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.

Calf 5 - 80's

Yesterday afternoon calf 5 was born when the cattle were in the corral.  I didn't notice until after I had put out another large hay bale.  So it was later in the day, and by the time I was put an ear tag on the calf, and banded the calf to castrate him, it was too late to take photos of the calf.  I took the photos this morning.

The calf is the first male calf this year.   Look at his head.   He has the Toby and Angus look.

Cow 80 is the cow that was born with no tail.  So it is harder for her to get rid of flies.  All of her calves are normal, and have tails.

Before Donna and I worked on the calf, I let the rest of the cattle out of the corral so they could go and eat from the new hay bale.  The previous calf born, number 8's calf, didn't want to leave the corral and didn't follow the rest of the cattle out of the corral.  I left the gate open so he could later leave the corral.  After I worked on the new calf it was starting to get dark.  I didn't see the previous calf so I closed the gate.

This morning I found the previous calf in the corral and her mother on the other side of the corral fence, outside the corral.  I open the corral gate and let them be together and the calf started drinking form her mother.

After I took photos of the new calf I let him and his mother now leave the corral.  They walked together and mother left the corral.  The new calf went over to look at the other calf and that mother.  The new calf wouldn't listen to his mother, so she left and went to eat from the hay bale on the other side of the pasture.

After the calf was done drinking, and when the mother wanted the leave the corral, the calves wanted to stay in the corral.  I had to herd the calves out of the corral so they could be with the mother, and I could then close the corral gate.

No new calves born today when I checked.

Broken corral boards

Toby was at it again.  After I fed the cows this morning I noticed four of the boards in his part of the corral were off the posts, and two of the boards were broken.   Since I had put wire on the other sections he had broken in the past, Toby moved over to these sections with no wire on them.  Toby has plenty of hay.  He and Muscles could have easily left the corral, but they didn't.  So I spent the entire morning fixing the fence, then getting another section of wire to cut and nail to more sections of the fence.  I was able to put wire on the two sections Toby broke, and also two more sections on either side of the broken sections. 

They are more sections of the fence with no wire as an addition.  Some other day I'll get around to adding wire to those sections, unless Toby changes my schedule once again.

While I worked on the repairing the fence I had to put up with Toby moaning.  Over and over.  The cows were in the other part of the coral and it seems as if cow #60 was in heat. It has been 45 days since she gave birth.  By time I took the photo I had chased cow #60 away from the other side of the fence and over into the loading corral.  Didn't matter.  Toby stood there and looked and cried out for her to come back.   By late afternoon she must not have been in such strong heat as Toby wasn't moaning then.

On the left is a calf born the end of last July.  He has grown well.   On the right is a cow I am watching as she is looking like she is getting closer to giving birth.  No today though.   Another cow gave birth today.  I'll have photos tomorrow as it was getting too dark to take photos.

Calf 4 - 8's

This morning I found a new baby calf.  Another heifer.  That makes four heifers so far this year.  The calf's fur was all dry, and she could get up and move around; so I think she was born earlier, sometime during the night.

I've been watching three other cows as two of them had their due date on March 10 and March 11.  No calves yet from them.  The other cow looks close.  I don't know what day her due date is.

Cow number 8 didn't look as close to having a calf as the other three cows, but she did.  The cow and calf looks to be fine.

In the afternoon Donna came over to help me tag the calf's ear.  For whatever reason some of my lower back's muscles got sore after I sat in a chair this morning.  Don't know why.  But it made me slower to bend over or kneel to the ground.  Of course this calf decided to jump up and walk when I wanted to kneel down to hold her and ear tag her.   The calf then bawled out.   Mama cow is not her mother, and has no calf yet, but she came running over to take me out.  Donna had her walking stick and was able wave it and keep Mama away from me.  The calf got away from me and I had to re-do it again to grab the calf and get it to lay down so I could ear tag it safely.  I did.   My back wasn't too happy with my efforts.

I just bought a new camera so my pictures should look better now.

The mother (#8) and a number of aunties checking out the calf after I ear tagged it.

Ok, let's go somewhere else, away from the rancher and his friend.  Who know what they will do next to us?

Covid vaccine

Today I got my first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine.  It went well.  No side effects.  April 1 I will have my second COVID-19 shot.   So far, so good.  Keep wearing a mask, and avoid most people, and no signs of COVID-19.

Cutting some tree trunks

The last week I have been spending a little time most days using my chainsaw to cut up the trees that blew over in the north and middle pastures this Winter.

What was left of the north pasture tree that blew over this Winter.

Part of the tree that blew over last year onto the apple tree.

Most of the tree that blew over last year onto the apple tree.

It was getting dark when I started to cut the middle pasture tree that blew over this Winter.

Another day when I finished cutting the middle pasture tree.

Another view of the middle pasture tree after it was cut up into pieces.

I trimmed part of the root on a tree that blew over a number of years ago.  I'll cut up the rest of the tree later.

An old tree stump that I left for the cattle to rub against.

Diamond came to watch me stack the cut logs.

Switch and fight

This afternoon I planned on putting out another large hay bale.  Prior to that I put some small hay bales in the corral so the cattle would be there while I put out a large hay bale.  Sugar and her calf are doing fine, but I wanted them in the south corral so the new calf wouldn't have to be around the rest of the herd in the corral as there is not as much room to move around as there is out in the pasture.

It was easy to get Sugar and her calf in the south corral.  Sugar went to eat at the feeder there.  As I put out small hay bales to prepare for the rest of the cattle, I noticed Sugar was now fighting with Speckles and cow #60.  Once again the females fight.  I think that Sugar didn't want the other calves or cows checking out her calf.

The fight didn't last too long. The cows went their separate ways.

Then I let the rest of the cattle into the main corral.

After I put out the large hay bale in the afternoon, I let the cows out to eat.  Toby is a slow walker and was last so I closed the gate before he reached it.  Then I put him in the south corral.  Then I let the three cows and their calves out to join the other cows in the pasture.  I left Muscles in the corral with Toby.  Muscles is getting taller but he needs to eat more to get fat.

With only Toby and Muscles in the corral I now have room in case I need to put a new calf and her mother in the south corral for a short while.  The temperature forecast for the upcoming week has highs in the low 40s and overnight lows in the 20s.

After the cows and calves joined the rest of the cows the calves went crazy and ran around and around checking things out.  The mothers were concerned and for a little while I could see more fighting by the mother cows.

Calf 3's new ear tag

This afternoon Donna helped me when I put a new ear tag on Sugar's calf.  The calf is doing fine.

The calf is not mad.  He just has Toby's face and look.

Calf 3 - Sugar's

Late this afternoon I found the third calf of the year out in the north pasture.  While the calves' due date shouldn't start until March 10, based on how Sugar had been looking recently, I shouldn't be surprised she had her calf early.  The calf is another heifer.

I don't know when the calf was born.  But as the calf was pretty dry, and moved around fairly well, the calf could have been born late last night or this morning.   Yesterday when I  let the cattle out of the corral so they could go eat from the latest large hay bale I put out in the pasture, Sugar was acting a little odd as she followed the other cattle out to the hay bale.  I checked and did not find a calf at that time.  I should have checked this morning but my new cat, Rascal, had spent the night sleeping on the bed next to me, and in the morning wanted more attention from me and didn't want me to leave.

When I first found the calf it was laying on a little bit of left over hay near the feeder in the pasture.  Last year's steer calf was next to the new calf and checking it out.  No mother around.  Most of the cattle were eating hay from the feeder and the mother didn't come over when I checked if the calf was a male or female calf.  I went over and checked on the rest of the cows standing under trees and near the north fence to see if there was a calf over there.  No.  When I returned to the new calf Sugar stopped eating and walked over to her calf.  I then saw Sugar's udder and it is massive.

Since I had lost a calf last year to a colder than expected night, this time I didn't want to leave this calf in the pasture and wanted to move her and Sugar to the corral for a night or two.  Donna came to help me.  When Sugar saw Donna she took her calf and walked away.  Donna thought the calf was moving great and would survive staying in the pasture overnight.  But since the calf easily followed Sugar I figured I could herd Sugar to the corral and the calf would follow.  I didn't want to carry the calf all the way across the pasture.

Sugar kept walking away from Donna so herding was pretty easy.  But when we had a quarter of the pasture left to cross Sugar didn't want to go to the corral.  So I had to push the calf to walk into the corral. Sugar followed.

Since the covered area in the south part of the corral was full with the two cows, their calves, and Muscles, I put some straw in the loafing shed for Sugar and her calf.  I closed the corral gate so they would stay in the corral and the other cattle wouldn't come into the corral.  When I herded Sugar and her calf into the corral, last year's steer calf was very interested and would follow right along until we got to the corral.

I put out new straw and Donna and I got Sugar and her calf to the straw area.  When I got hay to add to that area, Sugar and her calf left.  Donna was nearby this area and Sugar wasn't trusting Donna.  So I had to push the calf all the way across the corral and back to the straw area.  She didn't want to move so it took some effort to push her along.  Most of the corral was mud as the cattle over the past few years ate the grass and then pulled up the grass roots.  So I was getting frustrated and annoyed, which Donna called me out on.

After a night or two I will let them out of the corral as I'm sure the calf will survive.

Sugar