Ree Drummond is giving fans a hopeful update on the fragile newborn calf her husband, Ladd Drummond, pulled out of a brutal winter storm on their Oklahoma ranch. After a rescue that looked more like a scene from a survival movie than a typical day of chores, the tiny heifer is now standing, nursing and stubbornly hanging on. The latest glimpse from Drummond Ranch shows a calf that once seemed unlikely to live now pushing through with the kind of grit ranch families recognize instantly.
The story has unfolded in real time for followers of “The Pioneer Woman,” turning one calf’s fight into a surprisingly emotional saga about weather, work and quiet acts of care. What started as a desperate search in deep snow has become a small but powerful reminder of how much effort goes into keeping animals alive when the temperatures plunge and the wind will not let up.
The storm, the search and a calf on the brink
The drama began when a fierce winter system rolled across the plains, dropping temperatures into dangerous territory and coating the pastures in snow and ice. In the middle of that mess, a cow calved out on the range, leaving a newborn heifer exposed to the elements before she ever had a chance to nurse. Ladd Drummond spotted the baby in the snow, too weak to stand and already chilled, and realized the calf had not been able to feed because her mother was so swollen she could not easily nurse, a detail later echoed in calf coverage of the rescue. By the time he reached her, the little heifer was too weak to follow her mama at all, a dangerous combination in subfreezing wind.
With the storm still raging across the region, Ladd loaded the Newborn Calf into his vehicle and headed back toward the house, a moment fans later saw in a clip that captured just how rough the conditions were. The video, shared as part of a segment showing Ree Drummond and her husband working in freezing temps, shows the calf bundled in the cab while snow whips outside. It is the kind of scene ranchers know well, but for viewers who mostly see the Drummonds in a warm kitchen, it was a stark reminder that their life is still a full ranch operation, not just a TV set.
Inside the barn: colostrum, medicine and a long night
Once the calf was off the range, the real work started. Ladd and Ree moved her into the barn, where they could get her dry, warm and fed, and then began the slow process of trying to stabilize a newborn that had already burned through much of her energy just trying to stay alive in the snow. In a later video from Drummond Ranch, Ree explained that the baby had been born in the winter storm and had a rough start, but after the mama’s colostrum, two bags of colostrum replacer and the first round of medicine, the calf finally began to perk up, details she shared in a Sunday update. That combination of natural antibodies and supplements is often the difference between life and death for a chilled newborn.
Their plan was simple but intense: keep the calf in the barn for the next few cold days, keep the feedings coming and watch for any sign she might crash. Ree later described how the baby started to take the bottle and wobble around the barn, a small but crucial sign that her body was finally catching up after the shock of the storm. She noted that the calf had been born during the storm and at one point appeared unlikely to survive, a reality she underscored when she told followers it was “highly unlikely” the little heifer would have made it without intervention, a sentiment reflected in a winter storm recap. For viewers, those barn clips offered a rare, unvarnished look at the medical side of ranching that usually happens far from the cameras.
The encouraging update and what it says about ranch life
The most recent chapter in the story is the one fans were hoping for: the calf is up, nursing and acting like she belongs in the pasture instead of on a prayer list. In a follow up video that starts on a Sunday morning, roughly 24 hours after Ladd first found the newborn in the snow, Ree walks viewers through the barn as the calf moves around and responds to attention, a scene captured in a calf update from Drummond Ranch. The heifer is still small and a bit wobbly, but the difference from that first rescue clip is striking, and Ree’s tone is lighter as she talks through the progress.
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