2025: Calf 7 - 8's

After this last run of new baby calves, I was expecting a little break before the next calf would be born.  I was wrong once again.  I walked out to check on the cattle and calves this morning and was surprised to find a new calf.

The calf is a heifer.  That makes 4 heifers and 3 bull calves so far this year.   And 7 calves mean I am now just over halfway there as only 6 calves are left to be born.

I was going to have Donna help ear tag the calf, but since the calf was laying along the corral fence I was able to ear tag the calf myself.  Unlike yesterday this calf didn't immediately get up and run off as I approached.

2025: Calf 6 - Panda's

Panda finally had her calf last night or early this morning.  Based on how Panda looked earlier, I expected she would have been the first cow this year to have a calf.  But, fooled again.

Panda had a heifer.   Panda is a black white-faced cow.  Panda's mother was a brown cow.  The calf's father was Haynes the bull.  Haynes was a black bull.  Haynes' mother was black and his father was a red angus bull.  So that may be why the new calf is a little more brown than black.  Genetic history.

When Michael came over at 2pm today to band and ear tag calf 5, Panda's calf was up and about by then.  Panda saw us coming and she got up and her calf up and quickly walked away.  Michael and I had to walk half the pasture to catch the calf.  And we had to split up so Panda and her calf had to think about which way to go.  That is how I finally was able to grab the calf.

Ear banding went quick and then off the calf and Panda went.   Panda is white-faced.  Her calf has just this little white marking on her forehead.   Cute.  Mostly like one of the replacement heifers I will keep for next year.

2025: Calf 5 - 20's

Yesterday around 6 pm cow #20 had her calf.  Another nice bull calf.   Kari's Flathead Valley Community Band had a concert at the Flathead High School that evening.  So banding and ear tagging the new calf had to wait until today as Donna, Michael and I attended the concert last night.

Today at 2 pm Michael came over to help me band and ear tag the calf.  The calf was laying next to his mother and the hay feeder when I approached.  The calf seemed half asleep when I approached.  So I moved slow.  But then suddenly the calf jumped up and ran off with his mother.  That was fast.  Michael and I had to go after the calf a ways before I was able to grab the calf and get it to the ground.  Good thing Michael followed as the calf knocked me off balance and almost got away from me.  He is strong.

The banding and ear tagging went quick and well.

Here is the new calf from yesterday.  Less than an hour old.  Mostly licked clean.  Had not tried to stand up yet.  He did try to stand after I walked away.  Eventually he got it.

After the calf was banded and ear tagged.

Okay... time to head out and join the others.

Of course Fritz the bull had to check the new calf out.

The other cattle and calves were nearby and watched as Michael and I banded and ear tagged calf 5.

2025: Calf 4 - 70's

This morning I discovered calf 4 had been born.  The calf was pretty clean and resting well.  It may have been born very early morning, or even last night after sundown.   The calf is another bull calf.

This afternoon Michael came to help band and ear tag the calf.  Kari was working at her job and Michael had the day off from his job.  Again the banding by Michael went well even though it takes a few minutes to find both of the testicles.

Mother and baby laying together in the corral before Michael arrived.

Before Michael arrived I put out a new large hay bale and then let the rest of the cattle out of the corral to go eat the hay.  I kept the new mother and new calf in the corral to have less of an area to chase the calf to catch it in order to band and ear tag him.

Here the cows are at the feeder in the background.  One of the mother cows brought the three calves out with her from the corral to be with the rest of the cattle now at the feeder.

Chain sawed fallen tree from last Fall

No new calves today.

A few weeks ago, after I first came down with piriformis syndrome, I chain sawed and cut up the rest of the tree that was blown over last Fall.   I waited until this Spring because I ran out of fuel for the chainsaw and I didn't want to make a new batch of fuel when all I would need was one tank full to finish cutting the tree, and I didn't want the rest of the fuel sitting around all Winter.

Even though I didn't have fuel, over the Winter I used my saw to cut sections off the tree trunk.

By Spring the tree trunk was down to this length.  I think I had cut off seven sections by this point.   Any more sections and the trunk would fall to the ground.   It is Spring now and time for the chainsaw.  Eight more sections were cut.

And I cut the stump to near ground level.  This Summer I will look into digging and removing the stump entirely.

If you remember from last year I had cut and stacked another fallen tree.  Now I added this year's cut tree to the stack.

Since my piriformis syndrome affected my sitting, standing to cut the tree was no problem.  While I thought the bruises from my earlier fall were gone, by the time I was done chainsawing I realized my back muscles bruises were not completely gone.  My back muscles were sore for the rest of the day.

2025: Calf 3 - 10's

Another calf was born today.  Probably sometime overnight as the calf was dry and up and around when I checked on the cattle late this morning.  Again, a calf from a cow not on the top of my "who is next" list.  With a few white markings on the calf's face the calf almost looks like the mother.

The calf is a little bull calf. So Donna asked her daughter Kari to come along to help us as banding a little bull calf is a little more work that just ear tagging the calf.   Another calf where his testicles were both not all the way down, and where one had to do a little work to make sure both testicles were down when the band was attached.  It took two attempts to band the calf as one testicle went back up by the time the band was put on the first time.

Another beautiful calf.    It snowed overnight.  The snow was gone by mid afternoon.

Beulah's calf came over to check out the new calf.

By the time Donna and Kari came to help the snow was gone and 10 and her calf were out in the pasture and not in the corral, which was fine as the pasture is grassy and not muddy like the corral.

The aunties and Fritz the bull came over to check out what we were doing.   I've noticed that Fritz is always very interested checking out each new calf.

Little snow today

I woke up to a little snow this morning.  By midafternoon it was gone.  Off-and-on chances of snow is forecast each day for the next week.

No new calves today.

2025: Calf 2 - 60's

Early this afternoon another calf was born.   This time to cow number 60.   Another large beautiful heifer.  Donna came after 5 pm to help me put an ear tag on the calf.  The mother is a cow that doesn't want you near her calf.  She shakes her head at you when you approach the calf.  But cow 60 doesn't attack you. Still, her actions makes you keep your eyes on her.

2025: Calf 1 - Beulah's

The first calf of this year was born around noon today.  I checked the cows late this morning and no calves.  But Beulah was away from the other cows who were at the hay feeder.  Beulah was whipping her tail side-to-side a lot.  And there are no flies to drive away with her tail.  Donna thinks the rapid tail whipping may be because Beulah was having pregnancy cramps at the time.  So I expected Beulah to have her calf within an hour or two.   Over a half hour later I saw Beulah licking the newborn calf to clean it.  Her calf is big and beautiful and is a heifer.  A heifer I most likely will keep as a replacement heifer.  A short time later I saw the calf standing up and drinking milk from Beulah.

Donna came over before 5 pm to help me ear tag the calf.  We quickly ear tagged the heifer.

Before Beulah had her calf.  You can see how the cow's tail humps up when they are within days of having a calf.

The calf was born in the loafing shed.  And here she is with her new ear tag.

No other new calves this evening when I checked.  But several of the cows were whipping their tails back and forth.  They may be next to have their calves soon.