Always a bull calf and always a daughter!

I was talking to a friend the other afternoon and he told me that there is an old saying that farmers would say when a bull calf was born:  "Always a bull calf and aways a daughter." (or something like that).  What it means is that old farmers want heifers (because they produce offspring to grow the herd) and sons (to help out with the farm labor)!  We were so hoping that Daisy would deliver a heifer.  She's given us 3 bulls!  You would think that the odds would be that eventually you'd get a girl, but not so.  My sister has had 6 boys in a row!

We currently have Stryker, Daisy's previous bull up for sale.  We're going to sell this little fella as well.  We're not going to get attached to him and have decided not to give him a name other than "Bully."  Bully has been a slow starter, but is now picking up.


M-m-m-m-m,  milk.  It does a body good.

We share the milk with little Bully.  Here's how we do it.  All day long we leave Daisy and Bully together.  He is free to drink as much milk as he wants - until around 6 pm.  At six o'clock in the afternoon, we separate Daisy and Bully by placing Bully in a stall in the barn.  He sleeps there all night and Daisy goes about her business in the pasture.   That enables Daisy to make milk for our family all night.  Tricia and I wake up at 5 am and milk Daisy (and also Rosie and Nellie).  Once the milking is done, we release Bully to be with Daisy for the day.  Rinse.  Wash.  Repeat.


I'll just drink while you keep eating, Mama.

We try to do some rotational grazing so that the cows are eating in a different spot each day.  On some of the days, the cows are in the yard, saving me from having to mow it.  With a newborn calf, now, I didn't want to leave him alone in the pasture, so I picked him up and carried him to the yard.  Here he is with Daisy.

Bully is strictly on milk now, but he'll start nibbling on grass in a few weeks.  In the following pictures, you can see how green the Spring grass is as contrasted with Bully's brown color.


What is this green stuff?

After a while, Bully decided to sit down and rest.  He was trying to hide in the grass, I guess, but he's not fooling anyone.


You can't see me!

While he sat there, Daisy roamed around eating her fill of the tender grass.  I have to watch them closely, though.  I wasn't paying attention and Rosie got into the flower beds the other day.  The old saying about the grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence is so true.

The first night that we separated Daisy and Bully, we were a little concerned that Daisy would bellow for her calf all night and irritate the neighbors.  We've had that happen before.  It is pretty stressful trying to sleep while listening to incessant moo-ing and worrying about what the neighbors are thinking, but last night Daisy didn't moo at all. 

Bully shares the stall for the night with Annie, the baby goat.  Springtime, with fresh grass, great weather, and new animals is always an exciting time.


The glamour shot!