We brought our cows into the corral for calving Feb. 20. It was quite cold then with temperatures ranging from -22 to -30 C before the wind chill. Due to the cold, we had to keep a close eye on the corral.
Later that week Gregory had the opportunity to turn our old bale processor into a much-needed upgrade. He bought a used Bale King 3100 from Alberta. It had seen very little use, and the most abuse by Mother Nature from being left outside. It was delivered Feb. 28, and Gregory soon learned why it had been traded in. The seals were blown in the orbital motor that feeds the bale. The original owner must not have tried to fix it and had traded it in for a new one.
The factory paint was still on it when Gregory began repairs and ordered the parts. After waiting a week to get them by courier to the John Deere in Biggar, Gregory was able to put the orbital motor back together and get the machine working. He quickly fell in love with it, and thanks to the weather and the small snowstorms that have blown through nearly every other day, he used it a lot to bed the corrals.
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Our first calf arrived Feb.26. A heifer had a nice little red bull calf and she turned out to be a very good mother. From there on there was a pretty steady stream of calves every day.
Also that day, Joseph lost his first tooth. He was very excited.
A day later, a second calver had a nice little red brockle heifer. However, the cow did a poor job of licking off the calf and never got it up to nurse. The cow hadn’t done a very good job the year before and she had almost no milk. So we decided to let our cow who had lost her twins have a chance to raise the calf.
Using a stomach tube, we fed the calf the colostrum that we had collected from the cow after she lost her twins. Then, at the regular milking time, we tried to help the little heifer to nurse her adopting mother. The calf fought with us a bit but she did get the idea of where the milk came from. The next time we put them together we made sure the little heifer calf was a little bit more hungry.
With just some oats chop to keep her occupied, the cow let me help the little heifer on without needing to be in the head catch. The little heifer filled her belly and then went and laid down for a nap. After that it took just a few more feedings before the cow was convinced it was her calf and the calf was sure that this had always been her mother. By the time the calf was four days old she was turned out with her new mother with the rest of the pairs. What a rewarding experience! Exactly a month after we found the cow had lost her own, she adopted a new calf wholeheartedly.
March 8 we celebrated Barb’s 72nd birthday. We were cutting up meat in the meat house all day, so we ordered some pizzas from Karen’s Bar and Grill in Landis and topped it off with a cake that the boys helped me make.
