Calving... not cancelled due to Coronavirus...
 

Mooooo

More snow just to make the calving season more interesting.

Growing up on a small ranch we had a foal every year.

Large animal birthing is magic: we had some tough births as well.

Cool stuff.

The OP is a nice picture.
I grew up on a dairy farm, so calving season was all year long. I was a tractor farmer - never cared much for the animals, but babies are cute no matter the species. I remember a cow that had a breech birth and the calf died before it was born. She walked around for days with half the dead calf hanging out of her. Dad couldn't get it out on the occasions when he could catch her. He finally corralled her near a post well enough to get a chain around the post and the calf's legs. She walked away and the calf came right out.
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Those are photos I have taken in the past 2 days. The first one is was born on Saturday morning at about 12:30 AM. The second one is a week and a half old and is an orphan I bought to put on one of our Holstein nurse cows. The third one is one I bought back in January to put on one of our other nurse cows. We have a bunch more left to calve out this spring. I’m trying to get our beef operation to the point that I can be less reliant on the oil patch.

Way to go Scott! Keep those steaks-a-flowing

Do you have a good place to calf? Dry, out of the wind, shelter for the calves? Just wondering. What are your current temps?

The farm across the road has a bunch of calves coming. The kids get the binoculars and watch the process.

It's nice here now @ -4c (24F)

true fact

In New Zealand, there is a town that phonetically is pronounced:


Why Kick a Moo Cow.



aye mate, good on yah for telling me that in the Dinkum Dictionary.

After tomorrow we should be out of the weeds for cold weather. We had one born in January on a night that was -30C. It spent the rest of the week in my heated shop and was reunited with its momma and is doing fine. Unfortunately it now has short ears and a short tail. This was from a nurse cow that was bred before we got her. We had no idea as to when she was bred or what she was bred to...

We have a good calving shelter (unheated) and not much for dry ground given that the warm weather is turning the calving pen from snow covered to mud covered. The straw is the best bet.

Incidentally, the calf in the top pic was born when it was -15. It also spent the rest of the night in the shop to dry up a bit and was given its first shot of collostrum before being put back with its momma.

We have 3 more that are imminent and the rest of the Hurd should be in the next few weeks (hopefully).

Our latest orphan...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1586821821.jpg

This ones momma is an arse hole, she abandoned her twin calves (one died) and tried to kill my friend (who is now in the hospital). He called me from the hospital and asked me to come get this calf out of his basement.

We will put her on one of our nurse cows for the summer and sell her in the fall.

Sounds like she was a mad cow! Hope your friend is OK.

I hope he is ok too. He doesn’t reply when I ask how he is doing, our her than to ask how the calf is...

Have good friends in the Maple Creek area that ranch ..Slippery Moon and Double Ought...use to go up there for sorting/branding....usually 450 calves so about 900 pairs to cut out. SM ran about 2500 head of horned white face.
I always enjoyed roping at branding time … riding out an calving in the snow was a beotch especially if you had to 'help'.
There are some damn fine cowboys/girls in that area.....damn fine.