I haven't gotten a chance to blog for a few days. Our daughter came down for the weekend. It is always great to have her come home. She has been away from the Ag scene for quite some time, but got a taste of ranch life again this weekend. We had our second set of twin calves in two days. She was out in the barn to help "pull" the second set. This heifer was on the smaller side and when we got the first calf into the world, my husband reached in just to make sure things were ok. Oh snap, there was another calf in there. The first calf was of decent size for a heifer's, but the next one was even bigger. We also got him into the world without incidence. I am amazed at the pounds of calf that heifer produced. The poor heifer was so overwhelmed. Her hormones were cross wired, so she was a bit of a dozer, plus she had two little sea legged monsters trying to get up and come at her. They just wanted to get their belly full, but she didn't know which way to turn and who to doze,lick,doze etc first.
The first set of twins was a miracle. I truly believe you can't work with livestock and have any doubts about our creator. We had a super witch of a cow that came on one of the semi loads of calves to be sold to help pay freight. She was called "Early Pregnant". We got her around late Nov. The plan was to calve her and sell the calf and take her to the weigh up sale. This cow was nasty. Well, early pregnant didn't mean she would calve in Dec with some of the other early pregnant cows we bought. The vet missed her due date by a couple months. We had to put up with her all this time. However, nothing happens outside of the Lords plans. When she calved, it was twins and we got the little heifer away from her. I was sure she had stepped on it, in her wildness and was pretty sure it wasn't going to live. I got some milk and tubed it into her stomach. Then I put her in the hot box for an hour to take the chill of the wet mud off. When I got her out, the only thing she could do was roll her head around. We got the bull calf away from the mother cow also and got milk into him. I took the heifer into the pen where the bull was and laid her down. The bull calf started to moo.
This is the part of ranching that is the hardest. I had to leave the barn and was pretty choked up. That all happened about 7 P.M. When I went out to check the heifers at midnight, I walked through that barn. The heifer was sitting up!!!!!! I came to the house and got some milk in the tube bottle for her and the regular bottle for the bull. Ironically, the heifer drank half of the regular bottle and before I was done she was up and walking. The bull was still stubborn and he got tubed again.
When we saw the witch had calved, we placed an add on craigslist to sell the calf. We had a call within an hour, and three more after that. The first call was a lady that had adopted 2 children and was looking for a couple of calves to get the little ones involved in Ag. When they came out to look at the calves the next morning, the little girl said "I like girls" and that was good since there was a heifer and a bull.
We put up with that wild witch cow until the time was right for her to have those twin calves. Those little adopted kids must not have been ready until this week.
That is why I love our way of life.
We've got another heifer calving and I need to go take a peek.
Until next time, thanks for stopping by.
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