2019 calving thread...

[Ryan]

Oh no , I hope it wasnt stolen.

so if a set of twins is born , one stays with mum and the other goes onto the bottle ?

Hope your getting better weather now and your place is starting to dry up

[Chanda]

so if a set of twins is born , one stays with mum and the other goes onto the bottle ?

Yes.  It's easier for us to keep track of pairs when they go out to pasture, and easier for the cow to only keep track of one.
Weather is much improved.  A bit cold again, but most of the snow is gone.   County road crew is working on fixing our roads where water run-off washed them out.

At the moment, I have no bottle calves, they have all been paired with a cow.  That does mean that unfortunately, those cows have lost their own calf; but at least we had "spare" calves to pair them up with.

[Chanda]

I'll get back to you with a picture (pictures), but we have a calf with only one ear.  Not frozen, born with only one ear "flap", the side without does have a tight ear hole, but no flap (or whatever the external ear is called).

[Chanda]

Pics as promised.  The weird looking pic is a close up of the tight ear canal.

[dcwolcott]

Awesome!!!!  Thanks so much!!

[Chanda]

And, I'm back to one bottle calf.  The smallest one I was feeding before is going back to a bottle, just wasn't working trying to pair up with a cow.  Calf is slow to nurse, doesn't follow the cow very well and well, just didn't work.

[dcwolcott]

Awwww poor little one.  Glad it has you to love and care for it!

[Chanda]

And, that calf went on a cow a few days ago, and is apparently doing well on the new cow.
Today, I gained two bottle calves: one from an older cow that looks to have milk, but must not (he's thin); and the other is getting thin (took right to a bottle, so mom must be short, or he can't catch her).   
Always something to keep us on our toes.

[Ryan]

You are certainly busy this time of the year

[Chanda]

Sorry, no pictures, forgot to grab the camera, but I would have been too busy to take pics, anyway.
We got half the calves branded today.  They are in two different pastures, about 20 miles apart, so with the little help we have these days, it's now a two day job.  I'm beat, and about ready to go jump in the shower.
Speaking of showers...  We have had a light rain shower this evening.  Not sure how much rain actually fell, but it dampened the yard.   I left the barn aisle open for the mares to get in out of the rain.   They have windbreaks, but I usually keep the barn aisle closed, or they just stand in there and crap and pull things off the wall and open stalls.  [I have clips for all the stalls, so when I do leave them in, I can try to keep them out of the stalls.]

[Anna]

It sounds as though you have had a busy couple of days Chanda, just wondering how many calves you have had this year and how do you decide who goes to market soon (or when) and who/how many do you keep to finish off or as herd replacements?? Really interested to know how things work for you over there (remembering my farming days).

[Chanda]

I'll try to remember to come back and answer when I'm not on my kindle, it's hard to type on this thing.