We Are Having Babies

Not me. The cows. Yes, it is calving season on the farm. Typically beef farmers and ranchers try to calve their cows in the least amount of days as possible. This is because when they wean the calves from their moms, and breed the heifers the following year, they want them to be as consistent in weight and age as possible. But our farm is a little different.

Remember our farm raises purebred cattle. Now there are LOTS of "purebred farms" that follow the same calving philosophy that I posted above, but not us. Since we sell quite a few of our calves to be show heifers (youth exhibitor them at shows throughout the year) people want them to fall into certain age "divisions." When heifers are shown they are broken up into classes by age. So the Januarys show together, the Marchs, the Aprils, etc. When a family comes to our house to buy cattle they like that they can buy heifers of different ages so their kids don't have to show against each other in class. Therefor we calve a few cows in January and February and then the rest will come in March and April.

Above is the first heifer (girl) calf we had born this year. I love the babies when they are first born because their moms haven't taught them yet that you should run away from people! 90% of calves aren't going to let you get too close after the first day of their life. 

And this is Wall Street. He was born the beginning of January. This was right after he was born. He's got a good mom and she was able to give birth to him with no help from us. 

Make sure you follow me on Instagram at @CrystalCattle to see lots more pictures. Also, #calfwatch16 is a good hashtag to follow if you love baby calf pictures.