The calf is here!

Lily had her calf! 

We knew she was close.  She's been very lovey lately and, poor girl, as big as a house.  DD took this rather unflattering picture of her about a week ago. 

 

Sunday afternoon she was moving pretty slow - it took her a long time to walk down out of the pasture.  We'd been putting her into her stall overnight for the past week or so just in case she gave birth overnight.

 

While he was doing chores Sunday evening, DH noticed she seemed restless.  Sure enough, DS went out to check on her around 7:30pm and came running back to the house to tell us she was in labor.  By the time we got to the barn, the two front hoofs and the nose was visible.  DH said he could see a little pink tongue sticking out.

 

 

 

The calf's future would be determined by its sex.  If it was a boy we planned to keep him for two years and then send him to "freezer camp."  It takes two years for a dairy steer to get big enough for slaughter.  If a girl, then we would sell her as a backyard milk cow.

 

 

Lily started out laying down but as soon as the calf's shoulders were out, she stood up and it flopped to the ground rather unceremoniously.  We all winced.  It didn't seem as though the calf should be able to survive the fall.  It hit the floor like a wet gym towel - all in a heap.  Lily immediately swung around and began licking it all over. 

  

 

She began calling constantly to the calf with short, deep moos that we hear only when her calf is first born.  See how white its hooves are?  It always amazes me to watch them change color.  It starts at the top of the hoof and slowly moves down until the whole hoof is nearly black.  It's as though the hoof is filling with blood from the top down.

 

The whole delivery took only ten minutes.  About 45 minutes later the calf was on its feet and we were able to check it over.

 

 

It's a girl!  Yeah!  Truthfully, we're all happy for a heifer.  (It's still hard for us to think about slaughtering an animal that was born on our farm.)  She is a beautiful baby with not a white hair on her body.  We'll post some pictures of her once she's completely dry. 

 

Today she was already trying to romp and frisk about.  DH and I had to got get a cattle panel and put up a temporary wall across Lily's area because the baby kept leaving the nice, clean straw bed and trying to explore the bare concrete floor on the other side of the stall.  We had to laugh when the baby started walking away from Lily and Lily anxiously tried to call her back.  The baby just tossed her head, snorted and kept on walking! 

 

We must come up with a good name for our strong-willed girl.  We like old-fashioned names (we named last year's calf "Hazel") so were thinking along the lines of Heloise, Bessy, Flossy or even Thelma Lou (Barney's girlfriend on The Andy Griffith Show).  I like "Eloise."  Wasn't that the name of the little girl who lived in a hotel? 

 

Whatever her name, we'll enjoy watching this new little one grow up.  Baby cows are good entertainment!

 

We had some more excitement today when a new horse was delivered.  But that's a post for another day . . .