New Baby

Yesterday we got to the barn in time to see another calf was about to be born. At least we were in there for this one. Now, Stripe cow does yell as she goes by her baby Tessa, but she licked her clean and did all the nice cow mom stuff she was supposed to and was protective. She calls out for her calf and the calf returns the call from her stall down the barn. Gertrude just ignored hers completely and I was ‘mom’ until we sold him.

Dot, on the other hand, is the darnedest thing I ever saw, and people, I have been raising cattle a long time, as in, off and on for over thirty years. She was quietly dealing with her labor while we moved the ladies in and out of the parlor to milk. During the second round I noticed the feet heading out but she wasn’t done by the time we were. It was, however, completely out by the time we got the first half (4) back in their stalls, so we stopped what we were doing to deal with getting the calf up to mama so she could lick it clean. 

This important for a lot of reasons: 1) It cleans all the yuk off the calf and dries it. 2) It stimulates the calf to breath – like when they smack a human baby’s bottom to make it cry the fluid out of its lungs. 3) It warms the calf. 4) It stimulates the mama cow to finish the delivery process by expelling the afterbirth. If she doesn’t clean out, she’ll get an infection that costs a lot to clear up and it could interfere with her being able to breed back. 

What Dot Did

Dot sort of licked at her calf. We had to babysit her cleaning it to a point where my husband forgot we had cows still in the parlor waiting to be put back until I reminded him. We got them put up to much foolishness as they wanted to play with the new baby and we had to stop them. This being done, we were back to monitoring the cleaning process. We constantly had to push the calf back to his mother (it was a bull) and she would just scream at it. I’ve never seen a cow scream at her calf that way. It was like she was saying to it, “So you’re the reason for all my discomfort!” The reason we were monitoring her when we normally would have left her in peace? She kept trying to bite him. Seriously! She opened her mouth and almost took off an ear. She bit his neck. She went for his side. She had his foot in her mouth. She kept pawing at him with her front foot. We thought at first she was trying to get him into a position where she could get to him better, but she was knocking him out of the way even though her instinct told her to lick it clean. We made sure she did the licking part and she did most of it before she got too out of hand with him and we finally just took him away and finished cleaning him off ourselves. She calmed right down. Weird.

We took another round into the parlor even though she would be the only one to get milked so we could get the colostrum for the calf. There was no way she was going to let him nurse and she wouldn’t allow us to hand milk her. The calmest cow we had, even in training, went totally berserk when we actually tried to milk her. (Yup; had to hog tie her.) But, I got the colostrum and fed the poor little guy and made sure he had his blanket on him because he was shivering. It is cold up here! He ate well though.

Later, after the chores were finally finished, we sat across from the calves watching them. The new one was breathing funny and my husband thought he might have gotten pneumonia since he didn’t get the proper stimulation to get the fluid out of his lungs, but then I noticed how he had him tied up and jumped up just in time. His breathing got worse by the second and he was gurgling. I said something colorful and grabbed my pocket knife and cut the string free and started stimulating him to breath. My question to my husband was why does he always tie a slip knot on their necks? He didn’t think it was a problem the way he ties them. I had to inform him it was because I ALWAYS, and I mean ALWAYS, have to go back and either retie or start from scratch, the string he uses to tie them up because it tightens up on their neck and chokes them. He has just never seen it I guess. I had to teach him how to tie it so that it doesn’t slip and choke them anymore. We’ll see. The calf is fine and breathing right now. No meds needed. 

I won’t give the little guy a name. Bull calves are worth too much right now to keep him and we don’t have our calf facility set up yet. We’re using unused cow stalls for them until then and it isn’t that much space – only four stalls. We can fit 8 little ones in that, but once they start to grow they’ll need the stall to themselves. 

Are you getting a barn full of new calves?

 Our newest little guy to the barn. He is so darned cute; it's a shame I have to sell him.

 

Tessa photobombed him. 

Mom- Dot

Cows with Funny Names

I told you about our experience with buying cows recently for our new milking parlor system. In all fairness to the people with the nasty barn, they were renting because they too were renovating a barn on the family farmstead and due to the family emergency; that opportunity went away. I’m sure it would have been miles better than the rental. They hated having to sell out. 

Now, a couple years ago I started raising calves in our barn. We initially wanted heifers because we knew we were going to start up milking again, but with the cost of heifers at that time and peoples’ desire to hang on to them, we ended up with a few bulls in the mix and as sale barn calves go, they aren’t all that healthy when you get them for the most part. Me – I keep them at least a week and feed them colostrum and make sure they are healthy before they go. I have no control over what they might catch from someone else’s calves, just as someone else has no control over what any I buy might get from others’. We lost a dozen calves in spite of my best efforts to save them. I also ended up with some called Free Martins. These are calves born as twins to opposing genders. They tend to be sterile for some reason and we ended up with three heifers that were such. They, along with one we bought at about six months old (actually bred when we sold her) had to go. We held on to them until a few months ago when it was apparent they were not going to breed. The fourth one, a red Holstein we bought with a group from a cattle jockey (his job is to find buyers for herds of cattle, as opposed to a hauler who just takes them to market). She was nuts from the get-go but at the time we chalked it up to being hauled around. He had bought her originally and had his hand raise her and the others. He apparently didn’t realize (or maybe he did?) that she was wild natured. She caused so much trouble in the barn and tearing up fences once they were turned out she made the others a bit wild too. Of course she was NOT going in my new parlor. He bought Crazy back assuring us he could work with her. Later he said we were right- she's just nuts.

Crazy did have an odd habit that another one from her group, another red Holstein we named Dot also did following her buddy. They stood on top of the concrete footer the tie stalls were attached to and played with the pipeline that used to be in there. Dot still stands on that footer watching even though the pipeline has been removed. She is really big- not quite as big as Gertrude the Cowzilla, but we did end up with a handful of those heifers I raised that will give her run for her money in size. Dot is actually not that wild now that ‘Crazy’ is gone and she is in the barn again. I finally asked her in frustration one day, “What? Are you Humpy Dumpty? Get down!”

We have one almost completely white, of course named Whitie, that did not want to come back in (none of them did actually) but now is much more calm. Why not? We wait on them hand and hoof. Or is that hoof and hoof? We decided that since she is due first we should try to at least run her through the parlor to get used to it even though we won’t try to milk her yet. You’d have thought we were trying to kill her when we tried to back her out of that stall. She tossed and fought and at one point ended up completely backwards and then turned back around head first to the feed aisle without ever getting out of the stall. My husband actually giggled at her (trust me- this doesn’t happen). Once we finally got her out after about ten minutes of this foolishness, she went right in like knew exactly where she was going and right to where we wanted her in the parlor! When we tried to put her back of course she wouldn’t go. She balked at going back into her stall. She just stood there and stared at it. I finally told the cow next to her stall, one I named Cuddles (more on her in a minute) to turn and let her know it was all right to get back in the stall. I didn’t really think she’d do it, but what the heck. She did it! She turned her head and stared at Whitie a minute, let out a short incomplete moo and turned away. Whitie thought a few seconds and walked calmly into her stall. I looked at my husband, grinned and just shrugged. 

Cuddles is and has always been just the friendliest cow. I can take her head under my arm like a dog and pet her. I scratch her ears, her neck, talk to her. She sniffs me, licks me when I can’t get backed up fast enough, and moves when I tell her to – the right direction. I can get into her stall without fear of being stomped. She might steal my hat though. I’ve had a cow like that before.

Connie, short for Connie Butt Kicker, got her name because she does not like it when someone tries to clean her stall. She also backs way up when someone is front of her unless she is stealing a mouthful of silage from the wheelbarrow as it passes by. She’s real good at that! She got her name as a calf. My husband used to mess up Chuck Norris’ name when Walker Texas Ranger was on and so he called him ‘Johnny Butt Kicker’. Since cows actually use a bit of a round house kick, something she is very good at, I called her Connie Butt Kicker. If I call her name and get her attention she will move and let me clean it and put down fresh bedding, but if not; she will show you the business end of the shovel in a hurry. The jury is still out on whether she will make it in the parlor when the time comes. 

We also have one of the heifers that absolutely refuses to go into the barn. She literally turned and jumped the corral when we tried to get inside and there were four of us! She has strange markings being mostly white on one side of her head and just a wide black smear down her face on the other side. Obviously her name is Stripe. She used to be fairly calm. I don’t know what got into her but she has to come in soon since she is due as far as we know in February to calve. We need a vet to do a pregnancy check on the ones who aren’t obvious to gauge a time frame. Like a rebellious teenager; she doesn’t want to leave her boyfriend. 

We got one from that farm I discussed earlier who is also almost completely all white with a few spots. The people had another one really close in looks that was named Spot. Since the mister kept mistaking the two and his wife had to remind him ‘that’s not spot’ that became her name: Not Spot. She answers to it too. She’s pretty calm and even though her bag isn’t real big, she milks well and it is her first lactation so we’re thinking it will get better next go round. 

At the auction, somehow my husband managed to get three almost identical black or nearly all black cows. They are so similar in size and demeanor they are hard to tell apart. They all three cause trouble, even though they milk calmly for the most part, but they are almost always covered in their own doings, if you know what I mean. We got cow trainers put up mostly because of these three. It takes a while to give them all a shower before every milking.  The hubby named the one that is just about completely all black right down to her udder Pot because she is always the instigator and stirring the pot. The other two have partially white bags so can be distinguished from Pot. I had them named before I realized one had a white spot on its head and her name is actually Blackie. The one without the black spot is Kettle. Yep, couldn’t tell them apart any more than Pot could so we got Pot called Kettle Black. It’s a catchy way to remember it. One has fat teats and the other skinny, otherwise I couldn’t tell them apart from my angle in the parlor. 

We were feeding the milking cows the other morning after I was done cleaning the milk house and the heifers were singing or something. They kept saying in tandem Moo in a low hushed tone, almost chanting. I told my husband they were either doing yoga or meditating, or maybe they were anticipating their silage and singing the Campbell’s Soup commercial theme song: Mmmm Good! He said, “I think you’re right!”

                                                        Dot: thinks she's Humpty Dumpty

                          

                                                        Cuddles: thinks she's a puppy dog

                                                        Whitie: balky giant white cow

                   Stripe: doesn't want to leave the bull. It's cold outside, stupid. Come in to the barn!

     Dutchy: a/k/a Pig (from previous post). The face of evil, or someone read her Fifty Shades of Grey, because she is really into bondage! Belted Dutch with jersey red ears.

Winter on the Farm

Originally posted on Eliza Lynn Taylor's You Never Know! January 27, 2013...

Living in Northern Wisconsin is a lot of fun for a lot of people. I am not one of those people. I do not enjoy snow or the sports one would engage in when it snows. I like to fish, but there is no way I am going out on a frozen lake to do so. I'm from Florida, so the cold and I do not get along, and I absolutely do not like snow.

That being said, for farmers wintertime should be a time of semi-restfulness, right? Don't count on it. Crops have to be planned for spring planting and equipment needs to be maintained so it actually works come spring and summer. Animals have to have extra care, especially if they are kept inside a barn, after all, either way, they can't feed themselves and there isn't any grass to graze on. If a farmer has a dairy, forget about any rest. As much as snow gets in the way and adds more work, it is also a necessary evil. Economic impact on the community that depends on it aside, snow, and a lot of it, is needed for soil moisture when planting time comes around. A good layer of snow is needed to protect hay fields. It keeps some warmth in and the freeze out. Doesn't make sense, does it? Snow also helps weigh down the grasses so that the freezing cold and ice isn't able to heave the delicate plants and kill them off.

We got some snow, but not a lot and it got really cold. Then we got the January thaw, which is temperatures in the forties that got rid of what little snow we did have. Then it got cold again, as in way below zero. I'm going with the notion that all that nice alfalfa and clover we planted is not going to come up this year. Also the unseasonal warmth we had last year during January and February sent our fruit trees for a loop. They bloomed out and then the blooms of course froze when winter returned and we got no apples. It affected the entire state's crop of apples and cherries and other berries and fruits that grow up here. There is a good possibility of more of the same this year.

Now comes the 'fun' part. It got so cold last week that our entire water system froze. We've been having to take a torch to the cow watering system, as in pipes, bowls, and mechanisms so they could drink for several weeks now. We have a barn full of cows so that is a lot of water bowls and pipes. When I say the entire system went down, I mean no water to anywhere, including the house. We had to use an old drag-type spray rig to water the animals by hand (think buckets) and buy water for the house. Thank goodness we have relatives nearby so we could get water for the animals. After finally giving up getting things going on our own, we had to call a well company to get the ice out of the lines. I give up using the automatic watering cups for the cattle though. Until it warms it a bit, I'll just have to keep on using buckets. Even though there are a lot of cows, it takes longer to thaw the lines than to just give them a bucket and babysit them to make sure they don't dump it over accidentally. The barn cleaner chain also froze down so we couldn't run the chain to clean the beds out. I thought we were doomed to the old Armstrong method (two strong arms, a shovel, and a wheelbarrow). The tractor can be used, but it still has to get to the tractor, which cannot fit into the bottom of the barn where the animals are. My poor husband spent hours with a sledge hammer breaking the ice loose so we could get that cleaner going again. He's not too keen on the Armstrong method either for cleaning.

Next week, it's due to get way below freezing again and we might have to do this all over again. Thankfully we got some snow and so we pushed a nice pile around the building where the well is to keep some of that heat we keep going in there where it belongs. So, wish us luck.

Think this is unusual? Probably not. Farming is like that. On good days, the work is not too bad, the equipment works the way it's supposed to and things go smoothly. I do enjoy my cows in spite of all the work, and bucking hay and scraping stalls is some great exercise. But the bad days tend to be really bad, and most farmers know what I'm talking about. Like to gamble? Skip the casino- go into farming.

Mornign on the Farm - What a Way to Start the Day

Originally posted on Eliza Lynn Taylor's You Never Know! December 30, 2012...

It's a great way to start the day. You go out to the barn and something just seems--wrong. It took a minute to figure it out. Someone was missing- Black Jack the steer. Suddenly there he was, on the wrong side of the barn in the feed aisle. Oh man! He had somehow managed to unhook the clip holding his neck chain. They seem to be rather talented in that area of late.

First one must catch the naughty fellow, and believe me, he is not all that small- about 300 pounds. He also has decided he just isn't ready to go back to his stall quite yet, so he ran up and down the aisle with me calling after him. The aisle isn't that big and it's not worth chasing a cow around the feed aisle, you just have to wait for him to calm down a second, although every time I walked up to him to put the rope on his head, he took off again. Hmmm. He's being extra naughty today. Usually I can get him the first time, but then, he has made quite a mess of things and he may be under the impression I'm going to get onto him somehow. It's a cow; it doesn't do any good, as I have told my husband repeatedly. Finally, I got the rope the on his head and he decided at that point to just drag me down the aisle, only I jerked the rope to one side as one would a rein on a horse and he stopped in his tracks. "Now, if you're quite ready to go back home," I told him, "I can clean up this mess and feed everyone." I also told the other cows to give him a hard time since it was his fault they wouldn't be fed for a while as I had to clean up the feed aisle. Yes, I know it doesn't do any good to say such things to them, but it made me feel better.

He still wasn't ready to go back home but I got him out of the feed aisle and into the center walkway, so I tied the rope off in his stall (which thankfully is literally across from the short walk aisle between stalls on the side where he had taken refuge.) I got behind him and gave him a little smack on the rear to get him motivated. He tried to turn and run down the walk aisle but when he reached the end of the rope, he flipped completely over. I just smiled and chuckled a bit. "So, are we ready now?" He got up and went to his stall. I had to motivate him to go on and cross the gutter and move forward enough to hook him back up, but he went.

My goodness, what a mess he made! He managed to knock down five of six bales of hay we had thrown out of the hay mow the night before and pulled the hay string off of two of them, scattering one all over the place. The hay that had not been eaten was no longer fit to eat as he had hygiene issues (that's safe wording right?) in the hay so I had to spend twenty minutes just cleaning the hay out of the aisle and making sure I could actually give the cows their grain before haying them again. At least the concrete was not in need of disinfecting since it all managed to land in hay piles. (That was good trick too.)

Since we have a doorway (minus an actual door) leading to the silo room (we aren't using them) we blocked it off with a piece of plywood and some old straw bales to insulate the barn against the cold. It is at the end of that walk aisle between stalls I mentioned earlier. The water lines and bowls tend to freeze there if it isn't blocked off in the wintertime. That rascal pushed on those bales until he broke the cords holding the plywood up and knocked it over. The bales actually stayed in place, thank goodness. After the mess was cleaned up and the rest of the chores were done, I went outside and around to the other side of the doorway and put the plywood back up, only this time I nailed it to the framework and them braced it with some long two-by-four lumber. Let's see him knock it over now!

Have you ever had days like that?