He Left A Calling Card

The harrow is a funny piece of equipment that looks like a bunch of 3-D metal puzzle pieces that are knitted together to form a square with points of metal ‘teeth’ dangling on the down side of the square. The whole thing has a chain on one side that can be used to hook onto the ball of the Gator and then dragged around the field. The points tear up the moss and smooth the mole mounds, gopher holes, cow and elk poop piles. It is the large acreage sized aerating like many people do for their lawns. It is a heavy piece of equipment and it had to be hauled up the road to this field the day before on the front loader of the tractor.

The big herd of roaming elk were in the far, far field when we drove up the road the next day to work on harrowing the turf. The herd scattered when they heard us roar into the field. Some went this way, some went that. One dropped an antler in the melee.

I found the single antler in the middle of the field as Mike was dragging the harrow around and around. The brightness of the connecting end proved that it had just fallen off the bull elk. Elk do lose their horns in the early spring and start to re-grow a new set immediately, like a youngster losing a baby tooth so the permanent one can fill in the spot only for elk it a yearly recurrence. Each side usually falls off about the same time but occasionally one can spot a bull elk or buck deer with only one horn still in place.

Even with the shedding of the horns each year, it is not so easy to find one that has been dropped. Mice along with other gnawing creatures love to nibble them, coyotes enjoy chewing them. This antler is the first one that I have come across in all the years on the farm.

The antler tells a story. This elk would be considered a young spike, a single long horn rather than the big showy ones in the sets that a branch bull would exhibit in his later years. The growth that is shorter is called an eye guard, a small point that assists with holding branches while going through brush and small trees. It also is there to protect when jousting with the antlers on other bulls.

This eye guard is snubbed off at the end, it was probably damaged last year when this set of antlers were growing, the soft point may have been marred when the elk was running in the forest or if bugs attacked the tender growth.

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