This morning, Miguel and I moved Sprinkles and #72 out to the front pasture. They were happy to be outside, especially the calf. Betsy and Bernice came over and made friends immediately and everyone is out enjoying the beautiful day we have today. 83, sunny, and a nice breeze.
This was all possible because of the picture above. Lucy, who runs our store on Wednesdays and Fridays, and who works our garden every day of the week, got stuck with calf duty Thursday and Friday. I had to go to Virginia and had to leave the calf in somebody’s care. Who better than a mom? Did she have any experience with cows. Well no. How about calves? Um, once. Did I give her much instruction. Well no, not really. But she’s a mom, she’ll figure it out.
The results? Well, they speak for themselves. This calf would have died without help. She couldn’t stand without pain and she would have gotten weaker and weaker having not nursed. By the time she could stand, she would have been unable due to lack of nutrition and that would be that. So kuddos to Miguel for noticing her in the beginning. Kuddos to Lucy for keeping her fed.
I’m going to be taking a look at what is going on, but we lost a calf already recently, probably from the same problem, and we would have lost this calf. I think we have a genetic problem (from outside, of course) we’ll have to deal with shortly. But one thing at a time.