I don't know how I do it but I can almost tell every time when there's a calf back there. It's like I have a sixth sense. I don't have photos of the new born as it gets pretty involved when I'm working and the last thing on my mind is taking photos.
Yesterday morning on my way back home after my chores I saw a small cow that looked like she was trapped in a narrow enclosure as the gate had moved against a field plow. As I moved closer I saw that she was not trapped because there was enough of an opening for her to go through but that she looked like she was looking for a place secluded to calve because her tail was up and I could tell that something was going to happen. She didn't looked like she had a big belly though. I told my son and asked him to check in on her after milking. He said that she wasn't due yet but that he would look in on her after he finished milking. By the time he was done, she had calved outside.
This is an earlier photo of some of the calves when they were small not very long ago and now they are weaned and ready to move in one the big pens to socialize with the bigger calves so I'll have to clean more pens for the new recruits. Notice the pails full of hay. Some kids were visiting the farm and filled the grain and water pail with hay, lol.
Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving comments. JB
I love Cows, I love your storys! Thanks for sharing,cheri
ReplyDeleteJulia,
ReplyDeleteIs it planned that all these cows are having calves at about the same time? Are they artificially inseminated or do you have a bull? I don't know much about raising cows, having never lived on a farm, so your posts are interesting.
There are a lot of milk cows in our area but the trend nowdays seems to be toward keeping them in a 'loafing barn' all the time and not sending them out to pasture because it takes too much of the land area if they graze. I guess that's supposed to be modern farming, but I love to see cows out in a nice green grassy field.
Good luck with all the babies!
Thanks Cheri and Pat. Our cows are put to pasture and comes in to be milked twice a day. They come and go as they please. When it's too hot outside in the summer they come in to their new bedding barn to lay down in their free stalls. Our pasture are certified organic and managed on rotation. When a pasture has been grazed enough they are moved to another pasture and there a way for them to go to the barn when the please. We use artificial insemination and have a breeding technician come in tot inseminate the cows. JB
ReplyDeleteWow! That is very exciting! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteOh Julia, this post reminds me so much of when I was a kid and spent summers on my aunts farm. She had a sixth sense about the calving also. When the farm hand could not find the cow or calf she put her boots on and scoured the fields and she could find them always. I don't know how you keep up with so many at one time - must take lots of stamina! Be sure to take care of yourself - that farm and all of us need you!
ReplyDeletewhy is that that all of the cows calve at the same time. We would go around in a blur because of lack of sleep and spending more time out with the cows than bed and then once the cows finished we would go right into lambing season. Sheep are worse just because they just give up. Then they will have doubles, triples and all of that. Yes, a blur. So you are really going to be busy. Your cows are beautiful though.
ReplyDeleteI have always thought that being in a cold barn with the cows, and the sound of them eating and the smell of their breath and the peacefulness was always the best. Now I am speaking from California, so I bet it is different in Canada. :)Much colder and wetter and snowier. Thanks for sharing and your encouraging words. I wish I could just run over to your house and take you shopping for wool on your birthday. :)
So glad you started blogging.
Thanks so much for your caring comments, Michelle, Doris and Farm Girl. We don't normally have so many cows calving at a time but because of our barn collapse last January we could not breed the cows as every pens and alley ways were occupied by the herd and when things settled down my son had to give them an injection to bring some of them into heat. It's not a practice on our farm but under the circumstances it was necessary otherwise we would not have enough replacement heads for the future.
ReplyDeleteOur fields are organic but not our herd.