Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Udder Me This, Udder Me That

Unlike some folks, we don't watch to see when our Highland bull Gunner, has bred our Highland cows, when our Shetland ram Stormy has bred our Shetland ewes, or when our Mulefoot boar Henry has bred our Mulefoot sows. Because we aren't producing babies on a production or big Ag type level, the exact moment isn't as important as when we allow them to breed (so that the babies are born during an optimum time for thriving) and what comes from the breeding. Every chart I've seen noting gestation periods have always provide a range of days...nothing is ever an exact date from here to there. Which makes the time of upcoming new babies on the farm like the days leading up to Christmas morning!

Patsy and her new calf!
So how do we know when a cow, ewe or sow is close to giving birth? Super simple and easy to note...udders that begin filling. Because we see our animals every day twice a day, we can watch the changes in the girls' udders and track out from there.

One week ago, we noticed two of our Highland cows' udders were filling up and dropping down a bit. So we have been waiting to see, with anticipation, which girl was going to drop a calf first. Christmas morning came January 29 when I walked out into the field and found a new white calf parked behind a small hill of hay.

Ding! Ding! Ding! Patsy wins the "first calf of 2012" award!

Because she is rangier than the others and very protective like a good mamma cow should be, we've only been able to get a far off photo of her and the calf. So we don't know if it is a bull or heifer calf. If it is a bull calf, we will band him. If a heifer calf, we have a new young Highland/Limosine cross yearling bull that we can put her with.

Patsy has given us two other bull calves over the years since we've had her: Lil' G who is a silver and lives on a friend's farm not far from us and Freddie, who is a blonde like his mom and whom we sold to another friend who was starting a Highland beef herd (he has meat for sale, so contact us for more information).

Highland calves are the cutest things on the face of the planet...and I'll prove it as soon as Patsy brings the baby up to the water trough and I can get some photos.


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