Life among the Tall Pines: Calf 7

Sunday, March 31, 2019

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.