Easter #30 Delivers Stillborn Heifer

Easter #30 delivered a large heifer that might have been saved had I been there a couple of hours sooner.  Mom was able to get up after some struggles and will be fine.

On the brighter side on this beautiful day, the swallows are nesting and apparently using a lot of my home made nesting sights.  I looked out to find dozens of them outside the barn listening to the music being blue toothed through the boom box from my Kindle.

Sustainable Pasture Day- May 15

Official sustainable pasture day on Wolverine Farm- May 15. This is determined when the cows do not come back to the manger for our best hay. Kind of like the day the birds didn't come back to Noah's ark!

#39 Delivers Heifer #75- 5/17/16

#39 Had her first calf- a large very strong red pointed white calf.  Mother was bleeding a lot so I left them to heal and bond.

By the 20th they were both looking great.

Tierra #2 Delivers her 12th Calf

Yesterday morning (5/10/16) Tierra #2 was missing so I knew she must be hiding her calf.  Spent most of the morning covering the expanded pasture twice when I found her up on a bench in an alder patch overlooking the river licking off a new born pitch black heifer that was instantly tagged with #74.  This is the first of the dozen that Tierra has delivered that was black.  Strange when the bull was white.  Black is a common Galloway color but I've been told white is dominant when there is a choice.  All proof that recessive genes do exist.  The heifer took its first steps and Tierra continued to clean her up.  She is an exceptional mother.

 I would need to check but I don't believe she has ever had a bull so she has a lot of relatives in the herd that 14 years ago was only 6.

Saw the first swallows of the season.

#36 Delivers #73- 5/5/16

#36- one of our red tipped heifers delivered a red tipped calf- #73.  She showed up at the feeder and then went off and hid.  When I found them the calf jumped up and outran its mother.  This will be one that got away.  If it is a boy I will name him Moses.  Like the Jewish women that the Egyptian midwives reported were "lively" so that they delivered before they could get to the scene and catch the babies.  That will be the reputation of #36.  I will reserve the tag and put it in next time the herd goes through the squeeze chute.  Will have to determine gender the hard way- by long distance observation.

5/7/16 determined he is a boy- Moses he will be!