Spring, NO, Winter Calf Born

A good farmer always marks the calendar for 9 months from the time the bull takes particular notice of a cow and expects a calf to be born. BESS (named after Bella, Elaine, Sugar and Spice who were visiting when she was born) is a 3 year old cow and was HUGE as we approached her delivery date. After all, she is the daughter of “Queen Latifa” our good Black Angus cow that is no longer. So here it is January for a due date when you would prefer a warmer spring season. Alert neighbor gal who walks her dog was the first to see the newborn and told “Hippie,” who was driving his truck by, to tell us it was under the barbed wire fence and she helped it move away. So, after rounding up my visiting niece and nephew, getting some sweet feed in a bucket, we drove in the “Mule” to see the new life. There was no newborn under the barbed wire…but we did find the mother and calf in the only briar thicket in the whole pasture. Mother was still laying down, baby was standing and licked dry with a bloody afterbirth still hanging from the umbilical cord. All looked okay.