Pasture Surprise

We have had downpours of rain since last Friday morning.

Early Friday, in the rain, I went down to find the cows. I was in all my rain gear and on my way to work.

The cows were in a valley in a new field with tall grass and about 1/8 of a mile away from the road I had access to.  Too far to walk in the rain in my dress-up clothes.....and...

Hard to see anything without binoculars or a zoom lens.      Good thing I brought my camera.

To the naked eye in the downpour, it looked like there was no calf yet, as Google was as huge as ever and was laying down chewing her cud.      I was really surprised.     It had been a full 7 days since she had 'blown her plug' and the unborn calf started heading for the exit.   I thought for sure with all the rain the calf would have been born already.   "oh well."      I was about to jump in my truck and head to work when I grabbed my camera and took 5 more steps up the road.  I thought I saw "something" but absolutely couldn't see it from the distance I was at because the tall grass obscured what might be hiding: a calf OR a clump of white clover.  I really wasn't sure.    I snapped a few photos and headed to work.

When I peaked at my photos later, this is what I saw:

From that one good photo ( all the others were white clover!) I determined that this looked like a heifer and around 94 lbs.    

I couldn't wait to head home that night and get a better look.

And when I returned I still wasn't sure what the white spots were, but I snapped a bunch of photos anyways and rushed home and opened them quick with anticipation.  


By then the calf had moved and was in a different position taking a nap in the rain, but still a good distance away and still impossible to really see it.  But still a calf, not clover this time  : )   I was wondering if it was indeed a heifer or not.

Finally Saturday morning,  The cows came to me when I called them and Google brought her well hidden new calf, a big daughter.    I quickly tagged her and weighed her.    96 lbs.

The other cows came over to meet the new herd member.

Auntie Jillian came to check out her new tags and introduce herself.

So here is the last calf of the season. A hefty,wet, girl with no name.

Give me some "G" names and anything else you think might work.

Thursday Surprise

I called the herd this morning.   They were eager to answer.   As the herd came down the hill, I counted heads and tails and found an extra head.

A cute head.  A red head.  A bull calf head.

The 3 year old cow, Sunset, had a good looking boy.   He was really goofy and came right over to me to check me out.  He was probably born at sunset yesterday.  Appropriately.

We have been waiting since April for the last 2 cows to calves.  I check on them every day and there is never any change in their udders...until 3 days ago.  Sunset's udder started to get just a little larger and then I knew it would be soon.   Ahhhh relief.     One more cow to go.

Apparently the bull had a squabble with these 2 cows and waited until the last possible moment to breed them.

In November the vet who did all the cows pregnancy checks warned us there were 2 cows who were going to be "exceptionally late" calvers this year.

The last cow due is the one behind the new calf.

Anyone want to make a guess WHEN this cow is going to have her calf ?

The person who guesses the closest date gets a pint of pure Vermont maple syrup.

Don't be shy!!!   Make your best prediction in the comments section.

Guess the gender of the calf, if you would like to as well.

Go at it!