30 and Counting

      30 cute little calves have joined the farm yard and many more are to follow. Calving time entails a lot of work and making sure the calves and cows have a clean dry place to lay is very important. Clean bedding is needed to keep animals from getting infected or ill. We spent most of Saturday setting up a larger area for the calves and cows which included two calving huts. These huts have low openings which are just big enough for the calves to walk under but to small for the cows to get in.  This allows the calves to have a safe place to lay that stays clean and protected from the wind.

Kids playing in the calving huts as we put down fresh bedding

Calf laying in the fresh bedding getting some sun

          With all the cute calves around we just couldn't help taking some pictures of the kids and calves together. While we are with the calves in these pictures we have sent the mother cows to another pen to eat. We do not allow the kids to be in the same pen as the mother cows and calves because some cows are very protective and could hurt the kids if they feel they are threat to their baby. You will notice in all the pictures the mother cows are absent and that is on purpose.

Me and two cute babies

Simon sharing a tender moment with a calf

Brothers gazing at a new born calf

       Time with the calves is always fun and truly a sign that spring is on the way here on the farm. 

         

Sad News

        Calving season is ramping up here on the farm with about 20 calves on the ground. The big push is yet to come with 100 cows yet to calve this spring. With calving season there is a lot of excitement and fun seeing all the new life that arrives daily. But calving season can also come with heartache when special one's are lost.
       My daughter Mary has been waiting for one of her special heifers, Snowflake, to have her first calf. Snowflake is the first calf of Mary's favorite cow Snowball. 2 years ago when Snowflake was born Mary was overjoyed to see that she had two white spots on her forehead which made her special and different from all the other all black calves. Later that summer Mary took Snowball and Snowflake to the county fair and showed them in Cloverbuds 4-H. 

Mary and Snowflake just days after she was born 2 yrs ago

      Anticipating that Snowflake was getting ready to have her calf we had her along with about 30 other close to calving cows in the calving barn. We have video and sound surveillance set up in the barn so we can watch what is going on out there from the house. The calving barn has a nice dry area with clean bedding for the cows and protection from the wind.  There is also an outside yard for them to walk in a get water and feed.

Mary showing Snowflake at the county fair 2 years ago



        Two nights ago we started getting snow which totaled 8 inches by the time it was done. Before heading in for the night we checked the cows and everything looked fine.  During the night Snowflake started having her calf and she did a wonderful job and had a beautiful heifer calf all on her own. The only problem is she had the calf just outside the barn door in a snow drift.You would have thought that she would have had the calf in the barn in the warm bedding.  First calf heifers are known not to be the smartest mothers because they have never been through having a baby before. By the time we got out there the calf was so cold and only barely alive.  We rushed her into the house and placed her in a large sink with warm water and put warm milk in her stomach.  Both the calf and us fought hard but it wasn't enough and the calf died. 

       When we told Mary about this at breakfast she was very sad. She had been anticipating the new calf.  She also understands that life on the farm is full of life and death.  She knows that life is a precious thing and we fight hard for it, but there are times where death is also part of that life journey. On the farm we are working with animals and they make unwise decisions and get ill or injured. As the caretakers of the animals we try to help them or make them well again but there are times where we are unable to do this and they die. 

        We also assured Mary that even though Snowflakes calf died she will still have a calf to take care of though the summer. Mary knows that the purpose of a cow in a beef herd is to raise a calf through the summer. Snowflake is "adopting" a calf from a old cow in our herd who we have decided is too old to go out to pasture this year. This cow happened to have her calf just hours after Snowflakes calf died. The calf was given to Snowflake and she had already claimed it as her own and will be a good mother to this calf.

        Life on the farm is full of ups and downs but the ups do outnumber the downs. I also feel that these ups and downs are life lessons that are crucial for us to learn and put life in perspective. Life is a precious and fragile thing.   



Fat Tuesday

         Happy Fat Tuesday.  On the farm Fat Tuesday can have a whole different meaning.  The "Fat" I see around me here is a sign of things to come.  Spring on the farm is full of new birth, just as after today we enter into the Lenten season where we wait for the Easter time of rebirth.  Pregnancy is a beautiful thing, but I can tell you that there is a point where you just feel large and fat.  I should know I have been there 5 times.
         Lets celebrate  Fat Tuesday and this beautiful Fatness of life to come.  

 



Me about 2 years ago just before Rose was born

Cookie our mother cat

Cow days away from calving

     Since Fat Tuesday is all about indulging ourselves on food I thought a

food fact would be appropriate.

 

Visiting a pig farm

      Yesterday the kids and I went to visit a farm with some farrowing pigs. My husbands brother Brad raises show hogs, see his site, and just farrowed out the piglets that will be shown at fairs this summer. The piglets are so cute and active. The kids enjoyed them and we took a lot of picture. Brad not only raises pigs he also works in the pig industry so is a wealth of knowledge. I was raised on a cattle farm so hogs are a bit of an unknown world to me. I had many questions for Brad and learned a lot.

      Q. Why are sows in gestational stalls?
      A. Brad stated that sows are in gestational stalls for the safety of the piglets. Sows are very large animals weighing around 500lbs. A sow many times will have a dozen or more little piglets per a litter. When the sow lays down to nurse her babies she is not careful where she lays. The little piglets need an area where they can safely be without the large mother pig being able to accidentally roll onto them.
         My husband Paul and I witnessed this first hand when we tried farrowing a few sows about 7 years ago. We had just moved onto our farm site and Paul's uncle who works in a pig barn had 3 sows that they didn't have room for. Paul having grown up farrowing pigs thought this would be fun and agreed to take the sows. We have a barn but it is not set up for pigs so Paul set up some free stall pens. It seemed like every day Paul would come in saying how another piglet died because it got crushed by it's huge mother. How sad.

The divider was removed from between two stalls so the piglets can have more room as they get bigger. They will feed from only their mother.

      Q. For how long are the sows kept in the gestational stalls?
      A. Brad informed me that he use to only keep his sows in the crates during the time that they had piglets on them. He found that the pigs were aggressive towards each other pushing to get a food. As a result of the pushing of these animals he was having 1-2 stillborn piglets per a litter. For his last 2 farrowing he has kept the sows in the stalls full time and has had no stillbirths. He also informed me that pigs are not social animals and appear more content when they have their own space. In the stalls the pigs have no worries. They know that they will be fed and have clean water available as needed. They also always have a clean dry place to lay. Brad told me of a study where sows were taught how to back out of a gestational stall. The sows were able to leave the stall whenever they wanted and the study found that 90% of the sows never left the stall and the 10% that did back out of the stall only left the stall 1-2 times though out the time of the study. He also told me that now when he takes the sows out of the stalls during breeding time by the end of the week they are anxious to get back into their stall. It is their home.

        Q. How long are the piglets with the mother before they are weaned and what weight are they at birth and at weaning time.
        A. The piglets at Brads farm are weaned at 3 1/2 weeks and during that time they grow from a birth weight of 2-3 lbs to just under 20lbs.

        I'm glad the kids and I got to see the piglets and sows on Brad's farm. We could tell that the animals are healthy and safe. We know that Brad cares deeply for his animals always wants whats best for them.

This is the guilt that Brad has choosen for the kids to show at the fair this summer.
Check in the begining of Aug to see how big she has grown.

 

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