Newborn calves and big, bad Gert

Just a short progress report on calving season today. I will try to get some new pictures of the calves posted this weekend for all of you.

As of our last update, we had two calves on the ground and doing well and I am happy to inform you that as of this morning, we had doubled that number. We are up to a grand total of three bull calves, Rosie, Gertie and Gracie have all had boys, and Aspen has produced our only heifer calf to date. It has been a lot of fun to see the new calves arrive and there is much anticipation on every trip out to the barn that the next calf may have arrived. We have Bertie and Lady in the barn now and Delta still to come in this week, so by the end of the week numbers will have increased again with any luck. So far, our weather has been pretty mild and sunny, just right for calving and three of our mommas and their calves are outside now, able to stretch, play and enjoy the weather. Gracie and her calf which was born this morning will be able to head out in a couple days to make room for the next bunch if the weather holds. Keep your fingers crossed.

I have already made a mistake this calving season, one that will need to be rectified this weekend. Since they are all in the calving corral down by the house, I didn’t bother tagging the calves before I turned them loose. Now, as they are all running around, it is very difficult to tell who’s who. Three all black calves, all similar in size are hard to differentiate. We’ll have to bring all of them in this weekend and sort it out before the problem is multiplied by adding more to the mix. In the past with only one or two at a time it wasn’t a problem, but now, I will need to make sure I get that done before I turn them loose.

One of the reasons I passed on it this time, was the fact that with some new momma cows in the mix, I wasn’t sure how they’d react to me piercing their calve’s ears. It turns out they are all pretty tolerant of the process, with just one possible exception. Gert, who just had her first calf on our place is a little snakey with a newborn calf. She’s hippo-big and a little unpredictable under the best of circumstances. If you catch her in the wrong mood, it’s best to steer clear. She’s never malicious, but she is moody and doesn’t have much patience for people. Add a newborn to that mix and for the first 24 hours, she’s very menacing. Her bull calf was born on Saturday afternoon and after a couple hours was up and nursing, doing fine. Since he is the first calf sired by our bull, I wanted a better look at him and let myself into the pen. I had no sooner closed and latched the gate, effectively locking myself in her stall, then she began tossing her head, snorting and pawing with a mean sounding growl. She backed the calf into the corner and started inching toward me. I tried to stand my ground, but decided quickly that the risk wasn’t worth the reward and backed out of there.

After a few more hours, I went back out to vaccinate the calf and dip his navel with iodine. Standard procedure with all newborn calves at our place.

Amy accompanied me back to the barn, mostly as a witness in case things went bad. Fortunately, Gert was laying down and is very slow to get up. For those of you who haven’t met Gert, imagine a 2,000 pound black hippopotamus with curly hair and you’ll be pretty close. She’s slow at everything she does, particularly getting up. I managed to dart in, vaccinate and dip the calf before she managed to rock herself onto her feet and got the job accomplished unscathed. I did notice afterward though that she now backs her calf into the far corner of her stall and lays down blocking him in. There will be no more monkeying with her calf without climbing over the top of her, something that I am certain will speed her reflexes quickly. Needless to say, tagging her calf this weekend ought to be a lot of fun. Fortunately, she has eased up a little and now that he’s a few days old, she is less concerned with my being around, so it should be okay. Rest assured though, she’ll be locked out while I am working on him.