Calf 6 - Heifer 7's

Yesterday I had another calf born.  A heifer.  However, the calf is dead.  I fed the cattle around 6:30 pm.  Then I went out to the south pasture to trim some lower branches on a tree.   Before I finished I heard some cow mooing back in the north pasture.  I quit trimming after it began to get dark.  Back at home I got a flashlight to see better in the dusk and went out to check on the cattle.  The mooing cow was near a tree in the middle of the pasture.  Next to the tree, and who the cow was mooing at, was a dead calf.

I don't know how the calf died.  Was it born between 6:30 and 8:30 pm?  Or had it been born in the afternoon, and I hadn't seen the calf hidden behind the tree?  By the time I was ready to feed the cattle at 6 pm all the cattle were in the corral.  The mother was not out in the pasture by her calf.  Was the calf already dead?  Was the calf a stillborn calf?  Was it born in a complete cellophane wrapping, like I seen one calf born some years ago?  And did the wrapping not get punctured in time for the calf to breathe?    Or did it somehow die after birth?

So was it a stillborn, and if so how did it get completely dry if it couldn't stand up to be completely licked clean?  Or was the calf born alive, stood up to drink and was completely licked dry, then died later?

I don't know.  Looking at the calf, even today in the sunlight, I can't tell how it died.

Last night I put the dead calf in the corral so it wouldn't get eaten up like the last dead calf did overnight.  The mother didn't follow me as I carried the calf to corral but instead remained at where I found the calf.  Today the mother mooed a time or two, but seems to have gotten over it quicker that the mother of the previous dead calf did.  So maybe it was a stillborn and the mother didn't bond as much as the other mother had done.

I believe the dead calf was born to Maria's (#7) previous calf.  This cow does not have an ear tag and I remember that it seems each of the past couple of years the calves from Maria seem at some point to tear off their ear tag.   This cow has a notched ear where a tag used to be located.

I looked at photos from last year and do not find any photos of this cow and her calf.  I thought this was the second calf born to this cow, but perhaps this is this cow's first calf.   I don't let first time heifers be with the bull until the first cycle (21 days) is over where the bull had been with the older cows.  That means first time heifers should start to have calves March 31.  March 25 is six days early.  Something is off.

Six calves so far this year.  Two have died quickly.  That is one third of them.  Not good.