Dec 17, 2006 - 04:07:10 CST
FARGO (AP) - Lynn Rustad's quilting buddies have seen less of her over the past year.The hip former paralegal has embraced a sartorial challenge that harkens back to her farm girl roots. Her goal was still lending warmth - this time, not to city aesthetes but to newborn cattle.
Last winter, Rustad crafted a protective head covering for calves, which she whimsically dubbed the Bovine Bonnet. Newborn calves often suffer frostbite to their ears, a common source of aggravation and financial loss to farmers. So Rustad drew on her long experience at the sewing machine, to a snug and vibrant effect.
Rustad's brother, Darrel "Duffy" Carlson, had prodded her to attempt a textile solution to the frostbite problem for some time.
"That's a big deal," Rustad said. "It makes a huge difference in the sales ring."
Wet newborn calves are especially vulnerable to frostbite, and the damage can drive down their price by as much as 20 cents per pound, she said.
Carlson, who raises commercial black Angus cattle on the Warwick family farm, had tried donning skullcaps on newborns. But their moms, he said, dislike foreign objects on the calves and lick them off of their babies' heads.
Rustad wasn't sure her quilting credentials translated to the task. "He was really insistent, so I said, 'OK, I'll come up with something,' " she recalled.
Last January, Rustad traveled to Warwick and took measurements on a baby calf her brother had wrestled to the ground. Back in Fargo, she designed a weather- and moisture-resistant fleece covering that securely attached with Velcro at the back of the head.
She mailed her brother the sample, and he responded with a list of peeves: too long snout, eye openings that didn't quite fit and a Velcro strap that was no match for the cows' supple tongues. Rustad went back to work.
"We kept on experimenting until we came up with a design that works just right," Carlson said. By March, they had a snugly fitting cap, with closures secured under loops in the back.
Rustad sewed some 400 bonnets, and this winter she's pitching them to area farmers at $20 for a machine-washable bonnet.
Greg Lardy, a beef cattle specialist at the North Dakota State University Extension Service, said most farmers address the frostbite risk by housing newborns indoors or delaying calving until March and April.
But for smaller-scale operations at which those approaches are not an option, the contraptions could work. It pays to invest in newborns' comfort, Lardy said, citing research the service did a few years back on Woolover, a calf body blanket that seemed to boost cattle growth.
"There's merit in using something like that to protect the animals from the environment," Lardy said of the Bovine Bonnet.
Rustad is optimistic about her invention, which has a patent pending. She recently unveiled it at the North Star cattle show in Valley City, and farmers seemed intrigued.
She sold about a dozen of the bright-colored bonnets in purple-gold, red-gold and other colored combinations meant to appeal to sports fans and lovers of cheery hues.
"You can even take Angus cattle," Carlson joked about the green-yellow model, "and turn them into John Deere."
lrustad@cableone.net wrote on Dec 29, 2006 11:25 PM:
shenron@wiktel.com wrote on Dec 18, 2006 12:54 PM:
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