It's a Girl!

She's a little girl.  I took the opportunity to check while Bess was busy munching hay over by Lucy.  There are 4 tiny little pink spots where the future udder will grow.  Hooray!  She won't be dinner someday! Once again, I'm kind of surprised how much like deer cows can be.  Bessie left little Sparkie (or whatever her name will be) under the tree where she was born, and went to eat.  Sparkie resisted being moved, and curled up into a tighter ball when I tried to pick her up and stand her on her feet.  It took a bit of effort to move her, and by then Bessie's full attention was on me.  She has this warning look in her eyes when I mess with the calf, but hasn't acted aggressive.  When the dogs ran in the back acre this morning, the term "cowed" or "cowered" made sense.  Bessie hoisted herself up off the ground, stood guard over little Sparkie, made a few mooing sounds and (even though the dogs were on the outside of the electric fence around the cow pen), both dogs cowered and wanted very badly to be taken out of the back acre.  ;)  I take that as a good sign that Rocky won't go after the calf as if it was prey.  One more relief! Bessie's milk is still pink.  When it's frozen, you can see just how much blood is really in it.  Not pretty!  The vet said that the blood is probably from the large udder swinging against her legs for a few days, and it's just from a few broken blood vessels.  I'm keeping an eye on it, just to be sure. I thought that my stress about Bessie's pregnancy would end with the calf being born.  Last night I woke up and almost couldn't go back to sleep.  The pictures running through my head were:  Sparkie tangled in the electric fence strands.  Sparkie getting THROUGH the electric fence around the pen and Bessie not able to get to her.  Bessie getting milk fever and lying in the field all night without me there to help.  All silly, imagined, middle-of-the-night fears.  This morning showed a content and very much thinner Bess curled up near a sweet little calf.  Both happy, healthy, and ready for Sparkie's first full day on the farm.  The chicken/goose/duck/turkey greeting squad streamed into the cow pen to scratch in the manure or eat bits of hay.  Bess watched warily, and little Sparkie perked up her ears and took it all in.  VERY cute! Laura. You are invited to view Laura's photo album: 2012 07 06 New calf 2012 07 06 New calf Jul 6, 2012 by Laura View Album Play slideshow If you are having problems viewing this email, copy and paste the following into your browser: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=dykstrazoo1&target=ALBUM&id=5762417066827941329&authkey=Gv1sRgCL2zvajSoI66-AE&feat=email To share your photos or receive notification when your friends share photos, get your own free Picasa Web Albums account.

Sparkie has arrived!

One calf has arrived!  I was worried while I was watching it being born.  It seemed like such a long time that the water sac was coming out, and I had no idea if the calf's nose was inside of there, needing to take its first breath.  But Bessie knew just what to do, and despite all I've heard about dairy cows having the natural instincts bred out of them, she immediately started licking her little baby and mooing to it as soon as it was delivered and she could reach it. I called Jeremy to come out and look.  He was only a little bit excited, because Bessie having her calf today (of all days!) meant that his plans for having a couple of Palatine friends over were being changed.  There will still be a sleepover, but his friends will ride here with Jeff, instead of Jeremy and me meeting them at a waterpark/playground.  Jeremy was looking forward to that! I have no idea if it's a boy or a girl.  It does have a beautiful belt, marked like Bessie but with 4 white hooves and a little white spot on its forehead.  It's 50% Dutch Belt (actually less, since Bess is only 75%) and 50% Holstein.  It could still be named "Sparkie", especially with that tiny white mark on its face, but Michael will have to weigh in on the name when he gets home from Canada tomorrow night.....  If it's a girl, it will eventually be a good milk cow. I had to wait around to make sure that it got some milk.  Bessie kept circling it, licking it all over.  Then Lucy came up and tried to play, but got very still and maternal when the calf tried to nurse from Lucy.  I had to shoo Lucy away, because the calf had already tried to bond with me when I wiped it's face clean with a towel.  No reason for a newborn calf to bond with a heifer who has no milk to give! About an hour after it was born, I finally gave Bess a bucket of grain to distract her, and guided the calf to her udder.  After a few sprays of milk into its mouth, it started looking for the source.  Unfortunately, it thought that my finger was where the milk was coming from!  It took a little more working while Bessie was still munching, and then little baby got the feel for it and really started sucking.  Bess didn't seem to know what to do, and did a few questioning moos at first.  Seemed to be going OK by the time I headed inside to clean the bottle for dipping the calf's navel in iodine. I just came in to get a break from the heat and to download the photos.  The vet says to keep watching for a second calf, because this one isn't much bigger than Rocky (the husky).  I know that Dutch Belts are supposed to have easy deliveries, and 80 pound calves, but the vet thinks that its a small enough calf that there could be another.  So, enjoy the first few photos of this little sweetie, and I'll write more if there's another calf to introduce!  ;) Laura.

Calf on its way....possibly twins?!!!

So hot again today.  This morning seemed the worst, with no breeze and instant sweat at only 8 a.m.  All week the weather radio has been suggesting that the heat wave could break today and we'd have temps in the 80's for the weekend.  We'll all have to run to the closets for winter coats!  80's will feel heavenly.  The vet came out a few hours ago.  Bess put up an admirable fight, but he got her into a rope halter and tied her to a tree to examine her.  He could feel the calf's feet and nose, and "pinched" the nose to make sure the calf was alive.  She was "dilated" and ready to deliver any time.  His comments were that the calf is almost in position, should be born today, is quite small, and that.......unless Dutch Belts as a breed have very tiny calves, there could be twins.  I'm supposed to be on the lookout to make sure that Bess takes care of the calf, and if she doesn't, then I need to milk her and feed the calf by bottle within two hours.  The calf also needs its navel dipped in iodine to prevent infection.  If Bess doesn't clean the calf, I need to be ready to dry it with towels and make sure it's breathing. (It can be tickled inside the nose to force it to take a breath, if needed.) And if the calf is as small as one of our dogs, then I need to call the vet back, because then he expects there to be a twin needing to be "taken" to make sure it's born in a timely manner. We sat and had some iced tea while he answered my questions, then he looked in on Bess again and said that she's "starting"....and if there isn't a calf born by first light tomorrow, to call him. Update:  She is lying in the shade next to Lucy, her tail held high, clear discharge coming out.....so I'll be outside in the shady, trying not to bother her, trying to stay cool, but ready to step in with towels to dry off the little one and a piece of straw to tickle it's nose if Bess isn't an attentive mother.  More later..... Laura.

Waiting on the little one.....

Again, thought it would be today because of one little detail:  she started dripping milk.  At least she's getting closer. Friends Ben and Susan stopped by en-route to Chicago from Door County, and we were watching Bessie look very heat-stressed while Lucy relaxed nearby in the shade.  I called the vet. He was surprised that she hadn't had the calf yet.  She's been holding her tail off at an angle longer than just a day or two, which concerned him a little.  He advised me to milk her because she had started dripping.  Said something about how milking her might even start her thinking about having that calf.  And asked me if I'd felt inside her to see if there was any progress!!!!  No, I haven't.  I politely explained that I wouldn't know what I was doing even if I tried.  He works with people who have large herds of dairy or beef cows, and I imagine that a seasoned farmer would just do it without thinking twice, and would even have a few of those up-to-the-shoulder gloves ready for just such an occasion.  It's a little intimidating to me.   I'm sure the dairy men out there would have advised not to interfere (re: the milking), and that was my first reaction.  I've read so many pros and cons for milking a cow before she delivers her calf (to relieve pressure, to keep bacteria from going up into her teat through the open and dripping duct.....there was something about edema, too, which I'm not really sure how to describe or even what it really is, but the photos were almost gruesome of udders hanging almost to the ground...more info that you wanted, I'm sure.  Bessie's doesn't look like that, by the way.)  I had to weigh the advice of the vet against all the cons I've heard....and since the vet said he'll come by tomorrow to check on Bess, decided that I'd better follow his instructions. After luring Lucy out of the cow pen so she couldn't trap me in the corner as I tried to milk Bess, we settled in with Bessie's grain and a bucket of garlic mustard, red clover, and other green weeds from outside the fence (didn't have alfalfa hay yet.)  Bess didn't flinch as I started milking--like we haven't even had 10 weeks now of non-milking.  I was thinking this:  we could have had fresh milk for at least 2 weeks longer in April, and next time will have a closer idea when she was actually "bred" and a good idea of the due date, which is even more important! The milk was the color of strawberry milk-shake, about 3/4 gallon of it, so I called the vet again (colostrum is supposed to be brownish, if I understand it right).  He was very pleasant, didn't sound too concerned, and said that I should freeze it for the calf, but replace it with tomorrow's milk/colostrum if that comes out "cleaner".  Today's might have blood in it, and the word "edema" came up again.  He assured me again that he'll be out tomorrow to check on her if the calf doesn't come tonight. So we wait again.  Lucy was "mounting" Bess today, which caused a bit of commotion throughout the day.  Poor Bess--hugely pregnant, wanting to just stand still,  her nose perspiring, breathing heavily, dripping milk from an uncomfortable-looking udder, and Lucy is acting dominant for various fun reasons and causing physical exertion for the 8 year old cow who just wants to have her calf and get it over with..... Let's see what excitement tomorrow brings!  If nothing else, I'll be relieved that the vet has come and checked things out, and that everything doesn't hinge on my guessing game about what Bessie's symptoms might mean.

No news is non-news

Poor Bess.  She seems so miserable.  Some days it seems that the calf's birth must be imminent, and then others (like today), it seems that the pregnancy will just go on....and on....and on.....  Yesterday seemed like a more likely day than today.  Uncle Duane was right--it will be a July calf! Bessie's udder is now larger than we've ever seen it.  She was giving 3 gallons a day when we got her in January, 2 gallons a day soon after (when I started hand-milking her).  No idea how much she could hold in an udder the size that it is now.  When Bess lies down, she shields that huge udder with her curled up leg to keep the flies away.  It truly looks like a water balloon under her, about to burst.  The flies have been terrible!  I can spray both of the cows with fly spray, and just a few hours later it isn't doing any good.  I bought the less potent kind, because of how they groom each other (and how the calf will be drinking from an area that gets misted with fly-spray).  I've been debating whether to dust them both with diatomaceous earth, which I have for the chickens' dust bath and to add to chicken-feed once in a while for an internal worm prevention.  It's kind of a crazy and horrible idea, but apparently, the cells of the diatoms that make up the powdery diatomaceous earth are so sharp that any soft-skinned insect gets "cut up" by the sharp edges  (fleas, lice, internal worms, maybe even flies?)  Next time I'm at the farm store, I'll check the label of the expensive fly-powder that is used in hanging bags for cows to brush past, and maybe diatomaceous earth is in the ingredient list.... There is no grass to be grazed out in the pasture.  The bottom of the fence is showing signs of the cows pushing against it to get at the dry (but still greenish) blades of grass growing outside the fence.  The chickens are pecking at the small and dry leaves of clover that was struggling to grow.  Creeping Charlie (a weedy ground cover) is almost the only thing green out there, and even that is wilting away.  I water out there once in a while, but the sun dries it up almost as soon as the day gets going.  We'll probably have to re-seed in the fall in hopes of getting some grass established before winter sets in. I'm making mental notes of where rain barrels could be placed next spring.  We don't have gutters on the house or barn, so a lot of rain could be caught in a long line of connected barrels, and then doled out for gardens.  There's something that can be added to rain water if it starts getting scummy, too, that would make it safe for animals to drink.  If this heat is going to be a yearly trend, then saving all the water possible would be a really good thing.  It would help, too, to have a visible limit to what I hose onto the grass or gardens:  One barrelful per day, if we had a whole line of barrels, and the idea of priority would make sense, rather than turning on the sprinkler without really thinking through whether that well-water is being wasted or not.  Gardens for food and water for animals: first priority, flowers would probably have to dry up unless they could take the heat, and lawn grass would be at the bottom of the list.  The pasture grass would be dry but OK if it had had time to grow in this spring..... The ducks would need to stop wasting so much water by swishing their food around in it, so we'd have to come up with a better watering system than the open hog-pans with water in them.  Each day, sometimes numerous times a day, I have to empty out those water pans so that the gunky duck-water is replaced with fresh water that isn't going to make the chickens sick.  We also have to run a dehumidifier in the basement almost non-stop to keep mold from starting.  That water could be collected, too.  Right now, it's all wasted as the hose takes it right down into the sump pump and it gets pumped out of the basement.  There's some saying that laziness is the mother of invention, or something like that.  But I think that God gave us analytical minds that can reason out what would have been a good strategy in any situation, and how to put that in place in the event that the same situation is replayed another time.  I don't think that I'd call that laziness!  Next year, whatever large barrels I can scrounge up will be used to catch all the rain-water we're able to contain. Back to the animals:  We've only had 2 heat-related deaths.  They wouldn't really be classified "heat-related".  Two chicks tried to drink from the half-barrels that are filled with cow water, and I found them drowned at noon one day.  The chickens have plenty of water, but not in that certain area.  So now there's a hog-pan of water near the cow water, too. Sad but kind of interesting:  One chick which drowned was one of the last 3 surviving chicks from Solomon's hatch (black and white hen raised 4, brown cochin raised Solomon after the black and white hen stole the hatching eggs in the clean nest).  Solomon (who seems to be a young hen, needing a more feminine name) is still grazing side-by side with his mama.  The black and white hen left her 4 chicks to fend for themselves weeks ago, about the time I complained about the brown hen neglecting her baby.  That situation totally turned itself around, with the black and white hen's chicks hanging out together and no need for their mama to coddle them.  Two died when the sickness went through the flock.  That left 2 who roosted together each night.  The gray one drowned, leaving one forlorn little rust-colored chick.  She has decided that she wants to be a cow-bird, instead of a chicken.  She hangs out by the cows, follows them, picks through their piles, and even nips flies off of their ankles as she miraculously avoids being stepped on.  Last night, when all the chickens were rounded up and into the barn, she was spotted by the cows, not paying any attention to what the others poultry were doing.  I had to actually chase her down, because she didn't want to leave the cows.  Cousin Vonda had pointed out that chickens roosting near milking areas isn't a great idea for sanitation, so I don't want to let this little hen get the idea that she can curl up with the cows (or even worse, roost above them).  I'm sure she's back with the cows today, getting tasty flies and learning to dodge those huge hooves as she identifies more and more with cows, and less and less with birds of her own kind.  ;) Happy 4th of July, everyone.  If the calf is born today, I think it's name will have to be "Sparkie" in honor of sparklers and fireworks!  ;) Laura.

Fw: Laura shared an album with you.

Here is the clover/flower album again, with more than just the one photo.....Sorry. You are invited to view Laura's photo album: 2012-06-27 2012-06-27 Jun 17, 2012 by Laura View Album Play slideshow If you are having problems viewing this email, copy and paste the following into your browser: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=dykstrazoo1&target=ALBUM&id=5759842832645426929&authkey=Gv1sRgCIK299a_ruzfLw&feat=email To share your photos or receive notification when your friends share photos, get your own free Picasa Web Albums account.

Fw: Laura shared an album with you.

It would be better if I sent more than one photo in an album (technical difficulties!) Here is the "frog" album again: You are invited to view Laura's photo album: 2012-06 Frog 2012-06 Frog Jun 17, 2012 by Laura View Album Play slideshow If you are having problems viewing this email, copy and paste the following into your browser: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=dykstrazoo1&target=ALBUM&id=5759841909203689649&authkey=Gv1sRgCIKjt_vvqPyiYA&feat=email To share your photos or receive notification when your friends share photos, get your own free Picasa Web Albums account.