Damsel, one of our heifers, gave birth to a bull calf we named Diego between the time that I got Lizz’s call and when I actually got to the farm (about 15 minutes). As I drove by her pen, she was already busy cleaning him off! This was Damsel’s first calving ever and she did so good! She was able to calve all by herself, which is not only awesome for her own health but also for Diego’s. She was due on September 13th but only ended up calving 3 days later which usually poses some risks, especially with heifers. The longer the calf sits inside mom, the larger it gets, which means it could have a hard time fitting through mom’s birth canal on its way out. Cows also aren’t fully grown until they are about 4 years old, which means that Damsel’s pelvis is not as wide as some of the older moms at Witter like Raisel and Ramen. We are so lucky that it all went well!
Once Diego was mostly dried off, we put him in a fresh calf pen and put Damsel in the dairy barn. My partners dipped Diego’s navel (which prevents bacteria from traveling up into his body) while I gave mom a few shots to help her recover from calving. Then, we milked Damsel for the first time to get her colostrum out and fed it to Diego. It’s been about a week since Diego was born and everyone is doing great! Diego looks forward to his dinner every night (which currently is fresh milk that we bottle feed him) and Damsel is fitting in perfectly in the Dairy barn with all the other ladies!