I had been working on this post for a bit, where my hectic schedule allows, because I had a general idea when this cow would calve, and I wanted to do a fun “baby watch” contest. This is Cardinal Noel, so named by PW due to her birth date.
She is Fiddle's daughter, now four years old, and she was due to calve the end of July.
She had a brindle bull calf last year, so we were excited to see what she would have this year.
I went out and took all these lovely pictures of her, from different angles, so I could make a Baby Watch Contest post that everyone who wanted could participate in, guessing when the little one would arrive.
NOTE TO SELF! - Get the contest blog posted a month earlier than due date so you can actually post the blog online before the calf arrives!
I thought it kind of odd that the extra cows and bull were all hanging out on the fence line shared with our milk cows one morning. Once we shut the milking machine down we could hear everyone's bawling as well.
A quick look didn't bring Cardinal Noel into my line of vision, so I sent CW down to find her and bring her up if she was in labor, and to stay out of the way if she already had a calf on the ground.
He yelled up in a few minutes that there was a baby on the ground. So we made ready for the new arrival, then went with the wagon and lead rope to bring mom and baby up to the new barn.
I still had milk to strain and cool from the morning's milking that got interrupted, so I left CW in charge of getting the calf into its new accommodations, getting it dried off, and getting some colostrum into it.
Then we gave mom the customary buckets of molasses water and her calcium bolus that helps prevent milk fever.
Now we are back in a more productive milk business. We've been skimping the last couple of months due to the fact I had to dry off two cows and only had two cows milking. But now we should have enough to fill the orders on our waiting list and have some left over to make extra ice cream to sell and make some hard cheese that should be ready in time for the holidays.