Georgia’s New Calf

On the first weekend of April, I noticed some changes in Georgia’s rear-end. Because this time of year, I pay very close, anxious attention to Georgia’s rear.

It’s exciting and stressful – watching for the grand finale of my short stretch of free mornings.

Disclaimer: If you’re not the type to enjoy an in-depth description of cow labor… don’t read this post.

So, I noticed not only that her udder was starting to fill up quickly, but that her vulva was beginning to get loose and mucous-y. So I started fixing up the milking parlor and bringing her in every morning to get her accustomed to the milking routine.

Here’s how she was looking at that point.

Over the next week, her udder continued to fill up nicely, but we didn’t see any more mucous. So far it was just like her other pregnancies.

Here she is on the Friday of the second weekend of April:

As you can see, behaving her normal wacky self. But her udder is definitely more enlarged.

The next day, Saturday, I noticed an even greater enlargement of her udder – a sure sign that a calf is on the way.

Then on Sunday morning, Papa noticed her starting to push – not any pressure, like she was straining, but she seemed to be in labor. We kept a sharp eye on her all day, but she would only give that gentle push. No change, no straining, no sign of discomfort. Just grazing normally. But no doubt in the beginning stages of labor.

The next morning, the 15th of April, nothing had changed. Now I really began to worry. What if the presentation was wrong? She didn’t seem to be in any distress, but this labor was so different than the others. On the other hand, the bag hadn’t broken. Still, it was too long. So I set a dead-line. If she didn’t have her baby by noon, I’d call the vet or else do something.

9:30.

It’s a boy!

Over twenty-four hours of labor with no sign of the calf, and then she pops it out without us even seeing the birth!

The calf struggled briefly to get up, but it was a very cold, windy day and he seemed to not have much strength. I helped him to his feet and he wobbled over to the huge udder.

Besides being a little less frisky than most calves and taking a little longer to catch on to nursing, he’s been a healthy little calf after his prolonged entrance into the world.

We had some discussion about his name, because Georgia’s other calves have all been girls and we’ve named them prettily: Dixie May, Willa Jean, and Violet Anne.

But this is a bull-calf, and as much as we love him, we know that we can’t get too attached. After all, we are beef farmers, right? So we’ve named him Taxi, since he was born on Tax Day. The idea is that we can’t get too attached to something with the idea of taxes in mind. But it’s not working…

Beautiful baby.