Baby Girl

Here's a somewhat recent photo of Harriet. She's a bit taller now, but her ears still look about as big!

I'm Now the Proud Owner . . .

For my birthday in April, I received a really amazing gift from my dad: the ownership of the family brand.  My Grandpa Hall originally applied for the ownership rights in the early 1960s, and it has belonged to my dad's company since then.  It is H Hanging 4 and looks like this:

Montana and New Mexico are the only states that still require a hot iron brand and that do not accept "freeze brands."  For example, in order to borrow money to buy cattle, the cattle must have a brand that has been "burned red hot so the scar will peel" (according to my brand paperwork from the state).  Similarly, "before change of ownership or removal from county," a critter must have been hot iron branded.  Now, that said, the practice is somewhat controversial, and the MT Department of Livestock has actually been discussing the possibility of accepting freeze brands.  While hot iron brands literally burn the flesh and cause a permanent scar, freeze branding affects the development of pigment in the shafts of hair by killing the color follicle.  As a result, the branded area grows white hair instead of dark hair.  To apply a freeze brand, the animal's hair must be shaved and the iron must be brought to an exceptionally cold temperature with either liquid nitrogen or an alcohol/dry ice combination before it is applied to the skin.  There are even a number of benefits to freeze brands -- the process does not destroy the animal's hide, a freeze brand is far more visible on dark-haired animals than a hot iron brand, and calves that are freeze branded gain weight better because they experience less trauma.  In fact, some expensive race horses are even been freeze branded.

Here are some photos for comparison:

A freshly applied hot iron brand

A freshly applied freeze brand

An older freeze brand with the hair grown back in

Therefore, I am hoping to freeze brand Harriet and probably even Daisy.  I won't be able to sell or move them elsewhere, but then again I don't plan to.  And there's something kind of fulfilling about "trademarking" one's cattle.  It also serves a similar function to putting a tag on a dog's collar -- if a critter were ever to get out, the likelihood of getting it back is a higher.

So when the time comes, I will share more about the process and pass along some photos.  I'm also planning to post some updated photos of Harriet -- she's growing so quickly!

Pictures

Now that she's more than a day old, here are some pictures of Harriet.  She has a healthy appetite, and Daisy has a healthy supply of milk.  Both seem very comfortable around John, Sydney (the dog), and I.

Harriet's Birth

John and I were there for nearly every stage of Harriet's birth, and John had the foresight to record it.  Here's a shortened version, and if you've never seen the birth of a four-legged creature such as a calf or a foal, it's pretty amazing. That said, it's also exactly what you can expect it to be, so know that some people might consider it a bit graphic.  My next few posts will include updated pictures (she's growing so quickly!) and another video of her first steps.

She's Here!

Daisy delivered a perfect heifer calf this morning just a little bit before 8 a.m.  I will write more later about the whole experience, but in the meantime, I want to post some pictures.  Meet Harriet.

While We're Waiting

There's still nothing significant to report, except that a fellow teacher has made me a bit nervous.  Her family raises show cattle, and they just had a heifer that went 18 days past her due date.

Every day at school I'm asked a number of times by students and staff members whether I have a baby yet, which sometimes draws strange looks from passers by.  I've even started joking about how I'll put in the school's daily announcements something to the effect of "Thanks for all of your support.  My husband John and I are happy to report the arrival of our 80 pound black baby."

Today's posting is the result of one of my students asking if I'd read the following article and explaining that he'd immediately thought of me when he read it.  I have to admit, she's a girl after my own heart and I completely understand what she's talking about.

Here's the link:
Horse Dreams Dashed

Still Waiting

I kept waiting over the weekend to be able to create the photo-filled new baby calf post.  And waiting.  And checking.  And waiting to check.  But alas, Daisy is deservedly taking her own sweet time.

John reminds me that I shouldn't worry because there's nothing I can do about the situation -- at which point I try to explain that that is precisely the problem: if I could do something about it, I would, and then I wouldn't worry. If I can't do anything, then I have no choice but to worry.  (I feel as though I've written about this in a post before, but perhaps that's merely because it's somewhat of a theme in my life.)

So I will check again at 2 a.m. and before I go to school, and one of these days I'll have something to report.  In the meantime, here's a really amazing website that will keep you busy watching babies of a different "feather."

http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles

Really Fun Daisy Update

The days are getting longer and the wait is getting shorter!

As most of you know, John was in Iowa this past week.  He had a great time, despite catching a cold and having to endure a bit of rainy gray spring weather.  I'm just really glad that he got to spend time with his family, and if it weren't for my busy schedule, I'd have loved to go with him.

Anyway . . . I've been a bit nervous about having him gone since Daisy is so close to her estimated due date, but we made it.  Nevertheless, she gave me a bit of a scare a couple times this week.  First, we had a very significant snow storm last Tuesday night, and Wednesday morning her udder had gone from little-girl-in-a-training-bra heifer udder to quite-the-young-woman, nearly-a-cow udder.  I asked our neighbors to stop by and check her out for me, but Sheila assured me that we still had a ways to go.  Then yesterday morning I saw what I thought might be the mucus plug, which would mean that calving is much more imminent.  I moved her into a round pen that is visible from our kitchen window so that she would be easier to see just in case.  Nothing had changed by the time I got home, so I turned her back out into the yard.

It's now Saturday night, and while I cannot say when the baby will come OUT, I definitely know it is IN there.  I've been trying to feel it for months, but I'd never been able to.  This morning, however, I not only felt it moving, but I also saw it moving!  It was so amazing! Any doubts that I had about whether she was actually pregnant have disappeared.  So, here's a short video in which I think you'll be able to see it moving, too.  What you'll want to watch is the spot below my hand when I rub her side.  It will look as though a rather large welt appeals, and then a few moments later it seems to melt back into her side.  It's clearest at about the 34 second mark.  John thinks I'm crazy, and I'm pretty sure he thinks all of the movement is just Daisy breathing, but those of you who have felt a human baby moving in a pregnant woman's belly will know that it's pretty easy to tell the difference.  (John also admitted that he's never had the opportunity to "pet" a pregnant cow this way.)

Stay tuned for more updates as this is sure to be an exciting week!

Daisy Update Part II

According to the bovine gestation table, Daisy's calving date is April 3.  She seems to be progressing nicely, though I'm not sure I'm noticing a remarkable difference in her overall size.  What I do notice, however, is that her udder is developing just the tiniest bit.

Take a look at the pictures below, and see if you notice a difference in her size.  The top picture is from about a month ago, and the bottom one is from Tuesday of last week (3/1).

The magical time is getting close!  So I've developed a spreadsheet on which you can venture your guess at the date and the gender of her calf.  Just a hint: heifer calves tend to be born a bit ahead of schedule; whereas, bull calves can come a bit later.  So, click on the link below to see an updated calendar with everyone's guesses.  Then, email me or comment with your own guess.  If it ends up being a bull calf, I will let the winner name him.  If it's a heifer calf, I will be naming her, but the winner will get the satisfaction of public recognition.  

Daisy's Calving Calendar Pool

Daisy Update Part I

I have a fat heifer . . . John kind of teases her about it, but I then remind him that she has "extra energy stores" because she has been eating along with his calves all winter.  If we didn't have calves to feed, we wouldn't be putting out extra feed.  Regardless, she and I have started on a walking regimen because I'm hoping to get her in a little better shape by the time she calves.  Almost every day this last week, I've walked her around the yard for 20 minutes.

The realization that Daisy had packed on a few pounds hit me when I was researching what is called a body conditioning score, or BCS.  Cattle are rated on a nine-point scale that helps determine their nutritional needs.  Here is a quick tutorial to show you how it works:

Skinnier cattle have very evident ribs, and skeletal features such as their backbones and pin bones are very obvious.  One tutorial I watched online explained that if you can see their ribs, the cattle should score a 1-4.  As soon as their ribs are not visible, they would score a 5-9.  A score of 5-7 is the most ideal.

This bull is fairly skinny.  You can see his ribs, his backbone, AND what are called the transverse spinous processes, which fill the space just below his spine.  Though I am not an expert (obviously), I would score this bull as a 2.

 The one below seems about right to me.  Her ribs are fully covered, but you can still the pointier bones on top of her hind end, which are the hooks.  I'm guessing she's a least a 6 and maybe a 7.

This cow is an example of Kobe beef (according to the details with the image), so I assume that explains her oddly small hind end and her very barrel-chested middle.  Regardless, I think the picture clearly illustrates what an 8-9 would look like.  There is no evidence of ribs and her whole front end is so large and blocky.

So after a bit of debate between John and me, we agree that Daisy is at least a 7 if not an 8.  We can't really try to slim her down diet-wise since losing weight that way would be unhealthy this late in her pregnancy; however, her size indicates that her calf could be bigger, which could cause difficulty during calving, or that she herself will be less motivated and energetic during calving.  However, once she makes it through calving, all of that saved up energy will come in handy as she feeds her baby!

And then there were nine . . .

We lost a hen this week.  I went to collect eggs one evening and found her dead on the floor of the coop.  She had no obvious injuries and had been healthy.  In fact, what I am most bothered by is that she was one of our healthier chickens and most prolific layers.  Her Buff Orpington "sister," however, is a bit of a dud with her puny comb, wattle, and egg production levels.  Why do bad things happen to good chickens?

My chicken book explains that 5% of a flock will die every year, which does not include deaths as a result of predators. And as John explained, "chickens are birds," indicating that they are not particularly hardy creatures under the best of circumstances.  I didn't really perform a thorough examination of her, especially since she was a bit stiff having lain on the drafty floor with subzero temperatures swirling around outside.  However, my first guess is that she was trying to get back to the roosting part of the miniature barn we use for a coop, caught a foot, and broke her neck on the way down.  She'd not been dead long, but if I'd found her right away a broken neck would have been obvious.

John will soon order chicks for the store, and one thought he's had is that we can raise them to egg-laying age and then sell them at a slightly greater profit.  Perhaps I can talk him into letting us keep a few.  If so, I will blog about the challenges involved with introducing new, younger birds into a flock.

Doctoring Cattle

John and I worked our "herd" yesterday -- all four of them got shots, and we wormed them.  In my next life I'd like to earn a degree in animal husbandry with an emphasis on diminishing the tissue damage caused by vaccinations, amongst other things.  None of ours will suffer long-term effects, and I suppose it's not that different from the sore and stiff arms we get.  The benefits, however, are numerous.

The vaccine that all four received is a 7-Way vaccine against clostridial diseases, which are bacterial diseases spread through spores.  (One common clostridial disease is botulism.)  If critters become sick from a clostridial infection,  they can go from seemingly healthy to deathly ill very quickly.  Ironically, these diseases often affect the most well-fed, healthiest, and fastest-growing calves.

All four were also wormed, which should protect them against a number of internal and external parasites.  We've been needing to worm them for awhile, but I got a bit anxious about it when T3 (one of the heifers) had fairly large patches of hair loss.  Here's a picture:

In general cattle rub on everything and love to be scratched second only to being fed.  I'm hoping some of the hair loss is just due to normal rubbing, and John assures me that it's nothing we need to be concerned about.  (I'm still not convinced, and the fact that Sydney, the dog, was pulling off mouthfuls of T3's hair was enough to make me even more squeamish.)

Finally, Daisy received a second injection: Scour Bos 9, which means that her calf will benefit from drinking milk that is rich in antibody-filled colostrum.  Calf scours are a nasty diarrhea caused by various viral and bacterial infections.

Because we have such a modest cattle operation, here are also some photos of how we managed them.   We positioned panels so that we could squeeze the cattle into place to keep them still and safe. And I have to say that all four of them were troopers -- nobody overreacted or got fussy (me included), and though I think they have some sore hips and hind ends from the injections, they're better for the experience.

Daisy Mae Update

Daisy has just over two and half months left until she's supposed to have her calf -- assuming everything goes okay.  I know John would agree when I say that I'm a bit obsessed with how she's progressing.  The not knowing is so much more challenging for me than the waiting even.  John is certain she's still pregnant, but every little thing makes me panic that she's not.  For example, one of the steer calves occasionally tries to mount her, which can be a sign of heat.  Daisy doesn't tolerate it, though, so I try not to worry too much.  (I did, however, read an old wives' tale today that says such behavior means Daisy will have a heifer calf -- or female -- because the extra progesterone that goes into making a heifer calf makes other cattle think Daisy's in heat.  Should we place bets on how likely that is?)

If there is a calf growing in there, it will increase the most in size over these last few months of the pregnancy.  Therefore, I'll try to remember to take pictures of Daisy every few weeks and post them in case you're able to see the difference.

We've had a fairly weather-filled winter, and it is amazing to see how much hair Daisy has put on since last summer.  She does really well in the snow, and it has amazed me how many people ask whether she gets to go inside when the weather is cold.  Alas, no.  All she and the calves get is more food when it gets particularly cold, and they hunker down in the hay.  Fresh snow does make for some cute pictures, though.

Did I Ever Write About the Calves?

Last fall, John purchased 6 red Angus calves that were too light to be shipped off to "the place" where calves go.  He knew that he could put some weight on them and sell them for a small profit, and it's meant that Daisy has had some bovine buddies this winter.  There were 4 steers and 2 heifers, and since then John has sold 3 of the steers.  He won't have much trouble getting rid of the fourth steer, and I have to decide if I want to buy the heifers from him to add to my "herd."  I'll let you know how that works out when the time comes.  For now here are some pictures from over the last few months.

This Is What I Call Imagery

While this blog posting won't be graphic, it will be a bit on the colorful, descriptive side.  And if you start to get bored, skip to the best part at the very end.

John and I went spent about five hours a month ago helping our friends work their cattle.  They had recently purchased a couple dozen new cows that needed new ear tags and brands, and they planned to vaccinate, worm, and "preg check" their regular herd.  John worked what's called the crowding alley, into which he ushered  about five cows at a time before sending them through the chute.  I stood along the squeeze chute at the other end (the cows' final destination) and sprayed wormer across their backs just before they were released back to freedom.

There's a certain barbaric quality to working with large animals that I still don't quite accept though I'm increasingly aware of its occasional necessity.  Before we even started working the cows, I spent a few minutes just observing the herd's two bulls.  While they seemed to be playing with each other to some extent, the slightly bloody faces indicated that their antics weren't merely for fun.  There's also something impressive about 1800 lb. creatures battling it out literally head to head in a contest of sheer strength.

The day wasn't particularly cold or wet, but it was still December in Montana.  There was plenty of snow on the ground, and the wind kept blowing at a steady clip.  It was one of those days when you feel the blood rush to your cheeks and ears about 10 minutes after you head indoors following an extended period outside.  We were all bundled up fairly well, and there are only so many winter clothes one can wear that a lot of fresh cow sh*t won't ruin.

We didn't have particularly good luck with the first few cows through the chute.  The metal bottom was entirely too slippery for a couple of them, and all we can do is hope that the stress of the experience doesn't prove to be too much for them or for their unborn calves.   They both went down on their font forelegs and couldn't get the legs back under themselves. I have to admit that it was really tough for me to watch them struggle, and though I really feel there wasn't anything we could have done differently once they got hung up, it was still really hard to watch.  I know ranchers have their own approaches to handling animals, but it really is in everyone's best interest to treat the animals as well as possible.  Each cow is worth hundreds of dollars, and the potential value of the calves is nearly as much.  An injured pregnant cow can easily cost the rancher over a thousand dollars in lost revenue and vet bills.

After some adjustments, we were able to get the rest of the cows through without much trouble, but the best moment came when Travis, the county extension agent who was performing the preg checks, invited us (meaning me and the"other"  kids who were there) to feel a calf that was in a particularly easy-to-access position.

Most people preg check their cattle much earlier, on a similar schedule to when I took Daisy for her ultrasound.  The developing calf needs to be a certain number of days along for an experienced person to detect its presence.  I knew Daisy was pregnant because of an ultrasound, but a more rudimentary check is typically what most people have performed, and this simply means that the technician or vet examines the cow rectally in order to feel the fetus itself.  This second method is what Travis was using to determine each cow's pregnancy status.

I've been giving a lot of thought as to how I might describe that the experience felt like.  Imagine filling a tall kitchen garbage can partially with warm water and then immersing a large garbage bag of similarly warm water into the garbage can.  As a result, there would one "cavity" inside of another.  Now, imagine putting on a shoulder-length examination glove and reaching down into the garbage can between the bag and the wall of the garbage can.  Warm and a bit tight, right?  If there were objects inside the bag along with the water, you'd be able to feel their sizes and shapes.  That's the best I can come to describing what it feels like to preg check a cow and feel the head of the growing calf.  The whole experience was pretty amazing!