2 Newest Additions

As promissed, here's better pictures of the 2 newest calves here on the farm. 069's baby is bright eyed and bushy tailed tonight, so we are fairly certain he got up and ate:

Good old 069 is going to be enjoying some time inside. She looks like she might have some mild paralysis in her one hind leg, but for now we are going to pamper her, hope she can walk halfway decently in a few days, and hope we don't have to medicate her. We really don't like to medicate either the cows or the calves, but at the same time, we don't want an animal to suffer needless pain. It's a fine line to walk, but we try to raise these animals as close to nature as possible. Our cows have pasture year round, access to good quality hay 24/7, and just a little bit of grain in the winter, that we make our selves, with no medications added. We grow our own corn for the feed, and just buy the bean meal, minerals, dry molasses, etc.

101's calf is a wild man. He's out there bouncing around in the pen. I love his coloring. He's an Angus/Shorthorn cross (Moody Blues shorthorn breeding), with lots of chrome (I tend to pick the flashier calves with lots of white, while Todd tends to lean towards the all black calves). Todd looked at him tonight, and normally we castrate our calves right off the bat - much less stress to do it at 2 or 3 days old, versus trying to band them at 7 or 8 months. But this one might be spared, as Todd thinks he could be nice enough to be a replacement bull for us at some future point:

And of course, a picture of our 1/2 grown calf - out with the rest of the cows now that the bull is no longer out with his harem:

Tyler's quilt top is also done - I'll post a picture of it later tonight or tomorrow. We have the fire department banquet tomorrow night, and the kids are spending the night at my parents (THANKS MOM & DAD!!) How wonderful to have a night out spent with friends.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!

Kris