Calf 7 - Speckle's

A new experience for me.  I pulled a calf today.  Speckles is a first time mother.  I had exposed the heifers last year to the bull after the cows had been exposed for 20 days.  Therefore one would expect the heifers to calf after the cows.  But five cows have yet to give birth.  I had exposed the heifers 20 days after the cows were first exposed so today was the first day one could give birth according to the birthing calendar.  And Speckles was right on time.

Fortunately Speckles started to give birth shortly around 12:30 pm on a warm sunny day.  This was far better than giving birth in the middle of the night.  And I don't think she had started to calf too much earlier than when I had found her.

I found the calf's hooves coming out of Speckles.  Since Speckles was a first time mother, and a smaller framed heifer, I was concerned the birthing process may take longer and be hard on mother and calf.

I called Donna to let her know.  She was still uptown after church.  Speckles appeared to be fine. She did do some grunting during her contractions.   I had gloves with a grip and grabbed the calf's legs and pulled when Speckles pushed during her contractions.  It was a tight fit for the calf to come out.  By now I could see the end of the calf's tongue between the calf's legs.  After some pulling, the calf's nose was outside Speckles and the nostrils were clear of the membrane.

Speckles was unsure what I was doing and stood up.  The calf was sucked a little bit back inside Speckles.  I called my friend Dan who has lots of experience with cattle and left a voicemail message.  I have a calf puller and got it.  I don't have any chains to attach to the calf's legs and then the puller.  I found some wide straps.

Speckles had laid back down inside the loafing shed. I grabbed the calf's legs again and pulled.  Progress was very slow.  I went to get my neighbor Curtis and as we arrived back in the corral Dan drove up.  Since I had Dan for help and Curtis had no experience pulling a calf he left.

Speckles was back on her feet.  A few cows were in the corral and I herded them out of the corral and closed the gate before Speckles reached the gate.  I opened the gate to the loafing corral ramp area and Speckles went in there.  This area was cleaner and grassier and had less room for Speckles to move about.

Dan had cataract surgery last week and also had a major tooth extraction so he was unable to do anything physical.  That didn't matter.  I need Dan for advice on what to do and what not to do, and when.

Dan said it was better that Speckles was standing as it is easier to pull a calf when the mother is standing up.   I grabbed the calf's legs with my gloved hands and pulled.  One pulls down when pulling, not back or 'out'.  I kept some pressure all the time with pulling and then tried to pull harder at the times Speckles was pushing due to contractions.  I was making slow progress.  Speckles was grunting during her contractions but I guess I wasn't making grunting sounds as I pulled as Dan told me to pull harder.  I am!   Once the calf's head was out I took a brief break from pulling in order to rest a minute.  Then back to pulling.  The more the calf was out the faster I could pull the calf out.  Once the calf's head and ribcage was out I was able to quickly pull the rest of the calf out.

Whew.

While Speckles may have given birth on her own I believe it would have taken much longer and be harder on her and her calf.

Right after I pulled the calf out Speckles turned around to lick her calf.  The calf's nose and mouth were clear.  I pulled the membrane off from the calf's eyes and rest of its head and neck.

The calf is another bull calf.  That makes six out of seven calves a bull calf.  It took me a minute to determine the calf was a male as his scrotum and the area around it as all white and everything blended together.

Donna arrived just after the calf was born.  While Speckles was licking the calf clean she wasn't licking as fast or hard as other experienced cows do so Donna (mainly) and I cleaned and rubbed and dried the calf to help Speckles.   After a short while the calf got up - with help from Donna and I - and after a little stumbling around found Speckles udder and started to drink.  Speckles was a good mother and mostly stood still so the calf could find her udder and drink for as long as he wanted.

Speckles doesn't take after her mother, "Mama", and was ok with us being around her and her newborn calf.  A few times Speckles sniffed and licked Donna's hair as Donna toweled off the calf to dry it.

What a beautiful calf.  I love his markings.  He is so unique that I didn't give him an ear tag.  It is obvious who his mother is.

I left Speckles and her calf in the loading ramp area for the afternoon to give them some peace.  As you can see last year's calves were all interested in the new calf.

Once I let Speckles and her calf out of the loading ramp area, and the cows into the coral, the other 'aunties' had to check out the new calf.  At one point the new calf got confused and started following Red around.  Speckles followed calling for her calf.  It was only after Red pushed the new calf away from her several times that the new calf got back with Speckles.

Getting to meet the other calves under mother's watchful eyes.

Here is a 20 second video of Speckles' calf: https://youtu.be/3s6i1yOsK4M

Calf 6 - 60's

Calf number 6 was born this afternoon.  Another bull calf.  That makes five so far.  That is more than the whole total of bull calves last year.

After getting banded and an ear tag a number of the aunties, and the calf's mother, had to check the calf out.

In the morning I had a scare.  When checking on the cattle, and calves, the heifer calf laid flat on the ground with her tongue hanging way out.  The tongue hanging out is not a good sign as I usually see that after cattle die.   The heifer was breathing.  I even petted the heifer and it made no movement.  Cattle usually move away when you pet them. When Donna came over, and petted the calf, it woke up and jumped up to its feet.  In the evening when we banded and tagged calf 6, the heifer calf was running all over full of energy.   It appears that laying in the morning sun the heifer calf got so relaxed it looked like it was dead.

Photos of two calves

No new calves so far today.

It appears Maria's new calf is taking after 'Snowball', Beulah's calf.  This morning when I checked on the cattle I found Maria's calf laying in a snowfield.

Maria, the calf's mother, is calling for her calf to get off the snowfield.

Here are a few photos of cow #110 and her calf.

Calf 5 - Maria's

Around 12:30 pm today the fifth calf was born.  The mother is Maria.  The calf is a heifer.  While Maria has had either white-faced or brockle-faced calves in the past, this is her first all black calf.

When I checked the cows in the corral I saw Maria had a large "water balloon" hanging out her back indicating an imminent birth.  The liquid was more red with blood than usual which concerned me.  I went in the house to get my camera and called Donna.  I was back outside in about 5 minutes and Maria was licking her newborn calf as it has just been born.

An audience

While the calf wasn't born in a snowbank, it was on the edge where the ground was wet.  When the calf tried to first stand up Maria tried to help and nudged the calf.  The calf went end-over-end / head-over-heels and its face ended up in the water next to the snowbank.  I picked up the wet calf and carried it over to a dry part of the corral.  Maria was beside herself when I touched her calf.

Of course last year's calves had to check out the new calf.  Earlier when Maria was trying to lick the calf I had to chase three of last year's calves away from the newborn calf.  Below two of them came back to check the calf out again.

The calf's first success at standing upright on all four legs.  Maria was not too happy with Donna and I watching.

It took a number of trials-and-errors before the calf found the udder and successfully figured out how to latch onto a nipple.  Thankfully Maria usually would stand still while the calf went through this learning process.

Five hours later with her new ear tag.

Here is a 1 minute 8 second video of Maria doing the initial cleaning of the calf after it was born minutes earlier:  https://youtu.be/CRxojxj9-Z8

Here is a 1 minute 48 second video of the calf taking her first steps.  My camera's zoom doesn't work so the image isn't as close as I would like.  Also my camera's lens partially fogged so the image is fuzzy around the sides.

https://youtu.be/9iupyuHl568

Calf king of the hill

I just checked.  Still no new calves again today.

I'm going to have to start carrying my camera when I check on the cattle in the morning.  Beulah's calf is always up to something.  This morning I found him at the top of this snow pile.  By the time I returned with my camera he was starting to climb/slide down the pile.

On the right is Diamond.  She tried several times to climb up to the top of the pile to reach the calf but kept sliding back down.

I think I will rename Beulah's calf.  'Snowball' is a better name than 'Snowbank'.

Here is a 32 second video of the calf coming down the snow hill: https://youtu.be/nVnvYwf-jow

Snowbank calf on a snowbank

Still no new baby calves born today.

This morning the snowbank calf stood on a snowbank when I checked on the cattle.  All the other cattle stood on the ground.

Cattle photos

No new calves.  I just checked.   Several cows are so big they look like houses walking when they move.

One cow grooming a very pregnant cow

I let the "Bad Mama" cow out of the corral and put Mama in the corral to keep Toby company.  The "Bad Mama" cow changed.  She went from a cow who wanted nothing to do with her calf to being a 'helicopter parent'.  The first day mingling with the other cattle "Bad Mama" would headbutt any other calf who came near her calf.  Sometimes they hung out with the other cattle (like tonight) and other times they spend time by themselves (like this morning when I took these photos as she was grooming her calf).

Also this morning I found cow #60 had this wire stuck in her tail. I don't know how long this morning she had been walking around with this tangled in her tail. This was one of the wire fence pieces I had used to protect an evergreen tree and which the cattle had taken down to reach the tree's lower branches.  I had leaned the wire pieces back against the tree.  The cow kept walking as I tried to untangle the wire from her tail.  Eventually I removed the wire from her tail.

Snowbank

No calves born today so far.

Sunday morning, when the temperature was still below freezing, I found Beulah's calf laying in a snowbank.  Once again.  Beulah was over eating hay at the feeder.  Beulah's calf has a thing for laying in the snow as I have seen him do this other times.  I think I am going to call him: Snowbank.

I spent part of the afternoon raking some of the manure out of the loafing shed. The rest of the manure was either still frozen or 'water logged' from the melting snow. Then, as all the cattle were at the feeder eating hay, I raked over half of the manure away from the large trees the cattle lay under at night and parts of the day.

Calf 4 - Panda's

This afternoon Panda had her calf.  A little bull calf.  That makes all boys from Toby so far.  A nice sunny afternoon.  While the ground was wet it wasn't muddy or snow covered where Panda had her calf.

By the time Donna and I banded and ear tagged the calf a few hours later the calf had drunk milk from his mother three times.  I think this nicer weather contributed to this calf being more active than the previous two calves born this week.

Between the calf's wet fur and the wet ground, my pants and gloves were wet by the time I finished banding and ear tagging the calf.

I think this is the first all black calf Panda has had.

Tractor window fix

This afternoon I installed the new window in the tractor cab.  It was more of a problem than I expected.  The window is held in place in three areas (holes).  Two of the areas I was able to easily unscrew with a screwdriver and a wrench.

The third area, which is also the lever that opens and closes the window, was another matter.  I could not find how to detach the two pieces that go on each side of the glass.

I called the John Deere dealer to ask the maintenance person how to take the lever apart.  I had to leave a message.  By the time he called me back (at 6:07 pm) I had figured it out. After fiddling around with it for a while I then decided to take the lever off the tractor cab, then try to take the black piece off the lever.

The cotter pin bolt seen below has a very small "c" ring to lock it in place.  The "c" ring was on top of the pin so that when I struggled to take it off it came off suddenly and both pieces fell to the ground.  I could hear the pin bounce off boards next to the tractor on its way down to the ground.  I had to get a magnet.  Surprisingly I found the "c" ring, which I was afraid I would never find.  I couldn't find the pin.  I had to drive the tractor out of the pole shed.  Still couldn't find the pin.  I had to move / clear quite a number of boards before I finally found the pin.  It took a long time.  When I reinstalled the lever I put the pin in from the top and then added the "c" ring at the bottom.

But I needed to get the black plastic piece off the lever as the glass went in the large groove in the black plastic.  I worked and worked on it and couldn't figure it out.  The black plastic turned but wouldn't unscrew from the lever.

How to get it apart:  The small groove in the black plastic is not decorative. The very end is a cap.  Under the cap is a locking nut.  However I couldn't unscrew the nut as it turned.   The end of the beige plastic has a plastic pin. Push the pin out and the swivel end comes off and then apart.  Under the two pieces that make up the swivel is another nut.  Holding that nut I then could unscrew the end nut and take the black plastic piece off.   Easy when one knows how it all works.

My neighbor Curtis helped me install the window as it is too awkward to manage with one person and easy with two people.

New window installed after spending $373 on it.

Sleeping in a snowbank

This morning I found Beulah's calf sleeping in a snowbank near the hay feeder as his mother ate hay.  He was fine.  I checked - he was not shivering.  Go figure.

When I checked at sundown Beulah's calf was under the big trees and was laying in the narrow gap between two trees.  He certainly seems to be fine with sleeping in odd places.

As of sundown, no new calves born today.