Calf 18 - Diamond's

The last calf for the year was born this afternoon.   Before I went to check the pocket gopher traps I looked and initially thought Diamond had a calf.  No, she was standing over Maria's calf who was sleeping.   In less than an hour I came back.  Maria was back in the corral drinking water and her calf was drinking from Maria.  I happened to look over and Diamond was standing over her newborn calf who was just figuring out how to walk and also where Diamond's udder was so it could drink.

Last year Diamond had a calf on September 10.  Usually a first time mother cow can take 60 days before they go into heat again. If the bull hangs around the cow sometimes they can go into heat up to five days earlier.   So this year I expected her calf to be born the first week of August.   But Diamond must have gone into heat a little over 40 days later, not 60 days.

Or maybe she listened to me.  The past week or so, whenever I saw Diamond I would tell her she needed to have her calf now and not to wait.  I guess she listened to me.

The new calf is a male.  That is good as most likely I will have to keep the calf until next Spring before selling it.  A female calf next Spring will have to be kept separate from the bull so the female doesn't get pregnant early.

Three hours later Donna came over to help me band and ear tag the calf.  Diamond must have warned her new calf about Donna.  The calf was sleeping next to Diamond.  When Donna and I entered the corral, the calf woke up suddenly and then jumped up and ran out of the loafing shed.  My irrigation sprinkler was watering the entryway from the corral to the NE pasture and the ground was mud.  The calf went through and then so did I.    Eventually I caught up to the calf as he got slowed down when he tried to go through the irrigation pipe trailer.  I had to struggle to get him to lay down on the ground.  Once Donna - and Diamond - caught up to us Donna banded and I ear tagged the calf.

Usually the newborn calves are not so active a few hours after being born.  Maybe this one was so active since it was born on a warm day.

I'll keep Maria and Diamond separate from the other cattle for a few more days or so. Then I'll let them all be together.  Toby will like that as for a week or so now he spends every day for a while in the corner of the middle pasture, looking and mooing for Maria and Diamond who are in the corral or NE pasture.  I tell Toby that Maria and Diamond doesn't need his loving right now, but I don't think he believes me.

The newborn calf looks just like his mother.  A white face, black around the eyes, and a black spot between the eyes.  The calf's black spot looks like a heart.

Here are a couple pictures of Maria and her calf as they had to come and check out what Donna and I were doing with the newborn calf.