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March 18, 2010

A Precious Moment On The Farm

I know we have posted a lot about calving season already, but you must understand that right now it consumes much of our days :) Calving season always makes life on the farm much more busy, but I wouldn't trade it for anything! It is so fun and rewarding to see these cows give birth to their little babies and take care of them. There is just something special about new life and spring that makes your heart feel good! We are now up to 11 calves. Last year Jen, Meg and Kerri learned the ropes of calving and this year they have basically done all the calving work so far, except for the tagging and castrating. They are doing an excellent job and we are so proud of how responsible they have been. It's such a blessing to have good help around which frees Mark and I up to be able to concentrate on other things. Thanks girls, we love you! We have heard comments over the last little while that some of you would like to see a cow giving birth to a calf. Well, since you can't be here to see it, we thought we would give you the next best thing....a video! So if you don't like to see cows giving birth, THEN DON'T WATCH THIS VIDEO :) But if you would like to....ENJOY! This is our cow "Calfy" (well she was a calf when we named her this:) She is part Holstein. We have milked her on and off over the last few years before we got our Jersey cows. She is a sweet and stubborn cow all in one! The video that you will see was taken in a span of about 5 hours. About 3 hours from her water breaking until she gave birth to this little sweet heifer calf. And within about 2 hours from birth she was up and drinking from Mama (with a little help from Jen.) You will see Kerri pulling the calf out, we will do this sometimes if the birth has been long or the calf's head has been out for awhile. This was an easy pull, so she probably would have been fine on her own. But when you are standing there watching, it's hard not to help her out :) And if you have any questions, please feel free to ask them in a comment and we will try our best to answer them. Now for the video!

3 comments:

Denyse said...

Great video. Thanks for posting that.

Laura said...

How neat! Thanks for sharing the video. I love the little voices in the background and the shot of Josiah. :)

Jessica said...

Wow! I liked that! I love animals, but I have never watched one be born!

I have a question... just how cold is it where he was born? And does he have a harder time than a calf born in the spring?

Jessica