Calf 12

The 12th calf was born on Sunday, May 1.   This calf was born to one of the all black heifers.  I am not sure if it is #110 or #120 as the numbers washed off each of their ear tags.

I had been watching for signs of the birth as this was a first time mother with a greater chance of having problems, especially as Buddy tends to throw large calves.  This calf was indeed large but the mother delivered the calf successfully.

The calf was born between 4 pm and 6 pm.  I discovered it was born when I heard the mother mooing/grunting to the calf.  I was in the pasture digging on tree stump 4 and initially thought it was the cow giving birth.  No, it was the mother "telling" the calf to do something.  But the mother didn't know what.  The calf was naturally trying to get to the mother's udder to drink but the mother refused to let the calf do that.  Then she would moo/grunt at the calf.  Over and over until I arrived.

The mother had cleaned off the calf and was protective of it.  When the calf mistakenly tried to find the udder on a nearby cow the mother intervened and got her calf back to her - though she still wouldn't let it drink from her.   The mother had everything right but the udder part.  Being a first time mother she didn't get everything right.

Donna helped me get the mother and calf into the loading corral.  It is important for a calf to drink her mother's milk within 24 hours of its birth in order to get the cow's colostrum.  Colostrum is very important for the calf to develop its immune system.

We got the cow and calf in the narrow area of the loading corral ramp area.  That way the mother could not move away from the calf. 

Once I guided the calf along the cow and facing back towards the udder, I scratched the back of the mother to distract her while Donna guided the calf to one of the cow's tits so it could drink.  Often the calf wanted to suck on Donna's finger but the calf quickly then got a hold of a tit.

Once the calf drained the milk from one side of the udder she was full.

Once the mother got used to the feeling of her calf sucking on her udder she no longer refused the calf when it wanted to drink.  Horray.

Oh yeah, the calf is a heifer.

Here is a 1 minute 5 second video of the new calf and her mother.   The poor calf can hardly walk and is wobbly and her mother pushes her around and won't let her drink her milk.

https://youtu.be/_EcZwNyXM3Y

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