Today, March 14, it is snowing lightly and the wind blowing. We are about a week away from the official start of spring. Twenty-six days from now is the date we should start calving. Spring in the Dakotas, Wyoming and Montana doesn't follow the calendar. The picture perfect days of sunshine, green grass, robins and warmth eventually do show up. They just show up a few days at a time for several months!
We bought some 36 bred heifers that came out of central Wyoming. They are moderate to small framed and should do well in the badlands where our cattle run. We were told that they would start calving mid March thru April. Well, most of them will calve during that period. On February 1, we had our fist calf arrive. A whooping big bull calf that is mama managed somehow to have on her own. Since then we have had 9 more calves born. Two of those died, one was premature and the other was just too big for his mom to have one her own. He died soon after birth due to so much trauma as she tried to have him and the eventual assistance she received. The remaining calves have been the perfect size for these first time moms to have.
Our own home bred and raised heifers are to start calving April 9. Two registered heifers managed to get bred before we turned in our heifer bull. They both calved on the same day out in the pasture. We lost one heifer and her calf when she double prolapsed. It definitely wasn't our heifer bull that sired these two calves. The surviving calf is a beautiful big bull calf. I guess we will have to do some testing on him and a couple of our bulls to see who is sire is.
So far, this has been an early and odd start to our calving season. Let's hope and pray things will get back to normal with healthy cows with calves born on schedule!
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| This was our surprise February 1 calf. |
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| First heifer calf of the season. She is a little tiny girl but thriving even with the cold, wet, windy weather. |
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| It's tough work being a baby calf at times. Naps are a good thing! |
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| Our bull calves are tagged with green tags, the heifers, pink ones. |
