Babies!

We had our first calf on Wednesday and have had one or two every day since then.  We expect the pace to pick up soon.  I had to let R know that we had our first calf--he was disappointed that it wasn't one of his.  We have the cows more confined now so it's easier to check on them and get them into the barn if we have to.  One cow had a set of twins, but sadly, only one survived.  We probably could have saved it if we had been there at the right time.  The surviving twin was slow to get up so we got him and his mom to the barn and gave him some colostrum.  The mother was having a bad day and tried to take it out on M.  He had to pen her up so he could feed the calf.  We left them in the barn for a couple of days to make sure he was up and eating but kicked them out into the sunshine yesterday.  He's still not very energetic.  I've always loved this time of year and am constantly in awe at nature, how the cow knows to lick of the calf and get it up and guard it and how the calf instinctively knows where to seek nourishment.

Yesterday M went to pick up 12 heifers that belong to a friend to bring here and put with ours and calve out.  I'm never sure why he brings more work on himself.  I was on cow-checking duty while he was gone and found a fresh calf when I went to check.  We ran the new heifers through the chute and poured them, and they seem like nice, calm girls.

A few days ago I noticed that one of my pet calves had a bad foot and think that she probably stepped on something.  She didn't come to feed right away and then I noticed she was limping and her back foot was swollen.  We kept an eye on it and she wasn't getting better so we brought her home and gave her a shot of antibiotics and anti-inflammatories.  She looked much better the next day although she doesn't seem happy to not be with her friends.  We plan to give her another shot in a day or so and then take her back.  M said it could have been worse--it could have been one of his calves instead of one of mine!

J is still busy getting ready to start in the field.  A loaner tractor was delivered on Friday since our new one won't be here until May.  The "three-year experiment" blue tractor is gone and J is very happy to be back in green.  He installed monitors, etc. so he's ready to hook onto his drill.  He added another tank to the drill so that he'd have more grain capacity.  He showed us his progress one day.  Looked like a BIG job to me!  He amazes me with his ability to work on things.  We think he should start a consulting business because the other day one neighbor, who bought a drill J had tried out last year, said if he had any problems he'd call J and another neighbor said if he had any trouble with his GPS system, which was new to him, he'd call J.  I did notice the other day that his ADD is showing because he had three projects going in the shop in town and the drill project in another shop nearby.

We have missed some storms in the past week or so.  There is rain in the forecast again for the week ahead so we're hoping that we get some this time.  So far, all we've gotten is wind--plenty of it.  The weatherman never seems to get that wrong.  Happy Spring!