Too Late For The Spare

We are in the midst of Fall calving. 

Thursday, J had to pull a backwards calf.  It died just as he he got it out.  

So Friday, we headed to a local dairy that had a 1 month old bull calf to sell.  Also, very sad this dairy is going out of business and selling the last of their dairy cows this week.  They said they were selling out because they were just losing money. 

Anyway, a one month old Holstein bull calf that had been left on the cow and never handled was a bit of a handful. 

It was a good thing he was a stout as he was, because the cow didn't seem interested at all.  J skinned the dead calf and tied the hide to the Holstein. 

When we let him loose, the cow proceeded to maul him.  At one point she about tossed him over the fence.  We separated them and left them until evening.

We went back and put them together.  At least the cow wasn't chasing the calf around anymore.  But he was so traumatized he wasn't about to try to nurse.  

So we caught the cow and set up the chute to try to get the calf to nurse.  After some effort, he finally decided it was safe.  

We turned them back out together and left them overnight.   

The next morning, they were a bonded pair.  

We have 9 cows at another location where we then drove by to check.  And there was a set of twins. 

J carried one to the barn, 

and I carried one.  I'm pretty sure even if we had one of these as an extra on Friday, it wouldn't have survived the mauling/bonding process.   One of these will be coming home as a bottle calf.  J doesn't think this cow would be able to raise two very well, but we are leaving them both with her for a couple of days.  

 Then, Saturday evening when J went back to check the Holstein, he found yet another set of twins just born.  One had fallen off a cliff into the creek and was standing in the middle of it.  He carried it back to the cow and she took it along with the one she had with her.  Not sure what the plans are for that pair yet.  I think J is just planning on marking them and keeping an eye one them for now.   Never a dull moment.