We had FIVE bottle babies when this picture was taken just a few days ago. Since then we have moved down to four but for a good reason. Gorgeous is a heifer (female calf) and has a twin sister who is with their momma cow. Since momma cows who have twins sometimes prefer one over the other and it harder for her to care for two at a time we pull one. That is we pick one to be separated and possibly transferred to another cow. Gorgeous is a registered calf so worth more on a cow as they usually do better that way. She was bottle fed about two weeks and has taken to a new momma that loves on her! Success!!!!
Luke and Betsy were bought from some friends/neighbors for Crash and Scooters 4-H calves BEFORE we ended up with three bottle calves from our own herd. They are Angus calves while our own herd is mainly Gelbvieh and some Angus.
Black Betty is from our herd and is a twin to a bull calf so she is sterile. She is what we call a Free Martin, don't ask me why! She will not be kept for breeding but be sold and will end up at a finishing yard to get ready for slaughter. Or we may keep her and feed her and have her butchered for our family to eat.
Norman is my special needs calf. I am not quite sure what is wrong with him . It takes about thirty minutes to feed just him because he does not suck, just swallows and gags. He is a messy eater and I usually wear gloves because I have to wipe mucus off his nose and out of his mouth. He is more lethargic and I wonder if he has a joint problem or arthritis. Sometimes I have Orrin tube him(put milk directly into his stomach by putting a tube down his throat) to make sure he is getting enough, since I can only get him to take half a bottle in thirty minutes when the other calves take mere minutes for a full bottle. Poor Norman, I just don't know if I can pull him through.
Anyway with that many little ones to feed, this is what my sink look like.
No comments:
Post a Comment