Quick update, and name debate

Photos:  Baby Ruby in 2012 (wasn't she a gorgeous baby?), and Baby Junior/Milton/Prince/?

Bessie and calf Juniorare doing great.  I let them out with Ruby and Charming for just a short while this afternoon.  Bess was very concerned that the other big bad cows not do anything to hurt her baby.  Junior the calf tried to engage Charming in playing, bucking and dashing around the pasture.  Bessie moo-ed in concern and prompted my comment to Jeff about "helicopter Moms" at the playground.  

Baby calf pranced and ran and was fearless in general.  When a big blue tarp billowed in the breeze, he trotted towards it and watched in curiosity, rather than hiding behind his mother.

Ruby and Charming had a fun time sniffing Bessie all over, because she now smells a bit different than the last time they were together (3 months ago, when she was producing the milk that tasted bitter, and was still solidly pregnant and not giving off vibes-by-way-of-scent that she had given birth).  At one point, Jeff commented that there were 3 cows out there that wanted a drink from her, and sure enough, three interested noses were very close to her udder.  :(

By the time Bessie corralled her little adventurer and nosed him back into the cow-pen, I was ready to close the gate and keep the other 2 out in the pasture, where they belong.

Anyway, we're having a hard time coming up with a name for the little guy.  I tend to put an "ee" sound after every name that we choose for a cow.  It's been Bessie, Lucy (the first heifer that we bought with Bess), Ruby, then Prince Charming (I don't usually call him "Charmy", but sometimes).  So this new little one needs a name that can be adjusted to my nicknames.  

Jeremy's first idea was "Double-Stuff", since the little guy looks like an Oreo.  Then we were talking about Pokemon names, and Milkon was suggested (Pokemon cow?).  I thought of "Milton", which means I would call him "Milty".  Hmmmm....  "Baby" is easy and is the fall-back nickname for every animal out there, but he should really have a better name than that.

For some in the reading audience, this is a little crude, but I can imagine a few of you cackling with glee when you read it and imagining the possible scenario:  I thought of calling him "Pistol", because (in the words of my friend from 25 years ago as she watched her little boy running around the playground, "He's a 'pistol'").  But shortening that name by a syllable and adding an "ee" sound isn't really what I want to be yelling across the pasture at a calf.

The latest idea is in keeping with the "Prince" name (Prince Charming is the full name of the foster calf, because of his gorgeous brown Jersey-eyes and the white heart on his forehead.  I couldn't think of anything other than "You're such a charming boy".

So, maybe "Prince Caspian".  I could call him "Caspy" and "Casper" and whatever else came to mind.  I can't think of any other prince characters who had actual names, can you?

The other option?  I keep thinking "The-artist-formerly-known-as-Prince" when I think of prince names.  Not sure how I'd make a nickname out of that one.  And not sure why I'd name any gorgeous little calf after the guy who changed his name to something unintelligible!

 

Laura
http://dykstrasfarm.blogspot.com/

Rationing the bacon

There's a disappointing amount of bacon that comes from one half of a 250 pound hog.  I think we got 6 or 8 one-pound packages.  Not many bacon-and-egg breafasts in our future.....

 

It's delicious stuff, much better than anything we've had store-bought.  We want to have MORE bacon, because we like it so much.  Unfortunately for us (good for Michael), the bacon from the other hog and the extra half of our hog is what sold first.  No extra in the big freezer for me to use for the family.  

I was making chili today, and the recipe calls for "3 slices bacon, fried and crumbled".  Bacon definitely makes the chili better.  

Was it worth opening up a coveted package of bacon to put just 3 slices of it into chili?  No.  I just couldn't do it.  

There's something to be said for rationing the good stuff, to make it last.  I was reading someone else's blog, and they raise American Guinea Hogs (not to be confused with guinea pigs, these are actually small hogs.  No-one wants bacon from a "guinea pig", I'm sure!).  She was answering a question about the amount of bacon, and made a really good point.  

If you only get 6 packages of bacon, you won't reach for the bacon every Saturday morning for bacon-and-eggs.  You will save it, savor it, enjoy it when you DO have it, but you won't take it for granted.

We are such a bacon-loving society:  chicken livers wrapped in bacon, filet mignon wrapped in bacon, bacon crumbled in salads and eggs and omelets, bacon in chocolate chip cookies, chocolate-covered strips of bacon, deep-fried bacon at beer-fests and at our own family gathering....

The chili for dinner would have been a little bit better if it had a few slices of bacon in it, but it will still be yummy without it.  You'd hardly taste the bacon in a huge pot of chili, after all!

It won't be the end-of-the-world if we save that small package of bacon for sometime when we can all enjoy it, and maybe NOT having bacon all the time will teach us to appreciate it when we do.

We can hope.....oink!

 

Laura
http://dykstrasfarm.blogspot.com/

The Princess (still) walks among us....

Photo:  Miss Ruby trotting on over to see what treat I might have brought out to her (imagine her disgust as she found out it was only a camera.  No food value whatsoever!)

Ruby is still here after her "sale" fell through on Saturday.

Things started to seem flaky with the guy who wanted to buy her.  I don't know if I read something into his e-mails or if something was truly "off", but as early as 5 days ago it seemed more and more likely that things would fall through.

He contacted me first when I started the ad back in October.  He was supposed to come out to pick her up one Saturday a month ago.  He never called and never showed up.  

I posted the ad again at the beginning of November.  Strangely enough, the first response was from someone with the same name as that other guy.  Turns out to be the same person.  I should have thought twice, but.....this was someone who wanted to pay us  for a heifer which we needed to sell, so it seemed the right thing to do to follow up with him (again).

The guy wanted us to arrange delivery, so we did.  Dan, who drove almost to Davenport to pick up Bessie and Lucy for us (back in January 2012) was willing to drive Ruby down to Joliet for this guy.

The guy offered to pay my full asking price PLUS $150 more for delivery.  OK, sounds good.  No haggling is always a good thing, right?

He didn't offer to put any money down, or to come out to see the heifer he'd be purchasing for slightly more than $1000, though.  That seemed a little odd to me, but then, I'm new to the "cattle business".....maybe an experienced cattle man can tell from one or two photos if a cow is good enough for his cattle operation?

He said he worked every day, 7 days a week, until after 3 pm.  He couldn't come out to pick up Ruby or to see her because he'd be driving in rush-hour traffic to get to Woodstock.  OK?  The delivery could not be before 3 because he'd be at work.  

He gave me an address for delivery.  Said he had an 85 acre farm and more cows.  Said she'd be in a good place.

I Map-quested the address, and somehow stumbled upon a real estate listing for that very address.  He explained it as "It must be an old ad.  They haven't taken it down yet.  I bought that place a few months back".  Hmmm.....what I didn't tell him is that I knew the property listing was for just over 25 acres, NOT for 85 acres.  A little bit of discrepancy, for sure.  

Plus, several e-mails in reply to the potential buyer had been bounced back to me as "undeliverable", because it seemed that his Craigslist buyer's-ID was no longer valid.  What's up with that?!!!  If you are in the middle of closing a deal over a heifer that you supposedly "really wanted", do you cancel your coded ID before that deal is closed?  I don't think so, not if you're a legitimate buyer.

There were a few reasons that Dan couldn't give me an exact time or date when he'd be available to deliver Ruby, but Saturday afternoon was the target date.  When I couldn't reach him to find out for sure, I was already thinking that I was totally, unreservedly and completely OK with not sending Ruby down to Joliet if he was not available to take her.

I had already been playing my misgivings over in my head, and thinking "I need to tell Dan to watch for a few things.  If there's a "for sale" sign in front of this property, drive right past and come back with Ruby.  If anything seems out-of-place or questionable, bring her back.  If the guy says that he doesn't have the full amount in cash and offers anything else, back away from the deal and bring her home."  I would still pay him the delivery fee, but it would be my loss, and Ruby would be back where she belonged, not in the hands of someone shifty.

I went so far as to imagine driving down there BEFORE Dan would arrive, visually checking things out, and then being present at the time of delivery.

None of those things had to happen if I couldn't get hold of Dan.  Problem solved.

I e-mailed a real estate agent in the Joliet area, to find out if the property was still an active listing.  Why, yes, it was.  She asked me if I'd like to view the property.  Ummm....no, sorry.  But I suggested that someone might want to keep an eye on that property if it was vacant, because it was the address I'd been given for delivery of livestock....

In the matter of Ruby being sold or still being here, my mind is at ease.  It solidifies a few things in my mind.

-If someone wants one of our cows or other animals, but can't be bothered to arrange their own transportation for that animal, they don't need to take up any more of my time.

-If someone wants Ruby, but can't be bothered to come and at least take a look at her or come in person to load her up for transport, don't bother.

On my side of things:  

-Don't do all of the communication by e-mail (especially if the other party is obviously texting in short chopped-up sentences).  Misgivings in the course of an e-mail conversation can't really be called "misgivings".  Talking in person or by phone might give a better idea of whether the person is honest or not.

-Expect an honest and interested buyer to be willing to pay something as a down-payment, maybe through PayPal, maybe with a post-dated check in the mail, I don't know.  Just don't accept an offer of "full listing price in cash at delivery".  Too much chance of being cheated at the last minute, when you don't have anything to fall back on.

-Don't be too trusting, and follow through on checking up on a person's story to the best of your (my) ability if there seems to be reason to verify what they have told you.  It's an on-line ad, after all, and there are many horror stories about scams and other tragedies associated with unscrupulous people using Craigslist and other ad sites.

-Maybe most important, have a REAL CONVERSATION with the buyer.  If you're selling something that you care about, like a living creature that needs to be taken care of, have a real conversation with the person who will be the new caretaker.

We have a 2 acre farm with 4 cows living on it.  That's too many, even if we had FIVE acres, or ten acres!  The mud in the pasture and other areas is being churned up daily, the pasture has bare sections (which were not eaten down to nothing but which have been trampled by continuous cow-traffic).  We need to move 2 of the 4 cows out of here as soon as possible. 

 

Never-the-less, if I had sent Ruby to her date-with-destiny today and had any doubts about what Dan reported back to me, I would have felt as if I'd failed the first calf born here in our little barnyard.  

I would have failed that beautiful heifer who immediately comes thundering to the fence when I cluck my tongue at her, who is probably TOO tame after a year-and-a-half of spoiling and attention, who tends to be opinionated, who reaches her tongue out through the fence for treats as if she's a giraffe, who stretches tall to eat the remaining leaves on any tree branch she can reach, who bellows for more pumpkin or more hay or more (apples/carrots/pears/fill-in-the-blank) instead of being grateful for what she's just been given, who trots behind me in the pasture trying to convince me to open the gate to the once-in-a-while grazing area by the rabbit shed......the heifer who stole our hearts back in July 2012 and who we've grown fond of, even as she puts her head in Jeremy's way as he's cracking open a pumpkin for her, or needs me to put my hand up to remind her to "STOP" as she races towards me, who sometimes gets a smack between the eyes when she tries to crowd me, and who actually slid onto her butt on a patch of ice and nearly took me down with her last winter because she was coming towards me too fast for her carrot snack......  

She and her baby will eventually be at someone else's farm, where she will hopefully be treated well.  But the deal that would have gone down today would have left a bitter taste in my mouth and an unsettled state of mind whenever I wondered what had become of her.  

She deserves better than that.

She is "just a cow" in the grand scheme of things, but I need to do my very best to find a good home for her, or else why have we put such care into raising her?

This Bible verse comes to mind:  "Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies?  Yet not one of them is forgotten by God"  Luke 12:7  

If God knows all the sparrows and all the cows and all the creatures in the entire history of creation, then I need to do my best to entrust the care of one lowly heifer to someone who can tell me the truth in the course of making a deal, and then I'll know that whatever happens to her from that point on, I've done the very best job that I can do as the caretaker for the short time she was part of our little farm.

 

Laura
http://dykstrasfarm.blogspot.com/

Day 5 already

After another scare about Bessie's health yesterday, I'm officially frazzled.  (Yes, I was frazzled before, but now I'm declaring it official) 

As a huge storm was blowing in with black skies and sheets of rain (which sent Ruby and Charming stampeding in the wrong direction as they frantically sought shelter), Jeff and I observed Bessie and her calf and the unexpected "third party":  her udder.

I've seen photos of cows who can hardly walk because their udders get so swollen and grotesquely out of proportion before they give birth.  Bessie doesn't get that insanely swollen.  But yesterday, she was mooing softly to little Junior, nudging him and trying to get him to nurse, all 4 teats streaming milk out onto the ground, and one quarter in particular looking huge and bulgy and maybe even feverish.  (Tutorial refresher, for those who haven't insanely immersed themselves in this dairy-farming attempt:  Cows have one udder, made up of 4 "quarters", each a separate milk-making section)

I had milked a gallon of gorgeous white milk from her that morning, and that particular quarter was very full then, and didn't give up all of the milk that was held back inside of it.  I can usually tell as I milk her if something is going on inside.  The milk might still squirt out, but there's a different feel when the teat duct is inflamed or when clumpy stuff is making it's way through the teat from the quarter.  That one section felt wrong as the milk flowed out, which left me thinking that we might need to pay closer attention throughout the day.

Sure enough, there was a problem.  After seeing her poor udder so swollen, I took a bucket out to milk her once more after the storm petered out a bit.  The other 3 quarters of her udder gave milk freely, but the huge quarter gave just a little milk, then plugged up.  Gave a little more, then stopped flowing.  Gave a trickle, then nothing.  Bringing that milk back inside the house, it should flow cleanly through the filter and into a half-gallon jar.  I had to change the filter twice, because of all the stringy "bits" of infection that were in that milk.

 

Mastitis is a big deal if you have a milk cow.  It is an infection inside the udder, sometimes isolated in one or a couple of quarters.  It can spread to the other quarters by way of the tiny hole where the milk streams out, and can appear as stringy bits and clumps in the milk.  The infection can lay low and not appear in any visible way.  There are tests to determine if a cow has a high rate of infection in her milk, but some of the types of mastitis don't even show up in those.  

This is a cow with a history of mastitis.  It would probably not have been profitable for the dairy farmer to keep her much longer.  As a family milk cow, it's OK because her milk production doesn't have to be top-notch.  But we do need to be watching for flare-ups.  

Bessie has one back quarter that is permanently scarred and misshapen from a bout with mastitis.  At the dairy, the farmer told us that when she got mastitis, they used her to provide milk to the new calves (they can't sell their milk if the "somatic cell count" in the bulk tank is too high, and a cow with active mastitis will significantly raise that cell count, as I understand it.  There's an acceptable level, and the promise of future pasteurization is supposed to kill anything unhealthy that might still be in the milk that ends up at the store.....)  Bessie must have routinely been working through infections in her udder for Farmer Bob to expect to pull her from the usual milking line and use her milk separately for the calves.

The vet has prescribed medicine for Bessie to treat mastitis twice now, once in the first few months after we got her and once when she stopped giving milk 3 months ago. 

Anyway, there are many types of organisms that can cause mastitis, maybe 16 different infectious critters that can cause it.  There is one type of mastitis that can masquerade as milk fever, from what I was reading.  (Remember, the vet came out in the middle of the night to treat her for milk fever).  And it's the type that can kill a cow (or, just as easily, the cow can recover).  It's all very scary if you let your mind go crazy with the possible scenarios of cows dying on your watch.  

Now that I've read the symptoms, I'm quite sure I felt sorry for a cow who had this type of mastitis.  I passed her muddy cow-pen daily for a few weeks.  She stood with head hung down, droopy ears, hunched up back, and no calf.  I finally saw a calf with her (I think the beef farmer must have put another cow's calf with her), the calf was drinking from her, and after that I didn't see either of them again.  Maybe she pulled out of it and was put back with the herd.  

Anyway, back to Bessie.  I called the vet when I was on my way to Farm and Fleet for some over-the-counter mastitis medication.  The lovely stuff that you put up her teat with a syringe.  He told me a few more things to look out for and suggested that if I hadn't seen the baby nursing all day, to try to milk out of the normal-looking parts of Bessie's udder and give the little guy a bottle.  He said that, if Bessie's milk from the infected quarter started looking clear instead of white, I needed to call him to come out.  (My own mental note, based on what I was reading before: Clear "serum" instead of white milk would mean that she was fighting the type of mastitis that could kill her.)

I milked Bessie, kept the clotty milk separate, administered the "intramammary" medication, struggled to get a little of that good milk into the baby's mouth (not much luck), made sure mama and calf were settled down after the big to-do......  Bessie had been righteously indignant that I would tie her in the stanchion, pen her baby in the stall, force a bottle into his mouth, FORCE him to do anything besides scamper to her side when she bellowed out to thim.  She perked right up when she thought her baby was in danger--a good sign.

Jeff had heated up dinner, and then we settled into the living room to watch a DVD.  I fell asleep on the couch.

Before dragging my tired body off to bed, I trudged out to the barn once more.  It wasn't much past 9:00, but it felt like midnight, tired as I was.  

Bessie seemed to be fine, although her distended udder was bulging out from beneath her where she was resting.  Her ears were warm (cold ears are a sign of sickness, I've come to find out) and baby's mouth was warm inside (a cold mouth might mean he hadn't nursed and was starving).  All the things I'm learning; it's really kind of amazing when I have the chance to think about it!  Baby seemed satisfied and cozy in his little nest-corner (he's chosen a favorite spot where he settles in).  

Then I could sleep, knowing that Bess wasn't stretched out on her side and near deaths' door....Warm ears for Bessie, warm mouth for Junior, warm bed for me.

This morning, all is fine.  The quarter is still hard and full, still not giving much milk, but definitely better than yesterday.  I put more medicine into it.  Baby started nursing after scampering around a bit.  Bessie did her over-protective Mom thing.  It's like watching an overly confident little toddler boy dashing full-speed around the playground, his mother being left behind and even downright ignored but doing her best to remind him "Don't go so far!  You're climbing too high!!  Be careful, sweetie.  Hey, those big boys are too big for you to play with!  Why can't you just.....hold....mommy's.....hand?  Sob!"

All of that to say, things look good today.  The baby is a little spit-fire, a "pistol" as a friend used to say about her little son.  Bessie is on her feet, for which I can be immensely thankful.  

I have a new-found admiration of dairy-farmers, and all that they do to care for more than just one cow, and many calves on a yearly basis, and not getting enough sleep, making sure the cows all have the right mineral and salt rations for their stage of life,  keeping their dairies clean and operating and not giving in to exhaustion but continuing to care for all of those cows day-in and day-out.  There is so much that I don't know, and so many things that a wise dairy farmer could teach us.

And...The vet is nothing short of amazing, having come out after midnight one night already this past week, and answered my panicky questions on a Sunday afternoon.  I have probably hundreds more questions to ask him, but those will need to wait for a time when he's actually supposed to be on duty.

Here on our little micro-mini-dairy, we're still waiting for a taste of milk, as the medicine works it's way out of Bessie's system and as we wait to see if any more cow-emergencies are in the forecast..... Sigh!  (I cheated, and took a scoop of the considerable amount of cream from yesterday's pre-medicated milk for my morning coffee.  Yummmmm..)

One bright note:  The calf might be the thing that finally gets Jeremy interested in 4-H.  I asked him about whether he'd like to show the calf at the fair next year, and then the money from selling it at the 4-H auction could be his for a college fund.  There are a couple of options out there for a nice-looking little steer-calf, and a friend who has already asked if she could raise him for beef, but if Jeremy wants to groom him for the county fair, that gets first priority, I think.  Could be a fun new chapter for all of us! 

I just need a nap, first.

 

Laura
http://dykstrasfarm.blogspot.com/

Day 3

Photos:  The first one should be titled "My MOM styles my hair"  :)

What a roller-coaster of a week!  

Cuteness award of the day:  Baby perked up and scampered right out of the open barn door this morning, with worried mama lumbering close behind, sounding like a concerned fog-horn.  He shocked himself on the electric fence a couple times (ouch!) but then I opened the gate out to the pasture and he and Bessie explored.  Rather, HE explored, toddling and dashing to and fro, getting Ruby and Charming worked up in their enclosure because they couldn't come out to play, riling his mother up with being a bit too daring.  What a little boy!  She seemed to be calling to him "Hey, come back!  It's terribly dangerous out here in the big wide world!  You need to listen to your mother!"  while he dashed after ducks and explored firewood and straggled too far into the big, incredibly dangerous one-acre pasture..... :)

And then he barely made it back to his snug little nest in the straw and is now sound asleep.  

Maybe a nap is in my future today, too.  Wishful thinking.

 

Laura
http://dykstrasfarm.blogspot.com/

Unexpected complications

After a really great delivery (uneventful), a beautiful morning (although it was cold) and a successful 12 hours with the calf nursing, staying warm enough, and resting, Mama Bess was sick.

Around 9 at night, something was "off" with Bess, but I didn't know just what. So I didn't call the vet (yet.....).  

How unexpected was this?!!!  Baby calf was delivered, everything seemed to be going smoothly, and then....it wasn't.

Bessie was lying on her side, in typical resting position.  Our first indication that something wasn't right was when she tried to lunge forward to stand up, and stumbled into the corner of the door instead of being steady on her feet.  She stood there with her head in the corner of the doorway for quite a while, a vacant look in her eyes.  My concern for her spiked immediately, because I know my cow and this wasn't normal for her.

She roused herself enough to munch down some grain mixed with cattle-salt/minerals, sniffed at the water bucket but didn't drink any, and then sank back down into the hay.

I realized a couple of things:

-She hadn't needed the water bucket refilled since morning, which meant that she was making milk for her little calf but not replenishing the water that she needed.  She can go through 30 gallons of water PER DAY when she has access to the watering trough, so not drinking several three gallon buckets on the day after she delivered a calf is a problem.  Because I closed her inside the barn for the impending delivery, she had no access to any water except what was in that bucket.  Full bucket=no water intake since that morning.

-The fresh straw that I'd put down after the delivery wasn't soiled, except for the placenta.  (Meaning....she wasn't dropping any manure).

-She wasn't chewing her cud, but was chewing as if the air in her mouth was supposed to be "cud"

-This is a bit gross, but.....she hadn't eaten the placenta, like she did after Ruby was born.  Good thing about that was...I could see it in the straw and it looked like she had passed everything that needed to be expelled from inside of her.  One thing to check off the mental list.

-She had been eating hay eagerly after giving birth, but had not touched the fresh hay I gave her in the afternoon.

-She was making little groaning noises, and when she was lying down, her eyes looked glazed.

-Bess was watchful of her calf, but made no move to stand over him like she did earlier whenever we came in to check on them.  He was huddled in the corner, and she was simply nearby.  She moo-ed to him softly, but didn't get up to stand over him or place herself between us and her baby.  Not normal.  She's not going to attack us, but she was much more calmly protective earlier in the day when she was feeling better.

I would have called the vet then, IF I were more experienced.  But I thought she might just be exhausted, she might just need some time to rest, and I should leave her alone for an hour or two.  Very naive of me.

I went inside to watch a show with Jeff, planning to check up on Bessie later.

Later:  She was worse.  I should have called the vet at the first indication that something was off.  

The little calf was snug as a bug, nestled in the clean straw.  Bessie was trying to rest comfortably, with her massive udder in the way, and facing the corner of the door again.  She was making louder groaning noises and breathing heavily.  

I came inside to read on-line about the symptoms of milk fever (the vet had warned me to watch for it when I called him earlier to tell him about the uneventful delivery, so at least I knew where to start).

All the symptoms fit (even the one that said her ears would be cold), and she wasn't to the most dangerous part of it yet.  There was hope!

Milk fever doesn't get better if it isn't treated.  It's caused by a sudden loss of calcium in the body of a cow who has just given birth, especially as that new calf drinks away the calcium that's been stored in the cow's colostrum.  As an older cow, Bessie was more at risk even if it hadn't occurred any other time in her life.  Lots of variables play into whether a cow comes down with it or not.  I could try assigning blame on myself for any number of things that could have caused/encouraged the onset of milk fever in her, but it would be totally a guessing game to try to pin down which variable(s) would have been the reasons.

So, at 1 in the morning on Friday the 15th, I called the vet and roused him out of a sound sleep.  He arrived around 2.  By then I'd set up a bale of hay (to doze on?), moved the calf a few times as Bessie shifted (to keep him out of her way, because she could crush him if she suddenly lolled to the side), did some cleaning up in the birth area, got Ruby's old stall ready with fresh straw in case the little guy needed to be moved away from mama for a while, watched as five big rats came out of the woodwork and let themselves in underneath the door......set traps for those rats and cleaned out an area where they had a very cozy hide-away.....

Dr. M (the local James Herriot) came into the barn, set up an IV in Bessie's neck, drained two bottles of calcium something-or-other into her vein, calmed me down with a story about one of his early milk-fever cases, oohed and aahed about the gorgeous little bull-calf that I'd tucked under some blankets, assured me that I wasn't going to lose my cow OR her calf...........and an hour later, Bessie was on her feet and protesting because we had dared to move her calf into the stall and WHAT DID WE THINK WE WERE DOING?!!!  It was pretty amazing, actually.  

We moved Junior back to his mama's side, and he started nursing immediately, and all was well with the world.

Dr. M left with a smile on his face, because (as he explained) cases of milk-fever are most likely to be rewarding for the vet who makes the house-call, even if it's in the dead-of-night.  Bessie's near-immediate recovery is typical IF they get treatment.  The cows need calcium to replace what's gone out in their colostrum/milk, and once it's in their system again, they are up as if nothing had ever happened.  

This morning, Bessie is eating, chewing her cud, lying down next to her calf (as opposed to simply being in the same general vicinity like last night), and I'll make sure later to watch as he nurses.  Things are looking good.

At some point today, I need to take a nap.  I think adrenaline is keeping me upright at this point, that and the fact that chores need to be done whether I'm dragging myself through them or not.  Bessie needs to be doing so well that I have no more worries about her well-being before I can let myself crash.

A couple of things come to mind as I think about the last 24 hours.  

Recently, someone described my attempt at learning to "farm" as overextended.  Too true.  It's unfortunate, but it seems like I don't learn anything new unless I'm over-extended, tired, and well-past my comfort zone with something new.  I have to keep learning as things happen, by experience, and at some point there will be a defining moment when a creature in my care is done a disservice because of my lack of knowledge, because I'm "over-extended".  It could have happened with Bessie last night.  There's a balance of learning-curve, diligent caution and lack-of-knowledge that could prove fatal to something in my care (and that's probably inevitable, no matter how well I research or how long we "experience" our poorly-informed attempt at farm life without becoming over-extended in all aspects of it!)

The other thing is something Dr M was saying last night.  He kindly and with shared humor referred to my stress level and anxiety as we waited for the birth of Ruby, almost 18 months ago.  He remembered how worried I was about all the unknown details while we were waiting for Ruby's arrival.  He expressed admiration for all that has been learned in the process since the cows came to live here.  He also alluded to something that I said out loud as he tactfully worded his thoughts around the core idea:  

"I'm much better equipped to handle this THIS time around than if she had gone down with it when Ruby was born."  (My own words at 2 in the morning as we stood over a cow with milk fever that I've come to care for probably a bit too much)  

What a difference experience makes!  I am so, so SO thankful for the experience of Ruby's uneventful birth, and even for the late-night emergency with Bessie last night.  All of it becomes knowledge for whatever the next situation might bring.

The learning curve will continue, the unexpected and potential disaster will continue to happen despite every good intention, the curve-balls will continue to be lobbed in our direction.  It's just the way life is, farm or no farm.   Despite all the potential difficulties that we never would have encountered back in comfortable suburban Palatine, we will thankfully move on to the next experience with new knowledge that God will somehow put to use in ways we couldn't imagine.

Laura

http://dykstrasfarm.blogspot.com/

It's a calf!

Photos:  First glimpse (he must be less than on hour old!), Getting his bearings and a good bath from mama, Bessie trumpets her news to Charming and Ruby who are out in the pasture, "Come on baby, you can do it!", and first taste of Bessie's marvelous milk

He's here, he's here, he's here!

This morning, sometime before 6:45, the little calf was born out in the barn.  He was cleaned but still wet and shivering when we discovered that Bessie had given birth.  Even with the big door closed, it's not much warmer than freezing out there in the barn!

Jeff and boys peeked in on him and his protective Mama Bessie before heading off to school and work.

His markings are perfect:  Solid black, white "Oreo" band around his middle, no white on his face or feet or even at the tip of his tail.  My Dad's comment from last year when Ruby was new-born echoed in my head:  "Take a good look at that calf.  It'll never be that clean again".  :)

This calf is simply gorgeous, and squeaky-clean, thanks to his over-protective and watchful mama.

And he's a boy.  I'm excited that he's here, but.....now I understand just a bit of the disappointment that dairy farmers feel when their cows give them males and not females.  This little guy will be a beautiful animal (already is!) but he will not be a candidate to replace his mother as our family milk cow.  

In a way, it means one more learning curve.  We've learned how to detect Bessie's heat cycles by the reaction of another girl cow in the vicinity.  We haven't had a bull-calf (except for Charming), and the ways of doing things will be different.  He will be moved along at 3 months (maybe 6 months?), but we will not go to the expense of raising him like we've done with Ruby.  We'll need to look for a foster calf for Bessie, so that we still have a pseudo "herd" when this little guy moves on to be raised by someone else.  Just when we had a working system for an all-girl herd!

In a way, it's a relief:  Was I ready to look at a new heifer-calf with perfect markings and know that it was paving the way for "goodbye" to my Bessie?  No.....especially when I consider the overwhelming pride I feel for my cow right about now.  

A heifer with the markings of this little guy would have been a "keeper".  And that would have meant that (logically) we'd be breeding Bessie and selling her before that next calf was born, in order to keep the higher quality animal.  Taking logic out of the equation, we might have kept Bessie anyway, and sold the heifer when she herself was expecting her next calf.  But, it would be hard to see a heifer (another generation closer to 99% pure Dutch Belted) leave our farm with such perfect markings and such great potential to continue to give us quality calves far into the future.  A heifer with these near-perfect Dutch Belted markings would have been very valuable to us or someone else.  (Sorry little calf, but that's the reality that I'm finding myself thinking through more and more these days!)

All that aside, there is a vigorous, healthy young calf out there, nursing just like he's supposed to do, with a mama who has once again shown me that there's really no need to worry.  Now that I've gotten my logical thoughts out of the way, I'll focus instead of giving the best care possible to this new little creature.  With Bessie around, there's not really even much for me to do, except to make sure his Mama is well-taken care of.

Enjoy the photos.  I think I'll go back out there and gaze upon the real thing (any work going to get done today?!!!  Nope.  Except for putting down fresh bedding for that adorable little guy and the mama that I'm so proud of!)

 

Laura
http://dykstrasfarm.blogspot.com/

Signs of progress, still waiting

(Teaser photo:  This was Ruby's birthday, newly born on July 6 of 2012, and a much warmer time to be welcomed into the barnyard family.)  

The next paragraph is pretty graphic, because I've been mentally going down the "list" of what the vet would need to know.  Don't read if you're squeamish about signs of impending birth in cattle!  Skip down a bit if you don't want to know about full udders and changes in the appearance of the cow's back end.....

Bessie's udder:  Swollen, full, larger than usual.  Extending to what looks like bursting point, but there's more stretching to come.   Teats are full and distended, but the plugs at the end of at least 3 of the 4 teats seem to still be in place.  No colostrum is dripping out, no clear "openings" visible where the milk will stream out.  "Plugs" seem to still be firmly in place, except for maybe one.

Bessie's rear end:  Tail-head seems to be "loose" and "sunken", meaning that the pelvic ligaments are loosening in preparation for birth.  Mucus strands have been visible over the past few days, clear and thick, but no tinges of blood.  Tissues around the birth area are swollen and soft.

Her sides:  The calf has "dropped", and she is no longer completely round but is more pear-shaped, with the calf's weight pulling her belly downward.  The dairy-cow bones along her ribcage are more visible, because the calf is being carried lower.  Her belly is still very large, which probably means that the calf is not quite in place for delivery.

Her tail:  Is being held off to one side and is the recipient of the lovely strands of clear goo being expelled from her "area".  From last time when Ruby was born, I remember that these signs seemed to go on for days and days on end, before I finally called the vet for an internal exam!

OK, safe reading starts here:

Five years ago, if anyone had told me just how closely I'd be monitoring the body of a pregnant cow as her birthing date came around, I would have thought they had completely lost their minds!  But that's where the due-date finds me (after weeks of scrutinizing, already!)

Will it be today?  Not a clue.  But after examining her udder and those poor teats, I'd guess that it won't be.  Last time, she was so full of colostrum (the early milk that the calf needs to thrive) that the vet gave me permission to milk a bit of it out of her.  She's big now, but definitely not full enough for me to feel the need to step in with any measures of relief for that swollen udder!

She did fine last night in the much cozier closed-in section of the barn.  By morning, she had nosed the door open just enough to stand with her head outside and watch what was going on. 

Heat lamps are ready, if needed.  Bulbs are checked, to be sure they aren't all burned out.  A heavy-duty extension cord will be purchased when I run errands this afternoon, and be plugged into the grounded outlet that Jeff had installed by the stanchion.  I can run a small milk-house heater for a few hours if need be, maybe tonight.  (Better clean the old chicken-dust out of one while I'm thinking about it!)  A calf blanket that he/she will wear for the first few weeks is ordered and should arrive in the next few days.  I'll shut Bessie in again tonight, and tomorrow night, and every night until that little guy/gal makes its appearance out in the cold barn. 

So, the waiting game continues.....I'll check on Bess every couple of hours until tonight, when I'll fall into bed exhausted, and wake up to the same anticipation until the calf makes its appearance.....!  

(If that little calf can wait just a day or two, the temps might be SO MUCH MORE comfortable for his or her entrance into the world!)  

 

Laura
http://dykstrasfarm.blogspot.com/

Queen Bess, in the maternity ward

Photo:  Bessie reminding me "Hey, Farmer Laura!  Stop your worrying!"  :)

Queen Bessie is none too happy that I've shut her in for the night.  I am considering her to be in the "maternity ward".  Looking at the interior area of the barn, I realize that I should have someplace warm and cozy for just such an event.  Someplace with clean sheets (fresh bedding), ice chips to suck on (cool water to drink), warm blankets to curl up under (heat lamps at the ready), nurses on call (barn cats in attendance....)

 

Bessie spent most of the day standing in the (cold!) doorway of the barn, looking intently out at the pasture and the corn fields, probably imagining that she was watching for danger as her body prepares itself for the birth process.     

The doorway faces due-west.  Yesterday and today, a very cold breeze was being pulled in and chilling the whole milk-room/bedding-chamber where Bessie sleeps in the winter.  A new calf would be wet, hungry, and potentially be chilled before it could even dry off, and that's assuming it was delivered in the barn and not under the birthing tree outside (the huge spruce under which Ruby was born).

I never shut the big door unless Bess is already in the stanchion for milking.  Then the door is closed to keep rebellious and pushy Ruby out of the milking area so that I can milk Bessie in peace......  I'd almost forgotten about that.  It's been 3 whole months since I last was able to milk Bessie!

Bessie tends to view the door as a nuisance if it's in her royal pathway, and has simply put her queenly bulk up to it on other occasions and pushed until it raised up enough for her to amble out to freedom (it is on an overhead barn-door track).  If she does that tonight, she won't be able to get back in and the calf COULD be born out in the open, under that spruce tree, where the breeze isn't deflected at all by a half-shut doorway or a thick layer of straw on the floor.

I was so sure that I was prepared this time around, and determined that I wouldn't feel panicky, and that I wouldn't stress.  The cold snap and chilling wind isn't something I had thought of.  I've ordered a calf blanket, but it won't help if the calf is born tonight before the weather gets a bit warmer.

I will be relieved (to the "nth" degree!) if I go out to check before heading to bed and either 

a). see that Bessie is resting comfortably and has not forced her way out of the door, or

b).  see a new calf.   

That last scenario would probably mean that I don't sleep tonight, but then, will I be able to sleep if the calf ISN'T born and I'm left to wonder whether tonight will be "the" night?!!!  If it's there, I'll make sure Bessie gives it the mother-cow treatment, make sure it gets a tummy-full of warm colostrum, make sure it's good and dry, check if it's a boy or a girl (maybe that will be first!), and then park it in the stall with a heat lamp overhead for the night.  Then the job would be to try to contain my excitement enough to get a few hours of sleep before dashing out there early tomorrow morning to make sure I didn't dream it all. 

Not panicking, not stressing.....just concerned, at least that's what I'm telling myself.  (I read too many first-hand accounts of what to do if you find your newborn calf unresponsive after a very cold night!)

Last time, Bessie showed me just how strong her God-given mothering instinct is, despite never being allowed to mother her calves before Ruby came along.  This time, I'm sure she'll do just as well.  If only it weren't quite so cold!

 

Laura
http://dykstrasfarm.blogspot.com/