Calving Update 4/16/2018

To date, 22 of my cows have calved out of 26 that should be bred.  What a difference it makes having a "good" bull, aka Lewis, who bred most of the cows and Clark, aka the "bad" bull, doing the cleanup!   My calving season is much tighter than it was last year, and next year I hope to improve further.  

Unlike producers who are trying to hit a shipping date, I don't actually care when my cows calve, just as long as they have one.  But, it does get a little annoying when I have very tiny late calves mixed with pretty large calves.  And then vaccinations and whatnot gets a little difficult to time.  But with my small number of cows, it's not too bad. 

That said, Clark is no longer with us.  I had him butchered.  I didn't want to do it, because I really liked him but I also didn't want to sell him at auction and have someone else inherit his fertility problems.  

So, to summarize, 22 calves on the ground and hopefully four more coming.  And here's a story from last year for entertainment:

 "Yesterday, or rather, early this morning, we pulled a calf from a heifer.  Immediately after delivery, the heifer proceeded to either ignore the calf or head butt it into the corrals.  So, I separated the two.  The heifer seemed to be more than upset about being in the corrals with the slimy little thing that was making snorting sounds.

When the calf was steady enough to stand a bit, I put the heifer in the squeeze chute and allowed the calf access to the udder.  This went relatively well.  Afterwards, I let the heifer out, and she proceeded to head butt the calf into the fences.

I separated them for the night after drying off the calf the best I could.  This morning, I penned the heifer up yet again and allowed the calf access to the udder.  The calf was quite persistent.   The heifer was now mooing at the calf, but just pushed her around, not really knowing what to do with her.   So, I separated them again, but in adjacent pens.

I went out this evening to give the calf another belly full, and I discovered the calf had slipped through the gates and was laying pretty calmly right next to her very alert, yet not aggressive, mother.  I harassed the calf until she got up and proceeded to advance rapidly towards her mother's nether region.   Her mother wasn't exactly excited about this development and proceeded to circle away from her gangly calf.

They went round and round for a bit, but she wasn't attacking the calf, so I let them be.   I came back about ten minutes later to find the calf doing her best to hold onto a teet whilst her mother kicked her in the face repeatedly. The calf would get knocked away or get clocked in the jaw, but she kept at it like a fly on a cowpie.

After about twenty good kicks and subsequent reacquisitions, the heifer finally acquiesced to her baby's persistence and stood still for it to be fed.  Funny parallel between what it means to love someone?   Nah.  It's just cows.

I'll kick them back out into the pasture tonight.

Happy Easter."

 Be blessed.  -Kenny