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