First calf 2009
Guess who couldn’t wait for the official start of calving…
21. Again. And again, she’s dropped a Jersey-cross heifer (do new calves normally come this tiny?)
Last year was an ‘up-half-the-night’ affair for me, waiting for colostrum to defrost because I couldn’t convince her calf to suckle.
This year the calf was maybe half an hour old and following her around and when I gave her a push towards the udder she started suckling without delay.
Wait till daylight to take photos? Course not.
She’s ten days early. I’m kinda hoping one of the heifers quickly follows suit so that 21 has company in the milking shed, and because said heifer looks like she’ll burst if her udder keeps expanding.
The farm still has no grass – but as of yesterday, it does have cows. 25 springers, now 24 and one milker.
About 1700 kg DM cover across the farm, longest paddocks 2300. The series of frosts week before last didn’t do the growth rates any good.
Strictly speaking, 314 had the first live calf of 2009 – as her bull was born alive in early June, seven weeks premature. The first full-term calves are due around the twelfth of this month.
edit: the following morning
and of course I went to see last year’s heifer number 1 and told her she had a baby sister
