Updates

One of the problems I had yesterday as I was cow-watching was Jody, the bred heifer I raised on the bottle.  To say she is spoiled would be an understatement.  So each time I followed Bonnie to a new location and made myself comfortable, Jody would get in my face, trying to lick me, my hat, my coat... just to show her affection, I suppose.  Look closely at that tongue and you will see why I didn't want it on my face.  It's rough!  

This is Crystal trying to stand for the first time.  That rough tongue can come in handy when a mother cow uses it on a calf.  Very stimulating, to say the least.  

 Here she is finally standing.  I wanted to make sure she got some of Mama's milk in her belly early on, so I came to the house and got the calf bottle and a travel coffee mug and filled them both with hot water so they would be warm when the milk went into them.  I emptied the hot water out of the mug and milked about two cups of colostrum (the first milk) into it, then dumped the hot water out of the calf bottle and put the colostrum in it.  Crystal eagerly sucked it down in about thirty seconds.  This gave her renewed energy and she went all around Bonnie for awhile looking for a teat.  
Bonnie has gotten rid of the afterbirth but is still laying down straining often.  If that doesn't stop by tomorrow morning, we will have to call the vet and see what's wrong.  She'll probably be fine.

 Crystal went walking for awhile.  As you can see, Red the Bull made a nuisance of himself by being in a place where he had no business being.  I finally threw a tree branch at him and he left.    Notice the long legs on that calf!  I blame her daddy for that, because look at her two-month-old half-sister, Annie.

Actually, those long legs are a good thing.  These heifers will be nice tall cows.