Molly in the Grass
Cows are herd animals. And ours are a family herd as well, so they are tight. Very tight.
So you know something’s up when you see one off laying all by her lonesome.
She almost blends in like a lion in the grass!
We had just shuffled everyone around and the cows were off in our big back field when we saw Molly off by herself in the far corner while everyone else was up front eating hay. So we headed out there.
Of course she was back in the weeds, and she had a big surprise for us.
I spy something brown...
It was a big calf. This little guy is quite sturdy. He’s almost as big as our 8 month Zebu heifer calf. He’s a Zebu/Jersey cross.
She already had him dried off and up nursing before we even got out there.
She delivered and is mothering just find all by herself. Didn’t need us at all. (And that’s quite a blessing!) You may remember her last calf–or maybe not. He looked just like this one, but he’s all grown up now.
He's 14 months old now. We haven't named him because he'll be "going up the road" later this Spring.
I think the new little guy is bigger than her red calf was. We didn’t weigh him because she’ll only tolerate so much fussing around with her baby before she starts snorting at you and I didn’t think to bring the scale, since we didn’t know what was wrong at first.
He's even got a good, furry coat for being born in February!
I thought she was getting close to her time, but she normally has a larger udder than our other cows anyway so it can be hard to judge. But we knew it would be soon because the baby had dropped and she had the hollow back at her hip joint. We’ll be moving them back up to the house field this weekend where I can keep a better eye on both little ones and their mommas. They just disappear in that tall grass!
Settling back down for a nap.
We’ll be off adventuring this weekend at a farm equipment event out of town. But the kiddos are staying home this time. I can’t believe we’ll be off for an adults only weekend…I’m sure I’ll have more to share next week!
Do you have big plans for the weekend?
Adorable baby! I can’t wait for my baby goats to arrive the first week of March. I needed a big dose of cute baby and I got it!
Sometimes it’s almost as hard waiting for the farm animals as waiting for your own baby! 🙂 I’m getting really excited for spring lambing next month too. Just sorted all my supplies and dusted off my notebook.
What a sweet little calf she had! He does look healthy!
Thanks for linking up with Rural Thursday 🙂
wow, your photos are adorable!
oh my gosh, he is soo cute!
so glad to see this!
thanks so much for sharing!:)
wow, your photos are adorable!
oh my gosh, he’s soo cute! glad to see this!
so, thanks so much for sharing:)
happy weekend!
Yes, our cows only seperate for 2 things, calving or someone is ill. In the beginning of our homestead adventure we used to worry about the cows calving. but an old timer said, “God gave the cow everything she need to have and take care of a calf”. How true is that! Now we just make sure breeding is done so we calve in spring and not winter! We will be calving around the middle to late march…
My big adventure this weekend will be tackling that laundry at the laundromat because I STILL don’t have my dryer!
He’s a very cute surprise for sure! I’m glad everything went well since you weren’t there when it happened.
I miss living on a farm but sure am glad of bloggers like you that share yours!
How fun!! I miss being around all the baby animals – might need to head to my friend’s farm soon to get my fix!!
Enjoy this weekend – we are celebrating Valentine’s Day on Sunday 🙂
Jamie,
Thank-you for commenting on my blog! I LOVE your family and farm. Very beautiful. I have 6 sibling and 38 animals (I want more though) and I personally know it’s a lot! haha! One of my greatest dreams is to AT LEAST get a farm a little bigger than the one we have so we can live self-sufficiently, so I know when I saw your cows I got jealous (in a good Christian way :))! Anyways, I am glad that I got to see your blog and read more about you all.
Blessings,
Bella Hope
I was wondering if she was with a calf as soon as you said she was off by herself.
What a sweetie! You will need to keep us up to date by taking lots of photos.
Thanks so much for sharing with us at Rural Thursday. Hope you come back again. 🙂
I wanted to stop in and let you and your followers know about my give away this week!
http://theredeemedgardener.blogspot.com/2012/02/veggie-seed-give-away.html