Red had a heifer calf overnight. An all black calf. I wondered what color the calf would be. There are no black and red calves so it would either be all red or all black. I expected an all red calf as all of Red's previous calves were all red.
I found the calf this morning laying next to the hay feeder. The calf was all clean and all alert. Red was on the other side of the feeder. Red started mooing. I figured she couldn't find her calf and I herded her over to her calf. She was sniffing the calf as I left.
I ran errands uptown the rest of the morning. At noon when I got back Donna came over to help me tag the calf's ear. The calf was laying next to the feeder and Red was laying across the corral pasture. She was laying next to her calf from last year, "Little Red".
The ear tagging did not go well. The tag only went halfway through the calf's ear. It was a struggle to remove the puncher from the tag. The white tip came off and I had to put it back on the tag. After a struggle I got the puncher off the tag and the tag off the calf's ear as I was unable to push it all the way through the ear hole by hand. The second attempt to tag the ear worked as it should.
Of course the extra effort got the calf riled up and it started to squirm which made safely removing the partially entered tag and the puncher harder to do. I was straddling the calf and eventually Donna had to block the calf from squirming from back and out under me. By the time I was all done my hips were sore, especially my left hip which I think has a touch of arthritis. I am not used to kneeling while my legs spread apart, especially with a squirming calf I had to squeeze and hold. By the end of the day, and even a little bit now, my left hip is bothering me.
Once the calf was tagged I decided to walk it over to her mother. When the calf approached Red, Red pushed it away and then walked off. She wanted nothing to do with her calf.
What?!! Red never acts that way to her calf. Time to put Red and her calf in the loading ramp corral so the calf can drink from Red.
But Red wouldn't go into the corral. Around and around I went. Little Red kept getting in the way. Finally I herded Little Red into the corral and then Red went in also. It wasn't too hard to get Little Red back out of the corral. Then I got Red and her calf into the loading ramp corral.
The next problem was Red would kick at her calf when the calf went to drink. I got a rope and tried to tie her leg to the back gate to stop her from kicking. That didn't work as Red kept trying to kick her leg. So I got another board and put it in front of her legs and braced the board to the corral fence. Then the calf could drink from Red without getting kicked. Once the calf started drink Red settled down. After a while I could remove the extra board and Red wouldn't kick.
Why was Red acting so strange? The calf - while hungry - had energy and she went right for the udder and nipples when able. So she had drunk from Red before. And she was all clean. Why did Red change and now reject her? Then it came to me. "Little Red". She is a stinker and troublemaker. I think she saw the new calf drink from Red and then realized milk was on the menu again. She took over and Red welcomed her and didn't kick her off like she should have. All the other replacement heifers' mothers have calved and none of those replacement calves were trying to drink from their mothers. Either they didn't think of doing so or their mothers kicked them off.
So I had to separate Red from Little Red. I put Little Red in the loading corral next to the loading ramp corral. Initially Little Red hung next to Red then went to eating the green grass in the loading corral. Once Little Red was near Red, Red got all worked up and focused on Little Red. I had put water and hay in the loading corral for Little Red. But I realized I needed to separate those two even more. So I put Little Red and two of the replacement heifers (to keep Little Red company) out in the fruit tree area of the NE pasture. They would be far enough away and behind buildings that Red couldn't see her anymore. After I did so Red calmed down. Donna poured a little molasses on the calf's back to have Red lick her to get more of her scent on the calf and further cement the bond between the two.
I still didn't trust Red. I know how stubborn she is. So I left her in the loading ramp corral with her calf. I had spent three hours on these two and I had another project I needed to complete this afternoon. At 6 pm I checked on Red and her calf. Red was restless and her calf was sleeping. I gave Red some hay. This bothered the rest of the cattle as half came over and mooed they wanted this hay too.
*Sigh*
At 8 pm I checked on Red and her calf. The calf was up. She bleated a few times. She appeared to be hungry. I walked the calf over to Red. Red would kick once and walk away. After several instances of this I put Red back in the holding part of the loading ramp and put her calf in next to her. This time Red did not kick when the calf began to drink. I don't think the calf had drunk since early afternoon and she drank and drank. Afterwards I put water and more hay in the loading ramp corral for Red. It had been raining since afternoon and I placed a larger sheet of metal tin over the loading ramp area as a roof where I had boards blocking Red and the ramp narrowed and where the calf laid.
I'll see what tomorrow brings.
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| Molasses on the calf's back. |
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| Several replacement heifers were fascinated in what we were doing with Red and her new calf. |
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| She had her own hay, but the replacement heifer insisted on reaching through the fence to eat Little Red's hay. |
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