The First Calf of 2009

It’s getting busier here on the farm.  Yesterday, this little fellow was born. 

Normally we bring our cows into the barn when they get close to calving, but our barn’s full of sows and their pigs and one  special gal – I’ll share that story another day.  Anyway, it’s nearly time for a couple of the sows to wean their babies so we hoped to combine the litters and open up a stall or two for calving. Betty preferred not to wait for us. Her handsome bull calf was born outside. Betty did her best with him, but he just couldn’t get himself up off the ground and got terribly chilled. I was home alone and had never had to warm a calf before. I was hesitant to get involved because I sure didn’t want to make matters worse. But when I saw that we were headed for a disaster, I stepped in with warm towels, syringes filled with warm milk, and a bale of hay.  It took all day, a lot of rubbing and heaving him up and trying to keep him up.  When I went into the house at 7 last night, he was looking stronger but still unable to stand on his own. I just didn’t know if he’d make it our not.  Shannon came home and we decided to put two sows and their litters together in one stall –hoping they’d all get along. Then we’d have a stall for Betty and her calf. After supper the little bugger was standing on his own….not gracefully…but he was up.  So we did all the rearranging and this morning he was up and drinking from his mom. All is well.