Calf 6 - Panda's

Today, probably between 10 and 11 am, Panda had her calf.  It was easy to notice as the cattle were in the corral as I had fed them some small hay bales in the morning.

The calf is a heifer.  She is a beauty.  I'm thinking she may be one of the four heifer calves I plan to keep as replacement heifers.  Look at her forehead.  I think I may name her "Lightning".

After I put out the large hay bale after 5 pm I let the cattle out of the corral.  When I do so Panda usually is among the first to leave or enter the corral.  She usually runs to get to the hay before the other cattle. As she walked out of the corral she thought the calf following her was her calf.  And off she went.   I didn't think that was her calf.  I looked and found her calf laying in the loafing shed.  I left the corral gate open.

I wasn't long before I heard some mooing.  I looked in the corral and found Panda standing over her calf.  She was mooing at her calf telling her to come with Panda out of the corral so they could join the other cattle and Panda can eat hay while keeping an eye on her calf.  A short time later when I checked they were gone from the corral.

Just born and getting cleaned off by Panda.

Just after Donna and I tagged the calf's ear in the afternoon.  Since the corral's ground was wet I herded the calf out of the corral and to the backyard.  The backyard's ground was wet when I kneeled so I backed the calf up to a corner between the fence and the concrete casing, and holding the calf between my legs I tagged the calf's ear.

'Lightning' seems to be a good name for the calf.

Look at the tip of the calf's tail.  She has a white tip.

Panda

When Donna took the photo of the calf between my legs, she then accidentally(?) took a photo of the walnut tree above us.