Saturday, February 16, 2013

It's another girl!

Yes indeed, I had three cows who gave birth in the past year, and all of them have had heifer calves.  I happened to be outside messing with the chickens this morning when I noticed Jody heading toward the back of the place all by herself.  For a cow that's due to calve any time, that is suspect behavior.  Having learned a few lessons the hard way (about calves falling into ditches), I got her to the barn and put her in a pen where she soon began having obvious labor pains.  Three hours after penning her up, she had her calf.  I have decided to name the baby Jennifer, after the lady who kindly allowed us to use her Jersey bull last Mother's Day (thanks, Jennifer!).  Keep in mind that a few months ago we were going to butcher Jody because she had such a terrible limp, but Cliff talked me out of it (thanks, Cliff!).


Perhaps because it's Jody's first calf, she didn't seem to know quite what to make of her little bundle of joy.  Normally a cow will get up as soon as that calf is out, but Jody was still laying there fifteen minutes later.  Oh, she licked her baby and seemed interested, but she just laid there.  I finally encouraged her to get up, and after a little confusion, she figured things out.  In the following pictures you will see the baby taking her first steps.




Didn't take her long to find where the grub was
And now, a video I shot an hour later to let you see the baby walking around.  Don't let the pile of afterbirth bother you; I'm sure Jody has eaten it by now.  (I love to gross city folks out with farm lore.)
Jody is part Holstein, and seems to have passed the long Holstein legs on to her baby.  For a mostly Jersey heifer born to a first-calf heifer, Jennifer is a BIG calf!


14 comments:

  1. Ewwww--city person grossed out. Cute baby though!

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  2. Glad that things went ok.

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  3. Congratulations! Your herd is growing by leaps and bounds. Dogs (and cats?) also eat the afterbirth so city folk shouldn't be too surprised.

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  4. Love the pictures and the video. I'm a city girl but spent many summers on my uncle's dairy farm so I wasn't 'too' grossed out. Thanks for sharing your new arrival with us. She's a beautiful calf. Kudos to Jody for being such a good mama already.

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  5. oh Donna, Beautiful!!!! congratulations!!!! :-D

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  6. I see Jennifer found the milk bar already!

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  7. Aren't cows amazing?

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  8. Congratulations, Donna and Jody!

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  9. Congratulations on the new baby girl. She is precious. My 2 year old grandson is visiting this weekend and he loved seeing the pictures and watched the video more than once.

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  10. For a first time mom she looks like shes doing great! Congrats on the heifer!

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  11. Cute baby! I live across the road from a farm and each spring the farmer puts his momma cows who are due to deliver in the pasture right across the road so me and my daycare kids love to watch the mommas and babies, and even see some be born, the kids have lots of questions then..ha ha! Loved the video of them too! Wendy

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  12. Cute baby! I live across the road from a farm and each spring the farmer puts his momma cows who are due to deliver in the pasture right across the road so me and my daycare kids love to watch the mommas and babies, and even see some be born, the kids have lots of questions then..ha ha! Loved the video of them too! Wendy

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  13. I love the instinct that animals are born with!

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