Calf 4 - Mama's

This morning I found Mama had her calf overnight.  Good thing I already had Mama in the south corral along with Haynes the bull.   Cute little calf.  White markings on its hips like Mama has.  A boy calf.  That means work as the calf needed to be banded.  And Mama is over-protective.  Very over-protective.  Making things more complicated is that today it was time to put the other cows in the corral and feed them a small bale of hay along with some hay from Mama's and Hayne's feeder.

Working with Mama's calf means I need to have Mama and her calf in separate parts of the corral.   So I had to wait until the other cows were out of the corral and in the pasture to eat from the large hay bale I would put out late afternoon.  I put out a large bale earlier than usual and then had Donna come over by 6:30 pm to help me band the calf.   Because of how Mama acts it was better to have an extra person to help us.  Curtis had an appointment at 7 pm so he couldn't help us.  I asked my other neighbor, Ty, and he was glad to help.

In the past years separating Mama and her calf could be difficult and take time.  Today it went well.  I had Ty climb the fence outside the gate, and I opened the gate and climbed the other fence.  After a few tries Mama and Haynes went out the gate and I was able to shut the gate before the calf could get through.

Mama was not happy.  But we were able to safely work on the calf.  First off Donna had left the banding instrument and the ear tag instrument back in the part of the corral Mama was in.  Opps.    I had Donna and Ty move the calf down to the other gate and Mama followed on the other side of the fence.  Then I was able to quickly go through another gate and run over to get the instruments.

I didn't have to use my pickup bed as a 'table' to hold the calf while it was banded.  Ty was able to kneel on the ground along with me.  I sat on the calf and held his its rear legs, and Ty was able to easily get the band onto the calf's scrotum.

Done.  

First photos were when I first found the new calf.

Mama shaking her head to indicate she was not happy I was in the same corral as she and her calf.

After the calf was banded and ear tagged.

You can see how Mama was trying to get her head through the gate to get me away from her calf.

Mama giving me the evil eye.

Mama together again with her calf.