It's a Girl!!!

Finally!!!  We can report that we have a heifer calf!  We had 9 bull calves in a row, and from the looks of things, we were thinking that this too would be another bull calf.  Cow #312 was due 7 days ago, typically when this happens, it means that it's going to be a bull calf (male).  Not always is this the case, but typically if a calf is born late, it is a bull.  2 days ago, we decided that #312 waited long enough to have her calf.  We decided to go ahead and induce her delivery.  We gave #312 medication to begin labor on Wednesday at 2pm.  On Thursday at 1 pm #312 finally began displaying signs of labor.  We watched her very closely.  She progressed slowly, but after 3 hours we decided it was time to intervene.  We walked #312 from the dry cow yard to the calving pen.  #312 needed a little help to deliver her calf, so we hooked up to give a pull with each of her contractions.  At 4:30pm on Thursday, we successfully delivered a beautiful HEIFER calf!  After almost a month, we finally had a heifer on our farm and she was beautiful!  We had to check her twice just to make sure we had a heifer, and I quickly named her "Autumn".  #312 went to work cleaning Autumn off, and we worked to make sure #312 got plenty of warm water to drink after such hard work.  After an hour we moved Autumn to her new, freshly bedded stall and we moved #312 to the milking barn.  #312 literally ran to the milking barn!  She knew exactly where she was going.  She found her feed and water waiting for her, as well as all of her friends!  It's so great to see a fresh cow doing so well!

What to see #312 licking off her calf? Check out our video below!

Mother in waiting...

As I am typing this right now, I have enjoyed about 1.5 hours of being inside our home. Today we had 4 calves born from 3 cows and as of right now I am waiting for the delivery of calf number 5 for the day. Mother cow was starting to calve at about 11:30pm tonight. As a result I am staying up to head out and check on her. I am closely monitoring her progress to make sure that she has a safe and successful delivery for both mother and calf. This particular cow was given medication yesterday which has worked to help induce her labor and delivery. Much like in humans, if a cow goes too far her due date the risks of a difficult delivery steadily increase. This cow is 12 days past her due date, which isn't too uncommon with the sire of her calf, but we would rather be safe than sorry. She was given medication yesterday morning, with the hopes that she would have calved this morning, but she decided that she is waiting until tomorrow morning instead...so I wait, hoping for an easy care free delivery from a great cow! Out I go to see how she's doing.....