This morning we had a new bull calf on the farm. Miguel texted me that we had a new bull calf but I was heading South to Sanford and he was heading North to the market so nobody was able to do anything right away.
When I got back, I had some pigs to castrate (that’s another story) so they had to come first. Then I headed down to find our new little calf and get him tagged and castrated. It’s important to get the calf first thing because they are so easy to catch when they are first born. After a day or so, you can’t just walk up on them anymore and tagging them gets to be a lot more trouble.
So into the tall grass I went looking for this new calf. In the process of looking for the calf born today, I found the calf born yesterday. He hadn’t been tagged or banded yet though so I hopped off the Gator and got him all fixed up. But that meant I still needed to find the newest calf. After walking for about 10 minutes, I took the Gator and started making laps. Another 15 minutes of looking and I still hadn’t found him. That’s when Miguel arrived and told me he was in the protected area, behind the electric wire where nobody goes. Sure enough, he was right there so we popped in an ear tag and put on a quick band.
I thought we were done but Miguel reminded me the calf needed to be with mom, not behind the wire. He got himself into this mess, why do I have to get him out? Oh right, I’m the farmer.
So I picked him up and carried him all the way to the other end of the paddock and put him down at mom’s feet. She was glad to see him and started immediately cleaning him up and letting him try to nurse. Curious is one of our best moms so hopefully she’ll have him frolicking about by tomorrow. We’ll keep an eye on him. In the meantime, that’s two new calves in two days. It’s definitely calving season around here.