Wow, do I have a story to tell you and pix too.
To begin with, we have had our first calf born on the farm (pix included). All went well. We were a little concerned. We had friends tell us it can be difficult when the cow is having its first calf. It is a bull and we are thinking of naming him “Banchi”. He is all over the field and is very independent. You almost never see him laying next to momma.
We are also bottle feeding two calves. Our daughter wanted a calf to bottle feed and raise as a pet. We were looking for a heffer so she could stay on the farm and help add to the number of cattle we own. So my husband found an ad in the paper – calves for sale. He reserves a calf once it is born. In the meantime, my husband is also looking for more cattle. One (Big Momma) was not enough. We needed more. Oh and we had two others at the time. I did a story “Big Momma and Her New Friends”. While looking for more cattle at a sale he finds a little one that was for sale without his momma. This story goes like this, a lady next to him bid on a calf. When all was said and done she was handed two. Her comment was, “I didn’t know I was getting two. What are we going to do with the second one?” Then proceeded to tell her husband just put them in the back seat of the car. 
My husband couldn’t see this happen. Someone taking a calf, throwing it into the back seat of a car and not knowing what she was going to do with it. He bought the calf from her. This was a Saturday. By Friday the calf went down hill quick. We were feeding him too much and it made him sick. One more lesson we learned about farming. We ran him to the vet late that evening and was told, he was dehydrated from being sick. We had him for only a few days and he was doing well. He was all over the yard, running, jumping and following us like a puppy. Before we ran him to the vet this same day, my husband gets the phone call that the calf he reserved has been born and is ready for us to pick up. He picks him up brings him home. We take the other to the vet because he was not getting up and wouldn’t eat. In all this rush and worry we are on the way to the vet. I asked my husband, “Hey, how did we end up with two calves to bottle feed?” He explained that while he bought one the other was not born, he couldn’t see the one go into the backseat of a car and had committed to the farmer the one that wasn’t born. Did you get all that. If not welcome to my world of farming. I just go with the flow. By the way we are still looking for that bigger tractor.
Last, we have purchased three more cows. N
o bulls yet. Still looking. The three have just recently had babies. Two heffers and one bull. Names are in the making right now. We are keeping them at our best friends’ farm. Lots of grass, water and a barn. Oh and by the way if you are one of my faithful readers, we don’t think Big Momma is head honcho anymore. Number 137 is showing that she owns the farm. We went out the other day to feed and fill the water. They came running.
In conclusion, we have a total of 12 cows. Two more babies on the way. One bull when we find it. My husband has a particular breed of bull in mind and there will not be one on the farm til he finds it. When he does something he does it right and complete. We were to start out slow and add to the farm. We went from a small field with barn and three cows to three fields, two barns, 14 cows and a bull when it is all said and done. Oh and a bigger truck, trailer and tractor.
Here are a few more pix.
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- Big Momma
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- Cinnamon, one of our bottle fed calves. He looks almost like a deer.
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- No name/ just #137 right now.
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- Feeding time
