07/23/05, 03:46 PM
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Very Dairy
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Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Dysfunction Junction
Posts: 14,603
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Blessed event #2 -- Teeny calved!
Today, it was Teeny's turn to disappear, and I figured she'd taken off somewhere to have her calf in private. 2-1/2 hours later, I found her in a grove of trees north of my neighbor's house, a good half-mile off the road, and a quarter-mile from the pasture she'd been in. Typical!
As I walked up, she was facing me, and I could see she had been "deflated"! My heart started pounding when I didn't see a calf standing at her side ... and when I got up to her, the calf was lying on the ground, stretched out ... there was that heart-stopping moment -- "Alive or dead?!" And then it moved, WHEW! Apparently it just had been born ... it was still wet, she was licking it off, and within minutes it started thrashing around, trying to get up.
I knew without even looking, based on its size (HUGE!) and the shape of its head, that it was ANOTHER BULL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, you'd think I'd get ONE heifer out of the deal, no?! But, at least it looks pure Holstein (which also means Mark won the AI contest!). Since he will probably be sold as a little steer, it's probably a good thing he isn't 1/2 Jersey. BTW, he's white with black markings, just like Teeny. Another nice-looking calf! It will be fun to see the 2 of them playing together before long ...
Well, I left Teeny and her baby in the field to get acquainted ... Gary is on his way to town for gas, so we can take the lawn tractor and trailer back there to pick up the little guy. I still don't have the cowshed cleaned out, which means they will have to go back out in the pasture ... hopefully Teeny will stay put! I wasn't able to figure out how she got out this morning. Grrrr!
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"I love all of this mud," said no one, ever.
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