COWS COWS COWS !!!

Well we are now officially into calving season and of course Ryan wrecked his arm right before it started. I don't think I realized when we decided to do the cow thing that I would have some part in this. Up until now I just have looked at them when I wanted to and not taken a great interest in their welfare. Well I guess I never thought about the fact that I am the one who is home all day and calves just come when they want. The first one came in the afternoon. I looked over and saw this black thing then I screamed and ran around. I quickly phoned Grandpa Baldry's house and Shawn happened to be there. So he came over and gave me a lesson on what I should do. You know like if the cow is not breathing stick a piece of straw up its nose so it will cough, or if the mother is not eating the sack off you need to get it off, or if it is too cold (below -15) then you have to get it to shelter, which involves putting the calf on a sled, hoping the mother does not charge and pulling it to the sheds. Just some basics. But really it is not that tough. I actually haven't done much, well I did move a cow into the corral because I thought she was ready and yes she did have her calf a few hours later. So far everything has just happened naturally.

This is the cutest calf, most are black but she is a black and red mix with really black eyes.

This is the first calf from Nevada.

I have really learned that it is all about watching the cows. I don't know about real farmers but we do a lot of watching. You have to watch to see if the cow is in labour and then watch to see if she is progressing, then watch to see if the baby gets out and if it is breathing and trying to stand up. Then after all that watching you have to watch to see if it is eating and how it is doing. Then from their it is a lot of watching for pink eye, lice, lameness, skowers or any other sickness they might get. So we do a lot of just watching, I am not sure we have to do this much but for now we do it.

So far we are up to 12 calves and all have lived so far. Nine boys and three girls, Grandpa Barrie wants girls (because he wants to keep them because he thinks they will be good cows) and the Robert, Richard and Ryan want boys (because then we can sell them).We had some troubles with Kaluha, her calf wasn't eating, or so we thought. So Ryan had to get her in the head squeeze, (thanks to all that helped him) and milk her. We think she is doing better and the baby has started eating. I am sure we will have lots more of these type of adventures.

Sidenote: If you want your kids to learn about the birds and the bees come to our house. My kids have now seen a baby calf born and hopefully that is how they will learn. I actually saw my first calf born, wow it is amazing.

This is baby Kaluha, she would just lay in a lump, but with some intervention we think she is doing better.
These are some of the new crew. I call them the visitors, maybe they won't stay. Nine pregnant heifers. (yes they are heifers and know that heifers are hard to calf) So in them coming here I made it quite clear that if there are problems, I nor will I let Ryan pull a calf and so if we can't find help the calf and even the cow may or may not make it. (just for the record)

This is a cow that is in labour and will have a baby soon. And yes she did have a few hours later. If you wanted to know you can tell because her tail is up, she is off by herself, she is up an down, she seems agitated. (you may need this knowledge some day)