Calf 7 and 8 - Speckle's

Friday morning when I went out to feed hay to the cattle I saw a newborn calf with the group outside the corral gate.  The calf was laying by Mama.  Mama is not going to give birth until June so it wasn't her calf.  When all the cattle walked into the corral to eat hay this calf followed.  He has white speckles on his face and when he stood by Maria as she was eating hay from the feeder I thought it was her calf.   Since I didn't want this calf to accidently get hurt by the cows eating hay I carried the calf and put it in the south part of the corral to be with the steers.  I would put Maria in there after she finished eating.

I drove out to the north pasture to put the rest of the hay out on the ground.   Behind a tree I saw Speckles standing.  And below her by the tree was a white faced black calf.  Two calves were born overnight.

Speckles and her calf - a heifer - ate hay as I unloaded the pickup into numerous piles of hay.

After I reopened the corral gate to let the other cattle come out to eat the north pasture hay I went to look for the first calf.  The calf wasn't in the south corral with the steers.  Over and over I looked.  Huh?  I looked in the corral and couldn't find the calf.  What?  I'm sure I really saw a calf earlier and it wasn't my imagination.

Where is the calf?!   Eventually I started to check the back yard.  I found the calf laying near the pile of wood.  The calf somehow figured out how to get through the corral fence near the cattle's water trough well.  That has never happened before.

I carried the calf back into the corral and over to the loafing shed.  The calf could lay in there until the mother was done eating hay.

Later I found Speckles laying in the loafing with this calf.  Speckles calf was laying and sleeping in the middle of the corral.  Hmmm…. odd.  This also is not her calf, is it?

Some cows were still eating hay. Maybe the calf's mother would eventually come over.  So I waited until Donna came.   Speckles and the calf were still laying together.   They all got up when Donna and I walked in the corral.  The other calf woke up and went over to Speckles.  Both calves ended up drinking from Speckles.  Sometimes both drank from Speckles at the same time.   Speckles had twins!!!

Speckles is the first cow I had that had twins.   Joyce's family's cattle often has had twins.  So I called her for advice.   Because the twin calves drank from the same cow they both ended up being smaller when it was time to sell them in the Fall.   Speckle's calf last year turned out to be a large calf.  But Speckles is a smaller cow of mine.

The cow that lost her calf a few days earlier may still have milk.  Maybe I can get her to let one calf drink from her.  Donna and I put the black calf with white markings in the loading ramp corral along with the other cow.  Joyce recommended since I still had the dead calf to cut off its tail and attach it to this calf.  Cows smell the back and tail of calves to tell if the scent matches their scent.  So I did.

Even without her dead calf's tail attached the cow seemed to accept this new calf.  And with the new tail attached the calf had a smell like her calf.   Problem solved.  Or was it?  The calf didn't want to drink from the cow.  Well... it had recently drank from Speckles so maybe it wasn't hungry.   So left the calf in the loading ramp with the other cow.  I still had the protected area for a calf I made when I had the other calf with her mother who was rejecting her for a day.  Speckle's calf liked to go in and lay in this area even though this other cow was nice to her.

Donna and I came back in three hours to try again.   The calf still would not try to drink.  The cow was behaving and did not try to kick the calf away.  Donna knows how to milk cows much more than I do and she was able to quickly get milk from the cow.  So the cow is not dry.  Donna squirted milk onto the calf's face.  No reaction.  The calf is still not hungry?

We tried over and over and nothing.  Speckles was laying next to the other calf in the corral as I had closed the corral gate to keep her in and the other cows out of the corral.  I let the calf out of the loading ramp area and the calf went over to Speckles.  Speckles stood up and sniffed and licked the calf and then the calf went and drank milk from Speckles as the calf was hungry.   The calf was rejecting drinking from the other cow as it was not her mother.   Okay....    I had seen other calves over the years try to drink milk from another cow not their mother and usually that cow would not let the calf drink from her as it was not her calf.  This time I had the reverse happen.

Speckle's other calf seemed more aggressive when drinking milk.   Maybe this calf would drink from the other cow.   We tried to get this calf to drink, and Donna squirted the calf's face with the cow's milk and the same happened, the calf refused to drink.  When we let the calf out it went to Speckles and immediately started to drink.

We gave up.  Speckles loves both of her calves.  Sometimes when one calf drank Speckles would sniff and lick the other calf.  I guess Speckles will raise both of her calves.

I put Speckles and her calf in the south corral to be with the other steers.  If it got cold overnight they had a place warm to lay.  And Speckles needs extra food so she could get it from the large hay bale in that corral.

I also put the other cow in with them.  Maybe her being around the calves and the calves may bond with her and start drinking from her.  Who knows.

Before letting the cow out of the loading ramp I gave her an ear tag.  Last year she accidently tore off the ear tag she had on her left ear. (See the notched ear blow.)  Since her mother is Maria, number 7, I gave the cow number 8.

Both of Speckles calves are heifers.  And the calves like each other.  They often play or sleep near each other.

When I checked on the calves today they seemed to be doing well.