Spring Means Calving Time

I don’t think there is anything much cuter on our farm than when the cows start having their calves.  Our herd is nearly half done calving now so there are lots of little calves running around.  I went out the other day late afternoon with my camera and got these photos.  Enjoy!Notice the calf in the background on the photo below.  It is jumping and going to take off running with it’s mama close behind mooing.  I can just hear her yelling “stop, stop, you have to stay by me.”  After the calves are only a day or two old they love to run and chase each other but the cows don’t like that so much so follow them around the lot.  I seems like late afternoon is when they do more running around for some reason.



As you probably noticed on the photos so far the cows and calves are all pretty much looking right at the camera.  No fancy tricks used to accomplish this either.  They are really curious animals and watched me the entire time I was photographing.  I was standing outside the fence and they would gather close to figure out what I was doing I guess.  Some of the cows in the photos have had their calves and some have not and their bellies are huge.  I am sure they feel like a 9 month pregnant woman in that their legs and back ache and will be glad to get rid of that extra weight and greet their new baby!




Until Later,
Lynn

Spring Calves

On our farm it is that time again when the new calves start arriving.  I don’t think I will ever get tired of seeing the new babies each spring.  Each cow and calf has it’s own personality just like people.  There are the grumpy ones and the calm happy ones as well.  Some cows are good mothers and some just have problems bonding with their calf or don't have enough milk for the growing calf.  Thank goodness we don’t have many of those and they are usually sold before the next year because our calves must get their nutrition from their mothers.  We occasionally have a bottle calf but try to transplant any orphans onto a cow that looses a calf.  As much as we want all the calves to live and thrive there are some that just don’t make it. We put several areas of straw in the lot where the cows and calves are to make a nice bedding area for them.  When it is a little chilly just laying in the straw can keep the calves pretty warm.  That is their preferred place to bed down for a nap between nursing.  When the calves are sleeping the cows will go off to eat but know in an instant if someone or something is near her calf.  Usually the cow runs right over and puts herself between the “danger” and her calf.Our cows are mostly Limousine, Herford, or Limousine/Herford crossbred.  We have Limousine bulls and get a big variety of colors of calves.  Some are black, grey, all red or red white faced.  We have had black and white and all grey calves too.  Sometimes the calf looks like it’s mother and sometimes completely different than the cow. If a cow and calf are not bonding like they should they get put in the barn so there are not so many other cows and calves to distract them.  That usually seems to help the calf get to know it’s mother and for the cow to recognize and mother up her calf.  They need to bond and the cow needs to be protective of her calf in order for the calf to do well and be protected from coyotes or any other predators. The best photo is this last one – I captured the calf just after it stopped nursing and was licking it’s lips.  So cute!

Until Later,
Lynn

Baby Face

Lynn

Baby Calves

Taking another break from house cleaning and cooking for company. I had to go for a little walk outside a while ago as it is so beautiful and warm today and NO WIND. The wind we had last week is gone, hopefully for a while anyway.

Took my camera with me and got a few photos of the cows and calves while I was out walking around.

Notice the cow and calf in the background, that is not her calf but the calf of the cow in the foreground. Sometimes the calves look like their mothers and sometimes not. I know that the calf in the photo above and photo below belongs to that cow as she doesn't have any ear tag with a number on it in her left ear and neither does the calf. John has to scan the button tag she has to find out her number and give her a new tag. Sometimes they loose their numbered tag so it has to be replaced with a new tag with the same number. The electronic button tag the cows all have does not show as it is small, the tag you see is one put in last year before she went to pasture to help keep the flies off her face.

Each cow has a number we assign her and write on a tag that gets put in her left ear as well as an electronic tag that we can read with a reader (duh). This numbered tag also has our name, town and state written on the back to help if she gets out and lost to help identify her. When a cow has a calf it gets a numbered tag with the same number as it's mother. Makes keeping track of which calves go with which mothers as well as keeping data for our records. We like to know how that calf performed, did the cow have enough milk, are her genetics good, etc.

You might think the cow and calf in the photo below belong together, right? Click on the photo and read the numbered tags in their ears. The black calf belongs to the cow that is sniffing the calf in the first photo. Told you they could be different colors. That baby has not figured out which mama is it's yet but the cows sure know which calves are theirs. That black calf was just born yesterday.

Guess break time is over...back to work.

Lynn

Spring Calves

There is nothing more cute than baby animals of any kind! We had our first calves yesterday morning and this cow pictured below had twins! The twins do not look like each other and are different genders too. One is a black white face and the other is a reddish brown with a white face. The mother is a red Limousine/Hereford cross and the bull is a black Limousine. The little reddish brown one was a little confused and was nursing on a cow that wandered up to check out the new babies yesterday afternoon. The curious cow just stood there and let it nurse. Of course the mother was a little confused too so John got the new family in the barn to let them get to know each other better. This is the 3rd time this cow has had twins. She had a single last year but twins the two years before.

The photo below is of the other twin - both were napping near their mother when I first went out to see them in the afternoon.

Happy for signs of Spring!

Lynn