Friday, June 24, 2005

the cow saga

For those who haven't followed our cattle saga, here's the story:  The cow on the left had twin heifers about seven weeks ago.  The other cow was still pregnant, but the twins decided to nurse her too.  So when her huge bull calf was born, we seperated the two families, figuring those month-old twins wouldn't leave any milk for the new calf.

Cattle are herd animals, and the moms weren't happy apart.  After a couple of weeks of living in different pastures, the mom with the twins disappeared... and showed up the next day in the big pasture with her friend.

Cliff and I wondered what to do.  We considered taking that big steer and bottle-feeding him, and just letting the twins have the milk from the two cows.  That would have worked, but living in a calf hutch in Missouri summertime isn't the best environment for a calf, and we'd be buying milk replacer at $20 a bag, and feeding bottles twice a day.

Then we realized that every time we tried to intervene in this situation, it seemed to end in a mess.  So they're all together and quite happy.  I got a good, close-up look of the young steer this morning, and he looks to be in fine flesh.  He pooped, and there was plenty of it, so he must be getting nourishment.  (Sorry if that's gross to you city folks.)

I imagine, now that he's a couple or three weeks old, he is hungry enough, and aggressive enough, to get his share.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Us city folks have animals that poop too.  LOL!

Anonymous said...

Holy Cow!! Holy Cowpies!! rich

Anonymous said...

Um...here is a delicate question. You have 2 female cows (before they calved)...how did they get pregnant? LOL

Anonymous said...

OK Ryanagi, it's like this:  Cliff's brother, 20 miles or so away from here, has a bull.  Each year we bring him here for a couple of months, after he's gotten all his harem at home pregnant.

Anonymous said...

oh they are so pretty! I love the color. I am glad the little steer is doing ok.
CArlene

Anonymous said...

Beautiful herd there.. love the pictures.. and glad it seems to be working out now.. even if not planned that way ;) Mel