touchtheearthfarm.com Blog

Before I even got to post about being on calf watch, Bella had her baby. She was due on the 18th, but had already begun bagging up, so I knew it was imminent. This morning around 9-9:30 am the event occurred, and I missed the actual birth by just minutes. Baby was on the ground by the time I arrived, and mama was cleaning it nicely. We had a light dusting of snow yesterday, but it was a nice, warm sunny morning with relatively little wind.

I quickly fed the pigs so we didn’t have a mutiny, and then ran inside to get Bella some warm molasses water. Blackstrap molasses provides energy, iron, calcium, potassium, magnesium and other useful vitamins and minerals. I give it to all my livestock after they give birth. Bella gratefully sucked down two canning pots full in between licks to clean off baby.

Baby was up and standing within the first hour, wobbly but strong, and has nursed a couple times already today, and Bella passed her placenta with no problems about 3 hours after giving birth. We had a healthy little heifer calf, and we’re still trying to settle on a name. We won’t likely be keeping her, but we’d like to halter train her and enjoy her a bit before we try to sell her.

I was able to milk out about a quart of colostrum from one of Bella’s quarters, but she was a little fussy about the back teats. I froze the clean bit I was able to catch, then went back out to try to milk some out of her back quarters to give her some relief. I was able to milk some by hand, but she’s so distended at this point that it’s hard to get my hands around her teats. I’ll milk her out fully, hopefully, tonight with the milk machine, which should give her some welcome relief. I’m hoping the milking will go smoothly so I’ll be able to freeze some of this colostrum as well, but I’m not counting on it.