One more month for Maggie Mae

Magnolia will be delivering her first calf in a month!  She's a good looking heifer that looks more and more like her mother, Rosie, every day.  We're all looking forward to calving time and we're hoping for a little heifer and not another bull.  The last two calves (Stryker & Bully) have been bulls.

Maggie will be on maternity leave

As we watch Maggie, she seems to be growing quickly and spends time eating grass out on the pasture even after Daisy and Rosie have had enough.  Her body is telling her that she's eating for two, I guess.  As the time gets close, in addition to wondering whether she'll give us a heifer or a bull, we wonder if she'll produce a good quantity of milk.  Every cow is different.  Daisy doesn't provide the quantity of milk that Rosie does, but this is partially due to the fact that Daisy only has three good udders.  What Daisy doesn't give in volume, she makes up for in quality.  Daisy's milk has a higher butterfat content than Rosie and you can tell immediately by the amount and color of the cream that rises to the top.

One clue that delivery time for Maggie is approaching is that their "bag" will start to grow.  Here is a shot that shows the evidence.

One month to go!

And speaking of expectant mothers, here is the big galoot, Rosie.  She's expecting a calf around the first of November.  We dried her off on August 1 and she's been using all her energy to fully develop the calf she's carrying.  A cow's gestation period is 285 days long, which is about the same as that of a woman.  It is noticeable that Rosie is "butterball" fat right now.

Another expectant mother in our pasture

Last Fall, Rosie gave birth to a stillborn bull calf.  We don't know what caused it.  Sometimes things like that just happen.  We're praying for a healthy baby this time.  Tricia mentioned to me just yesterday, "Kyle, how are we going to handle milking 3 cows at once?"  I don't know at the moment, but we'll manage.  

Right now I'm giving Tricia a break and I just milk Daisy every morning.  Daisy's calf, Bully, gets the milk that Daisy produces during the day.  Bully can probably be weaned right now as he's been eating grass, but once we wean him, that means twice a day milking.  It is kind of nice to have him as a 'safety valve,' so that if we need to get away, we can just put Daisy and Bully together and he'll keep her milked down.  

Bully is growing up

We'll keep a watchful eye on the pregnant mamas out in the pasture.  It's always an exciting time once calves start dropping!