Breeding cows is an art. Well at least knowing when the cow is in heat is tough without a bull or steer around is. When the cows are in heat they push noses, lick, and jump on each other- so you are pretty sure one of them is in heat- but knowing which one is the trick. I am telling you this because we didn’t really want a December birth- but we got one. Mainly because we could never get the timing right on when to breed her. Last Sunday morning, with temperatures around 20 below, Sugar gave birth to Cookie. Anita found her around 6 in the morning covered in a thin sheet of ice where mama’s saliva had frozen to her fur. Her ears were so frozen we couldn’t bend them.
We spent some time drying her off in the corral that was filled with a couple feet of straw- but her temperature was not coming up. So we brought her into the house which was a balmy 45 above (another story). We parked her on Hazel’s lap wrapped with towels, blankets and a heating pad. Lillian ran back and forth to the dryer to refresh warm towels. Cookie was calm/frozen during all this. The good news was she warmed up and was holding her heat. So back to Sugar, we packed her, to try to get some colostrum in her. She fumbled around and I shot plenty of milk up her nose but she was doing alright for only being a couple hours old. We let mama take over for the rest of the day.
That night she slept in the bathroom….and the next night, too. Now she is running all over snow covered fields with mama. All is well with both Sugar and Cookie. We are also getting plenty of milk out of both Sugar and Maisy (the ladies produce way more than the babies can drink). So we have a new member on the farm- welcome her!
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