Sunday Night as we were finishing up feeding and getting ready for the "little" snow that was coming we looked down in the field where #73 was lying under a ceder tree trying to calve by herself. After a family discussion and a management call we walked the cow the 1/4 to the front barn so she would be close to the house just in case. Upon getting her in the barn I discovered that she indeed was not going to have the calf by herself due the the fact that the baby's front hoof was tucked back under him. Calves generally come out of the cow with both front feet forward and their head pointing that way as well. Think of it like a diver that has both hands in a point above their head as they are getting ready to jump from the block. So Anyhow I got the halter on the cow and started to work to get the feet coming the right direction; with Dad's help and the contractions of the cow the first calve was extracted from the cow with little excitement. I cleaned the mouth and nose so the calve had a clean air way to start life out with. That's when Dad asked for the chains that were still attached to the front of Calve number one's front feet. Single births are generally the norm around here and it came as a bit of a surprise to see another calve on its way into the world. We worked to get the second calve on the ground and air way clear before we placed them side by side for the cow to lick and clean off.
Cows lick off the baby calves after birth as a way to get them clean and dry. This also gets the blood flowing through the calve and serves a bonding time for the animals. We generally try and give time alone for this process to occur; so we left the lights on in the barn and went to the house to clean up and eat. I came back an hour later and worked with the cow to get a pint of colostrum into each calve. Colostrum is the Cows first milk and passes on everything that the calf is going to need to get his immunity system up and running. Since the little boys were still having trouble standing up for extended amounts of time I milked the cow and gave the calves an old coke bottle of Colostrum, this seemed to have done the trick and when I left for the night they were both up and searching for more of Mom's milk.
They are now just two days old and are jumping around playing in the stall when they are not curled up next to each other asleep. You can't tell the difference unless you look really close one has more white on his navel that his brother. They will both stay in the barn for a little while so I can give their mother extra grain to keep up with milk production so she can keep feeding her bouncing baby boys who tip the scales at 65 pounds a piece!
Cows lick off the baby calves after birth as a way to get them clean and dry. This also gets the blood flowing through the calve and serves a bonding time for the animals. We generally try and give time alone for this process to occur; so we left the lights on in the barn and went to the house to clean up and eat. I came back an hour later and worked with the cow to get a pint of colostrum into each calve. Colostrum is the Cows first milk and passes on everything that the calf is going to need to get his immunity system up and running. Since the little boys were still having trouble standing up for extended amounts of time I milked the cow and gave the calves an old coke bottle of Colostrum, this seemed to have done the trick and when I left for the night they were both up and searching for more of Mom's milk.
They are now just two days old and are jumping around playing in the stall when they are not curled up next to each other asleep. You can't tell the difference unless you look really close one has more white on his navel that his brother. They will both stay in the barn for a little while so I can give their mother extra grain to keep up with milk production so she can keep feeding her bouncing baby boys who tip the scales at 65 pounds a piece!