Calving Season is Here

Well, we are officially into calving season. Friday morning when I did my morning check we had a new one. Mama had her all cleaned off, but it was cold and windy so I put them in the barn. Another was acting veeeery uneasy, and as it WAS cold, and I was to go work at the stockyards for a few hours, I put her in too. Did the rest of chores up without incident, checked on my girls in the barn and headed out to work. It was a small sale, so I was back by 1pm. Only gone for about 2 hours. 70 head of cows, bulls and yearlings don't take long to go through the ring.

By the time I got back, heifer #2 had the feet (or should I say foot) out, so I figured another 1/2 hour or so. Meanwhile heifer #3 was spinning circles rapidly on the straw outside, so I had to bring her in. Not a big deal, but she thought she'd rather stay outside and jumped/pushed the gate open and got back into the north corral (where we have the heifers right now) so I had to start all over. But, finally, I did get her in. By this time heifer #2 isn't too terribly happy so I left her for a little longer, to let her settle. Of course in the end the extra time didn't help her out any, we had a leg back, and I had to help. Got the baby on the ground, and mama let go and things were fine there.

Heifer #3, was a little quieter, and didn't seem to mind watching the excitement next door. Gave her a bit of time and she had her own baby. Might have lost that one though if I hadn't been checking faithfully. Had the sac over its nose. I got there in lots of time and baby is fine. So all in all we had a good day. Done well before supper and we had a good nights sleep. No new ones since. I think the best thing about it though was their numbers. Out of 29 heifers and 50 cows, #'s 154, 153 and 152 calved one after the other in that order.....

Saturday morning I had lots of help tagging the new ones. Kick the mamas out of the barn and the kids got to help move babies around. J was a little spooked, but I got her convinced to help, and once she got into it she had fun. Her favorite is the blaze faced one. M isn't real high on the cows, but once you get him out there I think he likes it.

Here are the new ones.

#154

#153

#152