So, last night was fun.  I was making my 7pm walk through my cows who are in the midst of "sending forth" their offspring (aka calving).  There are distinct groups of cows in the pasture because we had put out straw as bedding for the cows in distinct areas.  Cows, prone to laying down in warm places, always congregate in these areas bedded with straw.

There was a little daylight left when I started going through the pasture and walked past the first group of seven or eight cows after taking a cursory glance over them to look for active labor signs.  The next thing I saw was a newborn calf all by itself, poking around the divider fence in the feedlot.  I thought this very strange as a cow that has just given birth is usually immediately a chemically-driven helicopter mom.  But no, this newborn was alone.

I looked around and spied a very large red cow who I hadn't seen calve yet with afterbirth hanging from her backside.  Accompanying her was a small black newborn calf and a white, day old Charolais calf who was clearly just in the picture looking for a free meal. 

Seeing she was the only cow who had recently calved, I assumed she had twins.  So, I picked up the very squirmy newborn who was by himself, and carried him over to the very large red cow who was quite content being harassed by the other black newborn and the day old Charolais calf.  Adding another being to the small, fuzzy, four legged creatures that were all making attempts at her udder made her that much happier.  I assumed all was well and I had done my good deed for my cows that day.

As I was walking back past that first group of cows, I discovered that I was wrong.    

One of my pregnant heifers had evidently expelled the calf, then decided to take a nap rather than get up right away to lick off her offspring like every other cow I own.  While she was allegedly taking said nap, her newborn calf decided to go exploring by himself. 

I came to the conclusion that I had carried the wrong calf to the wrong mother.   

 

 

Read More