Calf 9 - Brownie's

This morning I had another calf born.  The past few days I have been watching three cows that look close to giving birth.  Nope.  The mother was Beulah's calf from two years ago.  I decided now to call her Brownie instead of Beulah's calf.  This is a first time mother.  I forgot about this year having a leap year extra day so the calf to a newborn mother was born a day before I expected it could be born.

I saw the calf when I went out in the morning to put out hay for the cattle.  The cattle had finished eating the previous hay bale late last night and now needed more hay.  Brownie and her calf were in the middle of the pasture under a tree.  Brownie was eating her afterbirth.  The calf seemed fine but was laying stretched out somewhat instead of being circled up. The calf is a little bull calf.  Donna came over to help me band and ear tag the calf.  The calf is a big calf but his scrotum was smaller than usual and Donna had a hard time getting both balls to band them.  And the calf was stronger than the other calves born this year.  I struggled at keeping the calf on the ground and stopping the calf from moving and kicking his hind legs as I held them apart.  Eventually we got the calf banded and ear tagged.

I had brought out a plastic sled to bring the calf back to the corral by the barn.  But the calf was stronger than I expected.  He walked with no problems.   Because the cattle were eating hay from the feeders in the corral I decided to move Brownie and her calf into the hayfield and then into the corral by the southern gate.  I expected I would have to herd Brownie and her calf away from the main corral gate but she saw the hayfield gate was partly open and walked right over and into the hayfield.  They stood in the hayfield looking at the corral.  I went and opened the corral gate and then watched that the steers and Speckles did not leave the corral.  Donna easily herded Brownie to the corral gate and they walked into the corral with no problems.

In the corral the steers and Speckles all wanted to check the new calf out.  Brownie briefly fought a few steers as she didn't want them getting so close to her calf.

Then everybody bonded and Brownie was able to eat some hay.  At the end of the day Brownie's calf was laying with one of Speckle's calves under the roofed shelter by the barn while Speckle's other calf was drinking from Speckles.  Brownie's calf seems to be doing fine and getting along well.   Another cold night and strong winds just started and will continue on into the morning tomorrow.  So I hope all those calves stay and sleep in the sheltered area tonight.

Calf 7 and 8 - Speckle's

Friday morning when I went out to feed hay to the cattle I saw a newborn calf with the group outside the corral gate.  The calf was laying by Mama.  Mama is not going to give birth until June so it wasn't her calf.  When all the cattle walked into the corral to eat hay this calf followed.  He has white speckles on his face and when he stood by Maria as she was eating hay from the feeder I thought it was her calf.   Since I didn't want this calf to accidently get hurt by the cows eating hay I carried the calf and put it in the south part of the corral to be with the steers.  I would put Maria in there after she finished eating.

I drove out to the north pasture to put the rest of the hay out on the ground.   Behind a tree I saw Speckles standing.  And below her by the tree was a white faced black calf.  Two calves were born overnight.

Speckles and her calf - a heifer - ate hay as I unloaded the pickup into numerous piles of hay.

After I reopened the corral gate to let the other cattle come out to eat the north pasture hay I went to look for the first calf.  The calf wasn't in the south corral with the steers.  Over and over I looked.  Huh?  I looked in the corral and couldn't find the calf.  What?  I'm sure I really saw a calf earlier and it wasn't my imagination.

Where is the calf?!   Eventually I started to check the back yard.  I found the calf laying near the pile of wood.  The calf somehow figured out how to get through the corral fence near the cattle's water trough well.  That has never happened before.

I carried the calf back into the corral and over to the loafing shed.  The calf could lay in there until the mother was done eating hay.

Later I found Speckles laying in the loafing with this calf.  Speckles calf was laying and sleeping in the middle of the corral.  Hmmm…. odd.  This also is not her calf, is it?

Some cows were still eating hay. Maybe the calf's mother would eventually come over.  So I waited until Donna came.   Speckles and the calf were still laying together.   They all got up when Donna and I walked in the corral.  The other calf woke up and went over to Speckles.  Both calves ended up drinking from Speckles.  Sometimes both drank from Speckles at the same time.   Speckles had twins!!!

Speckles is the first cow I had that had twins.   Joyce's family's cattle often has had twins.  So I called her for advice.   Because the twin calves drank from the same cow they both ended up being smaller when it was time to sell them in the Fall.   Speckle's calf last year turned out to be a large calf.  But Speckles is a smaller cow of mine.

The cow that lost her calf a few days earlier may still have milk.  Maybe I can get her to let one calf drink from her.  Donna and I put the black calf with white markings in the loading ramp corral along with the other cow.  Joyce recommended since I still had the dead calf to cut off its tail and attach it to this calf.  Cows smell the back and tail of calves to tell if the scent matches their scent.  So I did.

Even without her dead calf's tail attached the cow seemed to accept this new calf.  And with the new tail attached the calf had a smell like her calf.   Problem solved.  Or was it?  The calf didn't want to drink from the cow.  Well... it had recently drank from Speckles so maybe it wasn't hungry.   So left the calf in the loading ramp with the other cow.  I still had the protected area for a calf I made when I had the other calf with her mother who was rejecting her for a day.  Speckle's calf liked to go in and lay in this area even though this other cow was nice to her.

Donna and I came back in three hours to try again.   The calf still would not try to drink.  The cow was behaving and did not try to kick the calf away.  Donna knows how to milk cows much more than I do and she was able to quickly get milk from the cow.  So the cow is not dry.  Donna squirted milk onto the calf's face.  No reaction.  The calf is still not hungry?

We tried over and over and nothing.  Speckles was laying next to the other calf in the corral as I had closed the corral gate to keep her in and the other cows out of the corral.  I let the calf out of the loading ramp area and the calf went over to Speckles.  Speckles stood up and sniffed and licked the calf and then the calf went and drank milk from Speckles as the calf was hungry.   The calf was rejecting drinking from the other cow as it was not her mother.   Okay....    I had seen other calves over the years try to drink milk from another cow not their mother and usually that cow would not let the calf drink from her as it was not her calf.  This time I had the reverse happen.

Speckle's other calf seemed more aggressive when drinking milk.   Maybe this calf would drink from the other cow.   We tried to get this calf to drink, and Donna squirted the calf's face with the cow's milk and the same happened, the calf refused to drink.  When we let the calf out it went to Speckles and immediately started to drink.

We gave up.  Speckles loves both of her calves.  Sometimes when one calf drank Speckles would sniff and lick the other calf.  I guess Speckles will raise both of her calves.

I put Speckles and her calf in the south corral to be with the other steers.  If it got cold overnight they had a place warm to lay.  And Speckles needs extra food so she could get it from the large hay bale in that corral.

I also put the other cow in with them.  Maybe her being around the calves and the calves may bond with her and start drinking from her.  Who knows.

Before letting the cow out of the loading ramp I gave her an ear tag.  Last year she accidently tore off the ear tag she had on her left ear. (See the notched ear blow.)  Since her mother is Maria, number 7, I gave the cow number 8.

Both of Speckles calves are heifers.  And the calves like each other.  They often play or sleep near each other.

When I checked on the calves today they seemed to be doing well.

Calf 6 - Heifer 7's

Yesterday I had another calf born.  A heifer.  However, the calf is dead.  I fed the cattle around 6:30 pm.  Then I went out to the south pasture to trim some lower branches on a tree.   Before I finished I heard some cow mooing back in the north pasture.  I quit trimming after it began to get dark.  Back at home I got a flashlight to see better in the dusk and went out to check on the cattle.  The mooing cow was near a tree in the middle of the pasture.  Next to the tree, and who the cow was mooing at, was a dead calf.

I don't know how the calf died.  Was it born between 6:30 and 8:30 pm?  Or had it been born in the afternoon, and I hadn't seen the calf hidden behind the tree?  By the time I was ready to feed the cattle at 6 pm all the cattle were in the corral.  The mother was not out in the pasture by her calf.  Was the calf already dead?  Was the calf a stillborn calf?  Was it born in a complete cellophane wrapping, like I seen one calf born some years ago?  And did the wrapping not get punctured in time for the calf to breathe?    Or did it somehow die after birth?

So was it a stillborn, and if so how did it get completely dry if it couldn't stand up to be completely licked clean?  Or was the calf born alive, stood up to drink and was completely licked dry, then died later?

I don't know.  Looking at the calf, even today in the sunlight, I can't tell how it died.

Last night I put the dead calf in the corral so it wouldn't get eaten up like the last dead calf did overnight.  The mother didn't follow me as I carried the calf to corral but instead remained at where I found the calf.  Today the mother mooed a time or two, but seems to have gotten over it quicker that the mother of the previous dead calf did.  So maybe it was a stillborn and the mother didn't bond as much as the other mother had done.

I believe the dead calf was born to Maria's (#7) previous calf.  This cow does not have an ear tag and I remember that it seems each of the past couple of years the calves from Maria seem at some point to tear off their ear tag.   This cow has a notched ear where a tag used to be located.

I looked at photos from last year and do not find any photos of this cow and her calf.  I thought this was the second calf born to this cow, but perhaps this is this cow's first calf.   I don't let first time heifers be with the bull until the first cycle (21 days) is over where the bull had been with the older cows.  That means first time heifers should start to have calves March 31.  March 25 is six days early.  Something is off.

Six calves so far this year.  Two have died quickly.  That is one third of them.  Not good.

Ditch burning

While March has been cold and not so nice of a month, this past weekend was normal.  Saturday morning on my bicycle ride I saw that someone had burnt the grass in their ditches and I got the idea to burn mine also.

It was sunny and the wind was not very strong but it was in the right direction to slowly move the flames along.  Not too cold and not warm. Perfect.

It took three hours but I got all of the ditches burnt and cleaned up.

Cow and calves and salt and hay

No new baby calves today.

This morning I moved cow 110 and her calf over to the south part of the corral to be with last year's calves.  Her calf wasn't hungry this morning and the mother cow was acting normal and protective of her calf.  In the afternoon I saw her calf drink and the mother stood still, like she should.  So the effort to get these two to bond is done.


In the following photo, when I built that fence I had also attached a metal pipe to it.  That was so the cows, or bull, wouldn't push against the fence boards popping them off.  Well, instead the cows, bull, and calves like to rub against the metal pipe and itch.  Days after I took this photo the calves completely knocked this section of pipe off the fence and somewhat bent the pipe.

This is the calves' salt.  Yup.  I had to clean it off and wash the salt block so they would again lick the salt block.

When I put out a new large hay bale, with the tractor I first tip the metal feeder on its side.  As the calves pick at the remaining hay I go and get the large hay bale.  This time while I was gone the calves pushed the feeder and ended up tipping it over.  Fortunately no one was hurt.

One of the steers likes to stand on the hay to eat it.  He can't get his back legs in the feeder and hay though.

This is what the feeder area looks like for the cows and bull out in the pasture.  This is why I move the feeder to a new location each time I put out a large hay bale.  This afternoon I put out another large bale for them.

Calf 5 - 110's

Cow #110 had her calf yesterday.  A black little male calf.    Cow 110 is the reluctant mother.  Every year she won't let her calf drink and will head butt or kick the calf to keep it away from her.  I always have to put the cow and her calf in a small area of the loading ramp part of the corral and the calf then can drink from the cow.  After a half day to a day the cow will then bond with her calf and let it drink.

Yesterday when I went out to feed the cattle at 5 pm cow 110 was standing near the corral gate and I could see her head butt her calf.  A few times the calf went flying.  He kept getting up and trying to drink as he was hungry.  I called Donna to come and help me. But the time she arrived I had gotten the mother and her calf into the loading ramp area, and with Donna's help, we were able to get the cow and calf in a smaller area where the mother couldn't move much.  The calf then was able to figure how to drink and then drank.

Because the temperatures still go down to the lower 20s overnight I wanted to have the cow and calf be in the roofed area next to the barn overnight.  We herded them over there and I put out hay for the cow to eat.

I fed the rest of the cattle in the rest of the corral and then reloaded hay into the pickup for tomorrow morning's feed.   The cow occasionally would head butt her calf even though he wasn't trying to drink anymore.  Donna watched and prevented the cow from head butting her calf.  But it was getting close to dark and Donna had to handle her pet turkey before dark. The hay bale was very tightly wrapped and it took longer to load hay into my pickup.   When I was done and went to check on the calf I seen the calf laying in the corner and against the metal corral panels in the hay the cow was eating.  I wondered if the cow had head butted the calf into the panels.  The calf was alive and after a while stood up and wandered over to the other end of their laying area.

The cow would occasionally give a dirty look at the calf.  I got some long boards and divided the laying area into two.  One area the calf could lay and he could walk under the boards while the mother could not.

Time had passed and it was about four hours since the calf last drank.  I tried to get the calf to drink in their laying area but the cow would kick and move and try to prevent the calf from drink.  After several attempts we herded the cow back to the loading ramp area.  I then got the calf over there too.  The calf didn't want to walk and would lock his legs and not move them.  I had to push him all the way over, at times lifting his back end and pushing and the calf would try not to move his front legs.  I was breathing heavy and tired but the time I got the calf back to his mother.

The mother didn't try to fight the calf as much this time and the calf drank faster.

It was 11 pm now and four hours would make it 3 am.  I decided to leave the cow in the loading ramp area as she could handle the cold temperatures.  And the wind was blowing which made it colder.   This time I tried to carry the calf and was able to do so and get it back under the roofed area where he could lay in the straw and out of the wind.

At 3 am Donna came over to wake me up and help me with the calf.  All went smoother and this time I was no longer complaining and talking to the cow or the calf telling it what to do or not do like I did repeatedly earlier as I was annoyed at the cow's behavior.  Earlier Donna was trying to get me to stop talking to the cow and calf as she said they didn't understand what I was saying.  I was hungry and cold as I hadn't eaten since noon and I was upset at the mother as she was head butting or kicking her calf as I was afraid she would hurt or kill her calf.

We were done by 4 am.  At 8 am once again.  It was light outside now and everything went better.  The cow knew I wanted it to stand in the restricted area and would now walk there to feed her calf without me having to push her into there.

After 8 am and during the day I left the calf in the loafing ramp area.  I wanted the two to bond so the cow would get over her bad behavior.  I got some boards and a piece of plywood to make a small area in one corner so the calf could lay under there if he wanted to get away from his mother.  But she seemed to bond and stop pushing the calf around.

I went back into the house after I fed the other cattle and then slept until noon.

Still, by the end of the day the calf didn't seem to drink easily.  After 5 pm the cow mostly stood still but the calf stood the wrong way and ended up trying to find the udder between the cow's front legs.  The cow would push her head against the calf slightly to encourage him to back up.  The calf would but only go halfway, then look under the cow's belly before once again moving back to the front legs.

I figured he would figure out to turn around or go backwards.  But not really.  A few times he moved back far enough but ended up pushing against her back leg and not the udder whereby she would kick her leg and the calf would move away.

Finally I went in there to turn the calf around but then the cow would turn around.  She seemed to want to go to the restricted area so I opened the gate to that area and she walked in.  I moved the calf next to her making sure I turned him around so he would back in and then face the best way to drink from her udder.

I checked again a little while ago.  The calf was awake and not laying under the protected area I made earlier in the day.  The cow was standing but the calf must have drunk as he didn't want to get up to drink but just lay there.  When I petted him to encourage him to stand he laid there and her mother then came over to gently moo and sniff and lick him to check him out.  He continued to lay.   I'll check again just before I go to sleep later.

Since the wind is calm and tonight's low temperature is suppose to be in the upper 20s I plan to leave the calf with his mother.  He didn't seem cold when I checked a little while ago.

Frozen river

Baby calf #4 survived the night.  Since I had the calf in a shelter the low temperature last night was 30 degrees and not the 19 degrees predicted.  Of course, not as cold since I had the calf in a shelter.

No new calves born today.

The temperature the past few days have been near normal.  Over the weekend the coldest temperature was 10 degrees.  Still it seemed like it was colder.  Over the weekend we had a half inch of snow and it took a number of days for this to melt.   During the weekend the well to my house froze two mornings.  First time because the light bulb in the pump's shed went off overnight.  The second night the water froze again even though the light bulb stayed on.  It was 34 degrees in the pump shed but apparently the ground floor of the pump shed froze.  Strange as that never happened.

The water pipe for the livestock's water trough froze.  The pipe is a frost freeze hydrant and I've had this for many years and it never freezes.  I tried using a heating torch to unthaw it but that wasn't working.  It took several days to unthaw and that was only once the temperature was in the mid to upper 40s.  Strange.  For those several days I had to use four garden hoses to go from the house's well over to the cattle's water trough.  After each time filling the water trough I had to drain all the water out of the hoses so the water didn't freeze in the hoses.

And lastly... the river completely froze over this weekend.  There was no ice at all on the river before this past weekend.  Most years the river doesn't at all freeze over.  It usually takes several days of temperatures of all least 10 below zero and  high temperatures of only the single digits.  We don't get weather like that often.  But this weekend the river completely froze over even though the lowest temperature was only 10 degrees above zero.  And it took days to thaw.  Finally tonight I saw the ice no longer went shore to shore.  The ice was only on each side of the river.  Again, strange.    And when I went for a bicycle ride this afternoon I rode by a very large pond and that was still completely frozen.

And this is March!!!   Global warming.  The earth is supposedly getting warmer but the temperatures are getting colder.  And a minor cold temperature acts as if it is a major cold temperature.  Strange.

Unbelievably iced over!