If not twins, then at least brothers...

Yesterday I reported on Facebook that I'd found twin bulls in the dry cow field. It seemed to me that they both came from Fluffy, who appeared to have deflated like a balloon, though there WAS this other cow over there with them all.

I took my camera this morning and here they all are...two cows and two bull calves...Fluffy is the cow in the background, with the white face.




Weeeelll...later on hubby went up there today to get them and he begged to differ. For one thing they are both quite large. For another, he says that other cow appears to have had a calf, though she doesn't have much of an udder and wasn't due until April, which is why I assumed Fluffy had had both calves. So we don't really know whose is whose or what's up or who's on first...etc. But at any rate, they were both sired by the same bull, so they ARE brothers.

While I was up there, the other cow got nervous and took off with BOTH of the calves:



It is not uncommon for a cow to steal a calf like this. But Fluffy made sure they wouldn't get far without her and she followed close behind.

Comments

Frau Guten Tag said…
this reminded me of "march of the penguins"--I'll never forget the scene of a penguin trying to steal another's baby cuz her own baby died.
March 3, 2010 at 6:52 PM
Anonymous said…
My buddy was bottle feeding an orphan and put it into the pen where a young heifer had a new calf. The orphan learned if the new baby was sucking, he could slip in behind and have some of that,too. Stealing milk is so darn funny. The bottle baby is still getting bottle fed, but he is learning to be an opportunist!
March 5, 2010 at 8:28 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Oyster

It isn't even halfway through the month yet and I have run out of lists or anything amusing to tell you about the dairy. So here is a poem I picked up on a homesteading forum. It does deal with ag issues, just of a different sort... Enjoy! The Oyster Baxter Black The sign upon the café wall said OYSTERS: fifty cents. "How quaint," the blue-eyed sweetheart said with some bewildermence, "I didn't know they served such fare out here upon the plain." "Oh, sure," her cowboy date replied, "We're really quite urbane." "I would guess they're Chesapeake or Blue Point, don't you think?" "No ma'am, they're mostly Hereford cross . . . and usually they're pink But I've been cold, so cold myself, what you say could be true And if a man looked close enough, their points could sure be blue!" She said, "I gather them myself out on the bay alone. I pluck them from the murky depths and smash them with a...
Read more

Like Cats A'Fightin'

Image
That's a local saying when it's snowing hard. Snowing like cats a'fightin'. You can look out and see the fur flying. Ellen had never been outside while it was actually snowing. She was enchanted. She had to have a bucket of it to carry around. It was in the mid-20s but we took a bit of a walk before coming back in for a nap. The snow is still too dry to be able to make a snowman, it is really powdery. So far we have somewhere between 3 and 4 inches, I would suspect.
Read more

The Blind Calf Story

Image
This happened last month. I thought it was an interesting case. Wed Aug 15th 2007 8:30 AM: Went out and brought new heifer calf and cow in from field. Not too sure how old calf was; umbilical cord sort of dried up, but calf still seemed damp. Left her with cow all morning ‘til maybe early afternoon, then separated them. Beautiful, normal calf. 6 PM Fed calf bottle. She slugged back the whole thing. Thurs Aug 16th5:15 AM (approx) Calf comatose. Or as near as I could tell. She was on her side, non-responsive, drooling, head on ground, eyes closed or just barely opened. I tried to feed her bottle but she only swallowed convulsively once or twice, then milk just drained from her mouth. 5:30 AM. Husband went out and looked at her. Drug her out of pen and out of the way to be taken to boneyard later after chores were all done. She was barely breathing and as I said, totally non-responsive.This was a real grief as the cow she came from is a great milker and to get a heifer from her was a joy....
Read more