Calf 9 - 80's

Cow #80 finally had her calf last night.  She has looked like she was about to give birth for two weeks now.   Last Wednesday night, after I put out another large hay bale, cow #80 was acting like the birth was about to happen any minute.  While the other cattle ate the hay cow #80 was in the corral circling and sniffing the ground.  Then she was by herself under a tree outside the corral.  I would check on her almost hourly up until I went to bed after midnight.   At one point she was laying and her birthing canal was open the size of the width of my hand.  She was moaning like she was having contractions.  I couldn't see any hooves of the calf's.   I even called Donna for advice and ended up waking her up.  She was half asleep when I described the situation.  At one point I said I was probably paranoid about something going wrong.  I got no response from Donna.  When I asked her if she was still there, she said yes, she was just laughing.

"Ok Donna.  Go back to sleep.  I'll talk with you tomorrow."

The next morning Donna asked if we had spoken the night before as she had a vague memory of us talking about something.

In the morning cow #80 was back to acting how she usually acts.  The previous night she must have had a false labor pains.

I wondered if cow #80 was ever going to have her calf and this morning I finally found she had a calf.  A little black bull calf.  That makes 7 out of the 9 are bull calves.

I looked back on cow #80's history and I found that last year she was second to last to give birth, and previous years she was in the later group to give birth.  That's her history.

I have 5 cows left to give birth.   It has been 6 days since the last calf was born.  The remaining cows don't look imminent.  It may be a number more days before the next calf is born.