Second Calf

We had the second calf of the year born this morning. I was scared walking out there and seeing a tiny calf standing alone. It was 6 degrees when I left the house.

But the calf was fine! Up and had nursed already. Heifers are so bad at being moms, but not this one. She had licked him up and let him nurse. The things that kept him alive in the cold weather. The other heifers hadn’t hurt him in their curiosity. It was all good.

I walked them both up to the front corrals after feeding. Brisket and Fatty needed some company. It isn’t good for cow or calf to be all alone.

The problem with these early calves and heifers is that I have no where to go with them. It would be nice to have them out of the close corrals, out of the way. But, heifers aren’t good at being moms. They might care for their calves, let them nurse and watch after them.

But, coyotes are awful. They will eat a young calf alive. Literally. Start chewing from the back end until the calf eventually bleeds out. It takes awhile. Heifers aren’t great at keeping an eye on their calves and protecting them. Especially when there are only two of them.

So I will hold them up close to the buildings where they should be safe. Safer at least. Until I have many more calves and hopefully an older cow or two. Then they can go to the farther out corrals.

Calving will be starting in earnest in the next couple weeks. They wont have to stay up here too long.

I tried really hard to get pictures of Fatty next to the new calf, 424 if we want names. He is so much bigger already than she is. And he’s still small. A much more normally ‘small’ calf. My old Jersey bull, Oak, threw really nice, nearly perfect, heifer calves. Small, energetic, would hop up on their own and be off running within an hour. Too bad he decided he wanted to eat people.

Fatty at a week old is still much smaller than this brand new, couple hour old, calf. I tried really hard to get picture of them next to each other but their moms were not happy about them visiting or about me being there trying to get pictures.