Due Dates

Calving is always our favorite time of year around the farm.  It is like Christmas in the spring.  When the cow goes into labor, it feels like the excitement of Christmas Eve when you can't wait to see what is inside.  This spring will be our 6th year of calving, and the excitement has not lessened with time.  

Daniel likes to play a game with the vet.  He keeps a pretty close eye on the cows when we have the bull in with them.  When he sees a cow come into heat, he makes sure to mark it on the calendar.  Twenty-one days later, he is keeping an even closer eye on that cow to see if she comes back into heat.  If not, then he knows that she was bred on the last heat.  When the vet is out to palpate all the cows, Daniel just stands back and watches.  He has a notebook with all the dates of when he thinks the cows were bred.  Then, he waits for word from the vet.  It never fails that the vet is always within a few days of Daniel's calculations.  

My job is next.  I sit down with the gestation chart and figure out the specific due date for each cow.  I then fill in the calendar and wonder how we are going to fit all these calves in between the fair, trips out of town, etc.  So far, we haven't been out of state for a birth (much to our neighbors relief).  

We are trying very hard to get back onto an all spring calving schedule.  It is taking us longer than we had hoped, but each year we are inching closer and closer to all spring dates.  This year it is kind of all over the board....which is good and bad.  

March - Rachel is due sometime this month.  Rachel was further along when the vet palpated, so it is harder to get an exact date. 

June 18 - Missy due -  Her last calf was a bull (Mitchell), so we are really hoping for a nice heifer out of her this year.  She has thrown us a reserve champion heifer and a reserve champion bull.  Can we get a grand champion?

June 28 - Rose due - Rose is one of our older cows that has thrown decent babies in the past.  Her 2014 calf, Rain, is turning out to be pretty awesome.  Breeding Rose, a nice cow, with the right bull can result in an exceptional calf.  

July 6 - Roxi due - Roxi throws the most gracefully walking cows on our farm.  She had a heifer last year so will we get a bull?

July 11 - Daffodil and Cece due - Daffodil is going to a new home today.  She is a great mother and will make a great herd at her new home.  This will be Cece's first calf, so we are excited to see what we get. 

July 18 - Bunny due - Bunny is very deep bodied and throws deep bodied calves.  We are hoping to add the length from Boomer to this calf.

July is our busiest month with camp, the fair and the bow shoot, and now we are adding calves to the mix.  We may be a little sleep deprived and grouchy for a few weeks.