a live new calf in preference to a dead one. The red headed turkey buzzard isn't as bad.
Interesting about the buzzards. We see a lot of bald eagles and a few golden eagles around here this time of the year but they are after the afterbirths. There was one perched on a post in the corral the other day when we were out there waiting for a cow to clean after giving birth to a calf. They never seem to bother the calves any.
