This calf is only two days old and already he has caused a heap of trouble.
First of all, he is HUGE - Bruce estimates 140 lbs. This means that his mom spent the last week of pregnancy trying unsuccessfully to hold herself together. But, carrying such a big calf meant that she did not have enough room inside for everything and consequently kept prolapsing. Bruce and I pushed everything back in three times over six days before finally calling the vet to sew her up.
Well, that meant I had to watch her like a hawk so we could untie her so she could calve, which she did the day after the vet was there.
Our cows are not in a barn, but out on pasture, which raises another whole new challenge of getting cows in trouble to our pen with the handling system. But she is relatively quiet and we were able to push her up to pen without any trouble.
As I said, the calf is huge. She was not able to deliver it on her own. We had to pull it. I felt so sorry for Mom ... she went through so much for him.
We find the bigger they are, the dumber they are. He hasn't totally figured out where the milk bar is, and so, I have given him a couple of bottles. Sure hope he figures life out before Mom gets so swollen that she gets mastitis!
Oh, yes! And we are having a real down pour of rain tonight that we had to put Mom and baby into our nice, warm, dry shop for the night. Our vehicles are once again sleeping outside!
But, on the plus side, we are now finished calving for the year!
You certainly had a difficult finish! I understand totally what you are talking about. I hope he finds his milk bar soon so you can rest. I have learned to love small lambs for the same reason. The big ones are so hard on the mom. On the other hand he is very cute and has that look of double trouble on his face. Wonderful photo and story!
Yes he has definitely got a look in his eye like he has more plans for trouble-making. Poor mother! Poor you! Still, with calving over you will be able to put your feet up now for the rest of the year wont you??? No, I guess not!
Give me a normal sized baby every time...the calf might be worth more but look at the vet bills & damage to mum. I can just image you doing all this, dammed hard work plus the worry. Hope all goes well & the silly boy gets the hang of sucking from mum soon!! He is a very handsome chap...will you take him right through or do you sell as weaned calves?
Sounds like quite the ordeal for everyone involved! One reason I love my Dexters - in 3 years we've never had to help with calving (we've never actually even seen one of them calve, they just show up at the hay bales one day with a calf in tow!)
Great story, I have been up all night when I had cows calving, always good when a positive outcome. Beautiful calf and nice shot. I am enjoying the farm diary.
May 3rd, 2013
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