It's a Boy!

If you've been following the blog, you know that Daisy, our Jersey milk cow, is expecting and her due date is May 9th.  Cows have a gestation period of 285 days or a little over 9 months - roughly around the same time frame as a woman.  In anticipation of her calving, we stopped milking her 2 months ago so that she could divert the energy to growing her calf.

This morning when we woke up, we could tell that Daisy's bag had 'bloomed' and knew that today would likely be the day.  Daisy has given us two little bull calves and we were hoping for a heifer, but as the title suggests, it was not to be.  Tricia was home and photographed the birth for your viewing pleasure (Ha!)  Tricia first knew things were happening when she saw Daisy in the pasture with her tail cocked in the air, so she and Benjamin ran to where she was located.  Cows will generally go off to an isolated spot to give birth.

When Tricia got to her Daisy was sitting down.  At 12:57 pm I got a text at work that said "I see hooves."


See the hooves poking out?

No epidurals were administered for this labor and delivery.  Daisy did it all on her own the natural way.  The calf's presentation was good.  When Maggie was born, I got a little excited and impatient and pulled Maggie and shouldn't have, so it was probably a good thing I was at work.

You can see little hooves from the calf.  When Maggie was born the chickens crowded around and started pecking at the hooves at this stage and I had to shoo them away.  This is probably one of the reasons Daisy tried to get away from everyone.

Two hooves appear

Daisy stood up and hunched her back up and started to push.  Part of the placenta is starting to show.  You can also see how Daisy's bag is full.  This looks very uncomfortable.


Hooves and part of the placenta so far

Daisy kept backing up and hunching over and pushing with each contraction.  Her delivery was much slower than Rosie's, but progress was being made.


1,2,3 push!

Whoa!  We have a head out now.  The shoulders are the next bottleneck.  Go, Daisy, Go!



Head & Shoulders

The shoulders are out.  Now the back end...


Just hanging out, guys.

Then... PLOP!  Daisy's little calf makes its entry (an ungracious one, at that) onto Our Maker's Acres Family farm.  When humans are born, a doctor is there to catch them.  No such thing for calves.  They fall right down on the ground.


I'm a little slimy, Ma!

Tricia had to move the little calf since Daisy delivered and dropped the calf right next to a fire ant mound.  Welcome to the cold, cruel world, buddy. 

Is that a fire ant mound I see?

Right on cue, Mama Daisy starts giving the little calf a bath.  She'll lick the calf all over.  At 1:32 pm I got a text at work that said, "It's a boy."  We were so hoping for a girl.  Oh well.  Rosie and Maggie are pregnant.  Hopefully we'll get two heifers from them.  If you look closely, you can see the little hooves.  They are soft. 


Scrub a dub, dub

Daisy continues to lick and clean her little boy up.  The calf seems pretty strong, lifting his head, looking around.

The spit bath continues...

Nellie, our Nubian Goat, was the first to visit the nursery, welcoming the newest addition to the pasture and perhaps giving Daisy some motherly advice.

Baaa - Baaaa (Goatese Translation: What a cute baby, Daisy!)

After labor, the placenta has been completely delivered and falls to the ground.  It is sort of interesting to look at.  

The placenta

Daisy's tail is still up and she's a mess back there.  Tomorrow we'll hose her off.

Here is the first acceptable baby picture after Daisy's cleaned him up and he's dried off.  He is a solid light brown colored little fella.  We're going to probably just call him 'Bully' and not get attached to him as we're going to sell him.  Dairy cows are in demand for their milk production.  Dairy bulls?  Not so much.


Cute

In an instinctive reaction, Daisy eats the placenta.  I know, this is gross, but cows do it.  No one really knows why, although one theory is that they do it to keep predators away who would be attracted by the smell and endanger the new baby. 

Over the lips and through the gums, look out stomach(s), here it comes.

Now we've got more well wishers to the nursery as Stryker and Maggie show up to see the new arrival.

Stryker and Maggie

It was around 5:30 pm at this point.  Daisy was still eating on the placenta and the calf was making some feeble attempts to stand up, but no success so far.  He's so awkward and clumsy.  Daisy was so fat before giving birth.  We haven't seen her ribs in a while.  Now they're evident.

Here we see the calf try, on wobbly legs, to stand, but he can't get his front legs to cooperate.


C'mon front legs.  Work for me!

When it got dark, I picked up the little guy and carried him into the barn.  Daisy followed closely.  We tied Daisy up and picked up little Bully and held him up and helped him find the teats.  He began to suckle and we were confident that he got the colostrum (first milk) that he needs.

Colostrum is full of amino acids, minerals, and immunoglobulins that give the calf a kick start on life.  It is through colostrum that a cow passes along immunity to infections and disease and is why it is so important they get this.  If they don't, the calf often dies.  We helped little Bully get his colostrum and soon - for the first time all day - he was standing on his own with renewed energy.  Sometimes we all need a little helping hand.