Thursday, December 29, 2011

Christmas Calves

Just about everyone in this town raises livestock of one kind or another.

I like to visit these different neighboring farms and see what kind of mischief I can get into, or at least help with chores.

This neighbor raises some hefty Herefords.




They love to eat.   The farmer raises his own hay, corn, silage and sunflower seed.



Christmas eve and Christmas day were busy ones for 7 of the cows.

They had calves in the serene quiet of those special nights.

The first surprise was born on 12/24 

Meet "Eve"




Warm milk from a good momma cow is a real treat on these cold Vermont days.





On Christmas this large reindeer-looking calf was born.

Of course the name Rudolph would of been appropriate had it been a boy..... it was a girl so, meet Ruby !




One of the new born calves was very small and it was very cold out, so a Polartec calf blanket was put on the little heifer.  She soon warmed up.    PolarTec makes cows happy!



Red calves look GREAT in blue blankets!



Farmers never get a day off.   Never.   And sometimes they may need help haying, harvesting, feeding livestock, repairing fences, cutting fallen trees off the fence lines, moving cows or even putting blankets on calves.

Go meet your local farmers.      Learn some skills and offer to help with some simple chores.  

You will be glad you did.

~

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing...these are great pictures! Hope you've had a little break, even though you, like us, never get a day off! :)

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  2. As usual, a good story, Janis... and the little jacket on the calf was perfect!

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