Weekend Activities and Our First Calf of 2015!

It was another busy weekend this past weekend here on the farm!

Tom and Carol left for their Hawaii vacation last week, so Jeff and I got busy doing the final prep for calving. Our official due date is March 1, but the calves can and do come early every year! It was time to get our rears in gear and get the cows sorted and organized.

Even with no calves born yet, it began to feel like calving already on Saturday evening. Jeff and I walked through the herd that afternoon and noticed several that were looking like they were pretty close to calving. The weather had taken a nosedive from our sunny 50 degree temps and was down to single digits, with overnight lows projected to be below zero and with some wind. Sometimes pressure changes induces labor in animals that are close to calving anyway, so with that in mind, we decided we had better start staying over at Tom and Carol's and checking the cows a few times in the night beginning Saturday night.

Sunday we got up and began working in earnest on feeding and sorting the cows into their respective pens right away. Right now, our entire herd is sorted into five groups. The feeder calves are in one pen. Bulls are in a pen of their own. First and second-time calvers are in their own pen. Cows that look like they'll be in the second cycle of calving, or late-calvers as we call them, had their own space. Everyone else was in a big pen of their own.

Some of our bulls. We have four. 

It took some time to get the animals fed and sorted into their proper home for the next several weeks, plus a few more chores and organizational tasks thrown in here and there throughout the day. We also laid down some straw in our two busiest calving pens. The cows will munch on it a bit, but mostly we put the straw down to give them a warm and dry place to lay down. Sunday night's overnight lows were pretty brisk again, and we still thought we had some animals who could calve at any time.

My favorite cow: Z-35. So pretty. She'll have her second calf this year, so she's in the "Young Cows" pen.

We got all our work done on Sunday evening, watched the Oscars, and went to bed. Jeff went out twice in the night to check the herd. The next morning, Monday, in between his morning 6:00 a.m. check and when he came out later to do chores, he found this little guy--

First calf is a little bull. His mama is Y-14. 

His mama had clearly had him quickly and all on her own. Our first calf of the year! Hard to tell in this photo-- he was so young that his mama hadn't completely cleaned him yet-- but he is all red with a white stripe down the center of his face. A little bull calf. Pretty cute little guy! Only about 99 calves to go...

How did you spend your weekend?

Harvey and Abby had a GREAT weekend playing and rolling around in the straw!