The saga of the Loynings’ Prudence 9035

The Loyning family knows their cattle. All 750 or so head of them. So, when a cow named “Prudence 9035” disappeared off the ranch’s winter range last fall between Warren and Bridger, it didn’t go unnoticed.

“The last time I saw her was sometime around Thanksgiving ,” explained fourth generation rancher Ben Loyning. “She had just vanished without a trace. I spent the better part of a day hunting for her on a couple of different occasions.

“The winter range is big country, and there are many different pitfalls that could lead to a cow’s demise. I figured she had met one of those. Could be a sinkhole or soap hole, or she could’ve fallen through the ice. One way or the other, I figured tragedy had befallen her, and with sadness, I had written her off.” So, when Loyning checked on a few strays grazing in a meadow about a half mile from the yard last week, he was shocked to discover 9035 among them. He was even more surprised to find she had a perfectly healthy calf in tow. “Two cows show up out of the hills, one commercial cow and 9035,” Loyning said. “Now the commercial cow is pretty smooth and close to calving. 9035, on the other hand, has had her right front foot sheared off at the hairline, her right shoulder completely caved in, her right ear mostly gone, but following her is a nice, month old, heifer calf.”

Of course, Loyning will never know what really happened out there on the range, but he surmises, based on the nature and condition of the injuries, 9035 was most likely hit by a train some months ago. He thinks her calf was born sometime in March, which would have been around the same time some of the other Loyning cows were starting to calve.

“There is a railroad that runs six or seven miles through that winter country, so all we can guess is that she got on the tracks, was hit by a train months ago and somehow survived it,” he said. “Her wounds are now healed, but had I found her in the state in which she must’ve been, I would have humanely put her out of her misery.

“It brings tears to my eyes to imagine what she must have gone through, but I swell with pride as there is still courage in her eye.”

– Ben Loyning

Her scars are deep, but it appears that she never lost her will to live nor her deeply ingrained maternal instinct.” Loyning said it was nothing short of a miracle that 9035 made it across several dry and rugged miles of terrain, keeping her young calf in perfect health the entire journey.

“We calve around the middle of March, and the cow went missing around Thanksgiving,” explained Loyning. “Her wounds are all healed up, so it must have happened a while back. She definitely calved after all that happened.”

Loyning said he never would have expected any cow to survive such a rugged journey.

“She would’ve had to have had her calf some six to eight miles from home,” he said. “Her first obstacle would’ve been getting her calf up a 500-foot tall, nearly solid sandstone ridge. It would’ve been a long, dry, tough go for a cow with three legs and a nub. It probably took her a few waterless days to accomplish. From there on, she must’ve worked her way down the creek a little bit at a time until she made it home.”

Loyning compared 9035’s saga to the character Hugh Glass in the movie “The Revenant,” who after a Grizzly attack survived a long journey back to camp.

“It brings tears to my eyes to imagine what she must have gone through, but I swell with pride as there is still courage in her eye,” he said.

Prudence 9035 was one of Loyning’s favorites long before the accident --and with good reason.

“We have our favorites, for sure,” Loyning said. “We know them all fairly well. We’re with those cows every day. It sounds like a lot to remember, but it’s kind of like a community. You get to know names and faces.”

Loyning said 9035 stands out because of her near perfect conformation to the family’s breeding standard.

“She’s physically special in many ways,” explained Loyning. “She’s my ideal of what I want a cow to be in the breeding program. Genetically, she’s pretty special, too. Her genetic base is out of (Larry Leonhardt’s) Shoshone Angus in Cowley.

“In my opinion, Larry Leonhardt was probably the greatest breeder in the history of domestic livestock. This cow has several of the greatest cows out of the Shoshone Angus in her pedigree, which makes her very special genetically.”

Loyning explained that his goal is to breed cows that function optimally in the dry, rugged environment typical of the high desert. He said Prudence 9035’s ordeal is a testament to that standard.

“I’ve seen many other critters give up under much less challenging circumstances than she must’ve gone through,” Loyning explained. “Her courage and will to live is amazing. Fire for life isn’t marketable nor can it be measured, it’s either there or it’s not. This cow has it in spades. She’ll never again be the beauty queen she once was, but if there ever was a cow worthy of flushing it would be her. This part of her story will never be forgotten around here, and I’ll always love her for it.”

Loyning said he plans to keep 9035 close to home.

“Hopefully she can adapt to this new life,” said Loyning. “She’s a good mother, and she loves being a mother, so if she can adapt, we will let her be a mother. That’s what they’re born to do, and that is when they’re the happiest. So, if she can physically do that, we’ll let her do it.”

To welcome Prudence home, Loyning treated her to a bucket of Muggli grain pellets and a bale of alfalfa.

“She will get the best treatment I can provide for the rest of her life, never getting too far from the house ever again, Loyning said. “She damn sure earned it.”

Published April 25, 2024