Difficult Calf Birth

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So, this is my first attempt at a video for this site! Yay!  It's not the best video I have ever seen, but hopefully it will be useful in identifying a difficult birth and what to do about it in a timely manner.  On the video, which was filmed over about 2.5 hours and sped up a bit, first you can see her up and down, some runny goo coming out when she pushes, her laying down to push, hooves showing and finally the chains being applied.

Friday night our cow that has had the trouble with bloat went into labor -finally.  She was progressing kind of slowly and got to the point we could see hooves sticking out and a tongue when she pushed.  She didn't progress past this point for 30 minutes when we decided it should be pulled.  When we got up close, the hooves were huge and so was the nose we could see when we opened it up a bit.  He put the hand puller chains on it and gave a couple good pulls.  Nothing.  We made a quick call to a farmer friend who quickly brought the ob puller over.  Within minutes and a couple strong men's pulls, we had a calf!

At first it wasn't breathing well and we were pretty worried about it.  We rubbed and rubbed to stimulate him and after a few minutes momma came over to start her momma duties on him.  Finally he started to perk up and breath without the scary gurgle noise.  He didn't get up that night, but we weren't too worried due to the difficult birth for both them.

The next morning he was up at times and has eaten.  Both he and momma are doing very well.  He is red with a white face and yes he is huge! He is 1/2 hereford and 1/2 south devon.  He's adorable and very mild mannered at least for now!!

More Cattle Bloat Info

Since having a cow that had bloat earlier this week I have done quite a bit more research on the topic and thought I would share the information.  That said, I am NOT a vet and you can decide to use this information or not.  If in doubt, I ALWAYS opt for calling the vet.

Cattle bloat is basically just indigestion that leads to excessive gas being built up.  When this happens, burping is unable to relieve all the gas.  There are certain feeds which are more prone to causing bloat such as: legumes, alfalfa, too much grain or finely chopped hay.

As the cow bloats, the left side (where the rumen is located) of the belly gets larger than the right side making the cow appear lop-sided.  As it worsens, both sides will get larger.  When this happens, there is more and more pressure being put on the lungs and heart.  This makes it very hard for the cow to breath and can quickly cause death if not relieved.

While there are feed supplements to help prevent bloat there are some things that can be done other than that.  Don't put cows on wet legume pasture as this ferments easily and don't rush them when moving them in or out of pasture.  Movement irritates the rumen and can make bloat worse. Also, the time they spend in lush spring pastures may have to be limited.  Also, there are cows who are just more prone to getting bloat than others.  In this case, the question arises whether or not to sell them or not.  The risk with keeping them is that if they bloated and you didn't notice,  they could die.

Treatment for mild to moderate bloat includes a tube passed through the left side of the mouth or nose, through the esophagus and into the rumen.  This can require a tube many feet long depending on the size of the cow.  Through this tube mineral oil can be given to break up the foam.  Also, using a bite block works well to prevent the cow from biting the tube.  

If the cow is having difficulty breathing, this may require more immediate emergency actions involving a needle or trocar inserted through the belly into the rumen to immediately relieve the gas.  If the cow is in dire need and taking it's last gasping breaths, a pocket knife can be used to make a hole which can be stitched by the vet after the emergency is over.  One may need to use their fingers in order to spread the opening larger if the foam is too thick to allow the gas to escape.  I also read that the vet can insert a permanent valve for cows that bloat often. I don't know any details on that, but it is something we will keep in mind for our heifer.

All of the information I found has been helpful to us in dealing with our young lady.  We tried her out on grass this morning and it appeared that her belly was growing again so I put her in the barn again where I believe she will remain until the calf is born.  I am not sure what the problem is, but suspect it may be either the positioning of her calf or the size of it.  Either way, I will be keeping a close eye on her in the barn due to my suspicion of problems with labor and delivery!

I hope this information is helpful, but please also remember that I AM NOT A VET! I am publishing this information as just that- information period.  It is not meant as medical advice or as a replacement for contacting a professional!

Witnessed Calf Birth #2

So, as I said in my last post, I was able to witness my second calf birth (our 3rd calf this year) last week.  She was not so hidden in the weeds and, while it did progress fast, it was not quite as fast as the first one I witnessed a few weeks ago!  The photos are from my phone which means they are not the best quality, but they do show exactly what was happening.  I didn't have time to go get the camera or I would have missed the whole thing!

First sight was 2 hooves showing.

With each push more of the calf was showing.

Some pushes I could tell were extremely hard and painful.

At this point the bag was torn and we could see the calf breathing.

The rear end was a little harder to expel than the head was.

All of a sudden --plop onto the ground!!  We were almost certain it was a girl and IT IS!

The first few attempts at standing were very wobbly.

Momma quickly gets the new calf cleaned off.

Finally she stands and after some help from us, starts to drink.

Once again it was an amazing sight that I feel privileged to be a part of.  Red is a great mother and this adorable little girl born on May Day is named May!!

Udderly Enormous!

All the girls were up in the barn lot tonight so my daughter and I decided to go out and check on them.  We have a heifer, Red, that is due in a couple weeks with her first calf, but she has really been bagging up recently. I am so excited to see what her babies will look like since she is built like a brick, well, you know the rest.  When we looked at her tonight all I could do is feel sorry for her as it must be so uncomfortable, but this is what we saw:

This photo taken with my phone doesn't quite do it justice but believe me she is gigantic!  I think if she doesn't calve tomorrow I will start taking bets on when it will be or if it will be before she has an udder explosion!!

On a cute note, I got some decent photos of my little girl (she might become my favorite) in the barn lot. I love to look out in the pasture to see her playing in the field by momma.  She is just the meaning of adorable!

Love this girl!

Hope everyone has a wonderful day and I will post as soon as our next little beauty is born!

More Pics of the Babies!

I cannot resist these cutie pies! I had to post some more pics of them as I have taken a ton of them already!  They are doing great and seem to be healthy.  They both drink from mommas well.  The little girl runs and jumps around the pasture but the little boy still lays around a lot.

 Little Mr. (no name yet)

Little Miss April

Such cuteness at the farm here now!  It was definitely worth the wait to see these two.  I am so excited for the others to arrive.  

Happy Easter!!

Our Cow's Labor Stages

Yesterday as I was driving past the pasture I noticed our cow, Mabel, standing with her tail straight out and looking like she was straining with nothing coming out (or so I thought from that far away).  Also, she was in the corner of the pasture away from the herd.  This was about 2:30pm.  I rushed right down with her in time to catch all of this:

 This is what she looked like when I first saw her.

When she turned I could see this discharge from her vaginal area.

After a few pushes like above it seemed she was pushing harder and her tail would curl.  This went on for a few pushes. 

Finally I was able to see just a little of the bag starting to appear.

More and more bag appeared with each push.  She seemed to be progressing just fine.

Finally she laid down to push.  Even more bag was visible.

A few more hard pushes and it is hard to see with the weeds, but the baby is being delivered in this photo. (Unluckily she moved behind these weeds just before this) This was around 3:30pm.  This all was right at or just over an hour after I noticed labor had begun. (Not exact on times due to watching cow not my watch!)

It took momma a minute or so to get up after delivery and I was starting to get a little nervous because I couldn't see the baby moving.  A couple licks from mom and I could see movement!

Baby is all black and is still being cleaned off just minutes after birth.  Already seems very alert.

And baby calf stands!  This was the first full stand after a few failed attempts.  This was roughly 10 minutes after birth.

Later that evening we went to check on the calf and found out he is a boy!  He is 7/8 angus and 1/8 maine anjou.  

Today we were able to check out the black white-faced calf born earlier yesterday and she is a girl!  I am so excited about that because she will be retained for breeding.  Both calves are great looking babies and we are so happy with them.  I feel privileged to have witnessed such an event.  I did stay back a ways so that momma could have her room to do her thing, but she is a wonderful gentle and tolerant cow so she lets us touch and pet the calf anytime.  She is also very protective and rarely leaves his side.

We feel so blessed this year already and have a few more to go!  

Long Awaited Arrival

It is days like today that make all the hard work and money spent all worthwhile.  It seems like I have been waiting forever to see our first new arrivals of the year (pretty much since the bull was here) and we are calving much earlier this year than any previous year.  

I have been keeping a close eye on the cows out in the pasture with binoculars from the house when busy doing housework and everything else.  Today after lunch I noticed the cows were within sight so I whipped out the binoculars to check on them.  To my shock and amazement there it was, a little black white faced calf running about near it's mother, Maria.  Yep, Maria was the first to calve and a first time mom who did it all by herself without a hitch.  What a tremendous calf she has(as I believe they all are).

Of course, I headed out to check it out and snap some pics of it.  We still cannot tell for sure if it is a heifer or bull calf, although my husband thinks she's a girl and I sure hope so.  If so, she will definitely be a keeper!

I then had to go into town to get our weekly ration of feed for the goats and chickens.  Driving by the field on my way home I noticed Mabel was in the corner of the pasture again as she was when I was out earlier.  I had checked on her then with no signs of labor.  She was now standing kinda funny with her tail straight out, but she wasn't eliminating anything.  I just had a feeling she was maybe in labor.  I ran in the house, grabbed the camera and my phone and headed back out determined to see the whole thing.  I did get to see it and it was an amazing hour.  I got lots of pics of the whole thing, some of which I will be posting maybe tomorrow in a "step by step of labor post".  The end product is a beautiful little boy that is as black as night and also oh so wonderful.  

Mabel is a wonderful momma and let us pet him this evening.  What an experience that was.  She is an amazingly gentle cow who is one of my favorites if not the favorite as far as temperament.

We still have 3 to go and each is sure to be as amazing as the others! My son also has a heifer to calve.  With all the events of today, one never knows what tomorrow might hold!

The Waiting is Killing Me!

I wait and wait as patiently as possible every year for our cows to calve.  This for me is not easy as I am not a very patient person.  It is now officially driving me CRAZY! 

This week marks the third week that Mabel has been oozing mucous from her behind.  It is getting thicker day by day.  Each day I get excited when I see this and check on her often -usually 2-3 times per day.  So far, no additional progress except that her milk bag is enormous.  In my past experience, which is not vast by any means, once they start this process it doesn't only take a couple days to deliver the calf.  

Maria is also getting close as she has a behind that is so swollen it looks like it will explode.  No other indications that it is impending, except that her bag is also getting full. They both have difficulty getting up from laying down and look so uncomfortable.  According to the vet's calculations last October, these 2 are both due around today!  We always try to guess who will be first and this year it is truly a tossup.  I won't even venture to guess at this point, but I do think that Red will be the third to calve.

This year is extra exciting due to our horrendously cold winter months we had.  Spring, hopefully, is definitely here!

Also, if you haven't noticed yet please check out my new page: Our Girls.  It is a tribute to our breeding girls!

Time to get outside and enjoy this wonderful weather! 

(forecast 74 degrees here today!)

Bulls and Sex of Calves

As we await the arrival of our first calves, this is the time of year we begin thinking about breeding this year and coming up with our plan.

Last year we decided to purchase a bull, use him for a few months and resell him at the local cattle sale.  This did work out for us, but being an older bull with worsening feet, I was very worried something would happen to him before we could get him sold.  Everything worked out fine and he was sold in October and it ended up costing us roughly $300 to breed 5 cows.

Thanks to a very nice woman who raises some of the nicest polled hereford cattle I have ever seen, we will be purchasing our own 2 year old bull. He will not come to our farm until we are done calving this year. His name is Apollo and he is a magnificent looking creature that will add some color to our herd, which is important to us(mainly me).  Everyone in Iowa has black cows and we prefer each cow have it's own look, because they all do have their own personality!

Apollo

I have learned a great deal from this nice older woman whose family has been raising polled herefords since before she was born.  One of the most interesting things I have learned is that the bull "picks" the sex of the calf.  She said that in her experience if the bull lunges to mount the cow, it will almost always produce a male.  If the bull gently atops her, it will produce a female.  So, if the bull is young  and has to kind of jump up there it should produce more males. It has something to do with the difference in speed, agility and longevity of the sperm.  I remember reading this sort of information about people when I was in my baby-making days.

I will be keeping track this year of the sex of our calves born to kind of test this hypothesis.  Our bull last year was a massive 4 year old that I would say did not lunge, so by her rule I predict we should have mostly bull calves.  We shall see!

I hope everyone has an amazing day today! 

Happy April Fools Day!!  

Photos of Babies and Big Girls

I took these photos the other day out in the barn.  I love taking pics of them and the big girls. They are such characters! Finally the weather is bearable enough for me to get out and do this.

 One of triplets -whether

 Mistletoe peaking

 Twin buck - I love his color!  We will probably whether him so that one of our kids can show him at the fair.

 Triplets that are being bottle-fed.

 Twin doe -little sister to the buck with all that color!

 Our big billy and the producer of all that color.

 Heifer named "Big Red". She is built like a tank and will be calving in a few weeks!

 "Mabel" was our first baby cow born here and will be one of the first cows to calve in early April. This will be her second calf.

"Snowflake" likes to rub on everything!  She is not bred this year, but will be for next year.

This is "Maria". She is a first timer at calving this year also. She is a polled hereford that is a little standoffish still, but she is getting better.

There you have it, our first photo shoot for 2014! There will be lots more photos to enjoy throughout the year.  Hopefully we will have calves to take photos of soon!

Oh yeah and all photos ARE copywrited! If you chose to use one, anyway please include a link back to this page!  Thanks!

Artificial Insemination vs. Natural Breeding in Cows

My debate continues between artificial insemination and natural breeding our cows with a bull.  There are many pros and cons to both sides as I will list, but it really is a matter of preference for each farm hobbyist or full time farmer.  I know some farmers who AI all the cows and never have had a bull and some farmers who swear by keeping a bull.

By artificially inseminating cows there is no other mouth to feed, it is relatively low cost and no aggressive bull to worry about while out in the field checking or working with cows.  The downside is that it is very time consuming for the owner scheduling the vet, watching for heat and rescheduling the vet, watching for re -heat and watching for miscarriages down the road and heat again. 

Keeping a bull is a huge investment to begin with.  They are pricey, but if you can find a decent deal, when finished with him you may make your money back at the sale barn.  There is another mouth to feed and another animal to worry about getting hurt or worse.  Which would also mean loss of a huge investment and not having cows bred --HUGE RISK!  The benefits of having a bull are that cows are getting bred -hopefully- without any real work on your part.  Also, if he misses one or one doesn't stick he will get her next time around.  The overall successful breeding rate of bulls vs. AI is much greater.

 

With all of this in mind and our AI trial last year,and only having 1 calf, we decided to purchase a bull.  We bought a 4 yr old from a local farmer who rotates the 4 yr olds out to the sale barn.  Since we only wanted him for a couple months --I do not want to worry about having a bull who is not as tame as our cows in the pasture any longer than I have to!-- this would work great.  He is a full blood angus and looks amazing.  He has a couple curved front toes that don't affect his breeding capability at all and is the reason he will be going to the sale barn in a couple weeks.  Our hope is to make back most of our investment and come out no worse than we were financially and have pregnant cows to boot!

That is the plan and hopefully all works out well for us.  I pray every day that he doesn't get hurt.  We haven't had any issues with aggression or attitude.  He simply would just as soon be away from us and us from him.  He seems pretty gentle, but as I told the kids a thousand times "you just don't know for sure and cannot trust him".  Soon I am going to schedule the vet to come out and preg check the cows so we know where we stand and how soon we can sell him.  I haven't seen him on anyone this cycle so I am hoping they are all bred with some cute little ones that I can enjoy next spring.  It gives me something to look forward to all long gloomy winter!

Make sure to make today a great day!!!

Our First Artificially Inseminated Calf

On May 31, our first AI calf was born!! He is a well built bull calf.  Officially he is 1/2 Hereford, 1/4 Angus and 1/4 Maine anjou.  His momma always has nice calves!  This was our first attempt at AI and our first time breeding with herefords.  I love the way he turned out. 

We had 3 cows to breed last year and thought we would try our hand at artificially inseminating them.  It was a lot of work to line up the vet to come out for each stage of it, watch the cows for heat and then watch them after insemination for signs of heat in case it didn't take.  We had one first-time heifer that was done 2 times and never took, which I hear is pretty normal.  We also had another heifer that took and was preg-checked positive and lost it.  So, out of 3 cows inseminated this will be our only calf :(  I was really hoping for at least 2/3.  The cost was cheaper than buying a bull, but pretty expensive to only get 1 calf! 

I have decided to buy a bull for this year and hope he does his job!  For some reason I feel much better knowing there is a bull out there doing his job over and over if it doesn't take the first time or the second time.  We don't, however, want a bull to keep around all the time so he will probably get sold back and we will have a new one every year. 

This year we have 7 heifers and cows to be bred and I cannot wait for all the little ones next year!! 

I have tons of farm news to report and hopefully soon I can get it all on here!!  Life has just been so busy lately!

New Additions To Our Family

We have 2 new additions to our family!!  No, it's not goats as we are still waiting as patiently as possible for them.  We do, however, have 2 new bottle calves.  We weren't really looking too hard yet for the kids' bottle calves for the 4H county fair, but we got a call that a local farmer had one and a week later another call.  We went to look at them and we can't ever say no unless there is something clearly wrong with them!

The first calf is a twin of a heifer that the mother didn't want at first.  When momma finally decided to take her, she wouldn't drink -only from a bottle.  Big farmers don't have much time to bottle feed a bunch of calves!  Lucky for us!  She is all black and a cross between angus and simmental.  She is huge for a twin and doing very well!  She was born on 3/4 and already eating a little Kent calf starter feed.  She will be my daughter's to show at the fair and she has named her Stella.  This is my daughter's first year at the fair, so she got first dibs.

A week later, we got the second call.  Twin angus calves born to a momma that had only enough milk for one.  She is also black and smaller than Stella.  Her sibling is a bull so she will most likely be sold eventually.  She is about normal size for a twin.  She is also doing very well in the barn.  Hopefully these girls will be buddies!  This calf is my son's to show.  He had kind of a time showing his 2nd year bottle calf last year at the fair and wanted to go back to bottle calves at least for this year!  Last year it was very hot and dry and his cow had been cooped up at the fair for a couple of days before the show.  When she got to go out of the barn for the show all she wanted to do was eat grass!  She kept heading for the lawn but he did very well keeping her in line.  It was just a little more work than he intended, I think. 

The kids are enjoying feeding them and "playing" with them and as soon as weather permits they will start the halters on them in the yard.  For now, I may have jumped the gun on spring a little as today is very cold and oh so windy :(  It is the first day of spring, though, and hopefully mother nature realizes that soon!!!!

I had planned to post some pics of the new girls today but chicken out of staying outside long enough to photo them.  I did chores as fast as I could!  I will post them soon, though.  They are cuties!

As always, hope everyone has a great day!!

Signs of Spring

Today, as the temperature was a seemingly balmy 45 degrees, I decided to venture out.  I cannot remember the last time I ventured out just to enjoy the day.  If I did, it was with uncomfortable full winter garb on.  I am feeling so tired of being cooped up in the house with the windows shut and freezing my buns when I have to go out to do chores!  While outside I decided it was nice enough to let the chickens and ducks venture outside also.  They loved it.  The ducks played in a puddle and the chickens were looking at the outside like "we haven't been out here for a while".  The goats and cows were just laying around soaking up the sunshine. 

While out there I noticed some sure signs of impending Spring!!  Yay!  There are buds on the trees!  It is muddy as ever around here, which I don't enjoy.  The kids usually bring in plenty.  The best thing I saw, though, was some little white flowers up and in bloom and my daffodils are starting to poke out of the ground!

With next week being the first day of spring and my self diagnosed seasonal affective disorder (spring fever) at its peak, I am DEFINATELY ready!  I already have a list a mile long of things that need done outside like fences and better goat pen to house the mommas and babies away from Billy. We will also be starting round 2 of pasture reseeding. Tomorrow is looking to be a wonderful day, too, then it looks like back to cold temps.  Double ugh!  I love Iowa and everything that entails EXCEPT winter!!

I am still waiting on baby goat kids and keeping a good eye on her every day.  When that finally happens I will be sure to post some new kid pics!  I am hoping that I may even get to see the birth.  If so, I am going to try and video.

HAVE A GREAT DAY!

Fall Vet Visit to Preg Check Cows and Vaccinate

So, the vet came yesterday afternoon and first vaccinated and wormed the calves.  They were fairly easy to get into the chute since they had no idea what it was!  It always looks very medeival but doesn't hurt them.  Three calves down, two momma cows to go.

After the slightly unpleasant task of loading the first into the chute, which wasn't as hard as usual for any of them, the vet whips out this device, a probe hooked to glasses with a cord.  I asked what it was and he said "the ultrasound".  I had thought he was just going to palpate for the sac in the uterus.  Wrong!  I was so excited that he would actually see something.  After a couple of minutes he told us she was pregnant!!!  I made a "woo hoo" out loud and he chuckled at me.  He took off the video glasses and let me put them on.  Wow!  I could see it.  The next momma went exactly the same although he couldn't see the baby only the embryonic vessicle, which he said means she is pregnant!

So, for our first time trying artificial insemination we had 2 out of 3 take the first time.  That's not so bad.  This is also our first time using a hereford bull named Traditions from www.SelectSires.com -usually it's a angus bull from a local farmer. The 3rd heifer we probably won't have preg-checked.  If she is then she will calve about July 9, 2013 and if she isn't we will re-breed her at a later date.  I still haven't decided if we will AI next year or rent a bull.  There are pros and cons to each. 

A big thanks to such a wonderful vet that not only understands my excitement, but answers all my questions and offers tons of info and explanation to aid my learning.

Our little ones are about an inch long right now and hopefully they stay put!  We haven't ever had trouble maintaining a pregnancy, but he said it does happen.  At least we are out of the woods for super hot temps now.

Looking Forward- Cows and Babies

The anticipation of knowing whether or not my cows got bred is killing me!

We decided this year to AI the cows for the first time ever.  We accomplished this on August 23.  It has been a long 45+ days waiting til we could check them.  Tomorrow is finally the BIG DAY!  The vet will come in the afternoon and we will know within a couple minutes of loading each in the chute if they are pregnant or not.  If so, the calves will be due June 2, 2013.  We only have 2 to check as we had an unfortunate one that went back into heat a couple weeks ago. This was the first time heifer that we raised from a bottle calf.  She was re-bred on Sept. 29.  So hopefully that one takes for her.

I have tried to watch the cows like a hawk for signs of any heat in these two.  Unless I just missed it, they should be bred.  We will see how this goes tomorrow, but I am seriously thinking about renting a bull next year.  It has been a lot of waiting, watching and waiting again.  At least with a bull one can see the breeding happening! (Sounds wrong when I see it written, but yes, I like to watch!)

The vet will also be vaccinating/pouring this years' calves and the mommas. We have not been as diligent with vaccinating as we should be, but my goal is to improve from here forward.  

Calving is one of my favorite times of year.  The anticipation drives me even crazier then than now.  I am overly diligent with checking the cows multiple times daily when it gets close and my husband finds much humor in the fact that I know so much about what their rear ends look like in each stage!   

There it is!  I am super excited for tomorrow to get here and find out if we are pregnant or not!   

As always, HAVE A GREAT DAY!

Snowflake -A New Calf Story

I love having cows and calves!

I always watch craigslist for any good deals to increase our herd.  Last week I found my deal, but it was over two hours away.  The big question was whether it would be worth paying for her and all that gas?  I have always wanted a charolais cow to contrast all of our black cows.  I love their color and build and wanted one badly and have looked for one for quite a while.  It didn't take long for me to make up my mind that yes she was worth it.  It couldn't have been a worse week for it to happen as we had had a death in the family.  I did, however, have my mind made up that I would have her.  My wonderful husband and son took off one evening with trailer in tow to go pick her up. 

After a round about trip due to his GPS following instead of my directions, they dealt with a very nice gentleman who purchases calves to resell.  He had not had her long and she was doing well.  She wouldn't drink off his nurse cow and did eat some grain he told us.  She was also just over 6 weeks old.

They arrived home at 1:30am that night with her.  We unloaded her into the barn and she was so frightened.  She ran when we got close at all.  I gave her some hay, grain and water.  We quarantine new calves for 10-14 days when we get them just in case something is wrong with them.  Through the last week we have put a halter on her -which she hated tremendously.  She has nibbled on hay and grain, but not eaten a bunch by any means.  We did find out about day 2 that she would eat grass pretty well so we give her some each day.  She had loose stools, but not watery, when she came to us, which I watched closely so I would know if that worsened or if it was just due to stress and change in feed.  I made calls to the feed store and the vet to get their opinions on her and if they thought she still needed to be bottle fed.  Their concensus was not if she is eating enough otherwise.  Usually we get bottle calves a little younger that do need bottle fed and they don't usually eat grain very well at first.  They also don't usually eat grass at first either.

 

One week later, she is starting to tame down.  We left the halter on her and she is getting more used to that.  Her bm's have thickened up a bit and look like normal now.  In the afternoons we walk her and let her eat grass outside which she does very well.  She has been eating more hay and a little more grain.  She even let my husband and I pet her in the pen last night for quite a while before she decided she didn't want that anymore.  We also, well my husband, thought of a good name for her too --Snowflake.  I love it!  This morning I was very excited when I walked in to give her her daily ration of grain -expecting to dump the old uneaten grain and put in the new-  and for the first time her grain tub was empty!  She also let me pet her some while she ate some grass.  I finally feel like now she will be just fine.

I am always such a nervous ninny when it comes to the calves.  I am a worrier until I know they are ok and doing well.  It's almost like I was with our children when they were born!  I love having calves and raising them up to be great mommas.  The kids love them, too, and love to show them at the county fair.  Each cow we have is special to me.  I am looking forward to the calves next year, already!