‘Special delivery’: UPS driver delivers calf on a Seymour farm
SEYMOUR, Wis. (WFRV) – With a three-decades-long career, UPS driver Jon Strnad has driven millions of miles to deliver millions of packages across northeast Wisconsin. But his delivery on Monday, April 15 was the most special of all.
Strnad was driving up a hill on Tubbs Road when he saw a heifer in labor, but struggling, in the pasture of KJ Farms, a small dairy operation in Seymour.
“You take a look, you look again and then it’s like wait a minute, something’s not quite right,” Strnad said. “The calf was halfway out, still had the sack over its face. It reminded me of growing up on the farm, looked like she needed some help, and I couldn’t drive by without helping.”
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So, without a package in his hand, Strnad was about to make the biggest delivery of his career, hopping the fence and sprinting into action.
“I took my fingers and broke a hole right close to the mouth. Gently I grabbed her front legs and took a little pull, and she came, and I tried to break her fall,” Strnad said. “She’s laying there, and she wasn’t moving. So I went inside of her mouth, tried to get that slimy stuff out. And then I’m rubbing her head, and then all of a sudden she came alive.”
The farmers, father and son duo of Kurt and Jacob Gagnow, were not around, so Strnad went knocking on the farmhouse door, which wife and mother Tracy Gagnow answered, shocked.
“He had blood on his hands, and he said ‘by the way, I just pulled a calf out in the field,” she said.
“Tracy called and says ‘the UPS man just delivered a calf.’ ‘He did! What color box was it in?’” Kurt joked. “We’ve had a lot of people that stop in and say ‘hey, you’ve got a cow having a calf out there,’ but I’ve never had anyone pull one.”
It is a fun memory that all involved will share forever, but Kurt and Strnad both know the significance of Strnad’s quick actions, too.
“You always hope for the best, but you always have in the back of your mind, ‘we might lose this one,’” Strnad said. “I’ve seen that scenario play out too many times where it doesn’t end well for the calf.”
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For heifers, a first time mother, the birth is always the hardest. If the birth takes too long, the calf will not be able to breathe if the embryotic sack is covering their face, and if the calf is stuck and the mother can not push it out, she may be paralyzed if her spinal nerves get damaged, especially if she stands up.
“It’s something that needs to be done in a matter of minutes or seconds, not an hour from now, it means a lot,” Kurt said. “If the sack is still hanging over their nose, they can’t get no air, and then she stood up so the calf is only halfway out and if he wouldn’t have helped it more than likely the heifer would have ended up paralyzed.”
The calf was born two weeks prematurely, so Kurt and Jacob were not able to constantly monitor the heifer, No. 311, at that point. They have lost a couple of mothers and calves over the years, and while it is saddening every time, they say it is an unchangeable reality.
“It’s not easy, but that’s the way it is, you can’t save them all. As they say, ‘that’s farming’ for you,” Kurt said. “So I’m beyond thankful that Jon was able to step in.”
Naming the calf was not a hard decision for the family.
“Joni, J-O-N-I,” Tracy said. “Jon for his name and then an I.”
The Gagnows plan on taking Joni to the Outagamie County Fair in June. As for Strnad, he might join them there, will continue to keep his watchful eye on all creatures in northeast Wisconsin.
“Happy to see she’s doing great,” Strnad said. “It makes me feel good. I haven’t smiled this much in a long time, and I appreciate that.”
Jon came to KJ Farms empty handed that Monday, but he undoubtedly delivered the miracle of life.
