The Day Everything Went Wrong — A True Wisconsin Farm Story

Growing up on a Wisconsin farm taught me that some days go smooth… and some days test everything you have. This Wisconsin farm story is one of the days where everything happened at once.

When I was younger, I remember winters being brutally cold — below-zero cold for weeks. A couple weeks before Christmas, it was so cold that our water pipes froze, and a few of the drinking cups for the cows cracked wide open, spraying water all down the feed alley.

We had to hurry and shut the water off, clean out everything that was flooding, figure out why the line froze, and replace the broken cups that were still spraying. And while dealing with all that, barn chores still had to be done. On a farm, the animals don’t wait just because you’re having a bad day.

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I went to start the barn cleaner so the gutters would be cleared before bedding the cows with fresh straw. A few minutes in, the chain broke — probably from something frozen and too much stress on it. The barn cleaner breaking wasn’t as big of a deal as the water line, but it added to the chaos of the day.

Later that afternoon, once the water was fixed and new cups were in place, we started working on the barn cleaner chain. We cleared most of the chain, found the break, pulled out the old links, and started adding new ones. My dad was still working on the chain while I started feeding the cows and getting the milkers ready — it was already close to 4 p.m.

Some cows were close to giving birth, which was normal.What wasn’t normal was seeing a calf’s back hooves coming out first. That means the calf is backward — and if you don’t get it out fast, the calf will drown.

There’s no time to turn it. No time to wait for help. You get who you can, and you act.

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I yelled down the barn for my dad. He ran up, and we grabbed twine and looped it around each tiny ankle. Then we pulled with everything we had. Seconds matter in moments like this. Fortunately, the calf came out alive and healthy. We brought her around to her mother and let nature take over.

That’s farm life.Hard decisions, quick thinking, and never enough time — but always enough heart to get through it.

And this Wisconsin farm story is one of the reasons I built CluckDoc.

Sometimes you don’t have time to scroll the internet searching for answers. Sometimes you need something that gives you information fast — right when the problem happens. CluckDoc was built from that same urgency and instinct that comes from years on the farm:help the animal first, figure everything else out later.

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It was a long day — like many days on the farm — but we got through it just like we always did.

Writer: Tom Mante — backyard chicken keeper & co-founder of CluckDoc ❤️🐔

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