Back Valley Ranch

March is approaching fast around the corner and our cows are as wide as they are tall right now. Well, half of them are anyways. The other half aren’t birthing until July. I love this time of year with the anticipation of little ones running all over the place.

Last year was quite the birthing season as there was a long nasty cold snap during March. We ended up bringing 7 of the calves in the house and 2 in the vehicles with us to stay warm. We unfortunately lost one due to the nasty cold snap. But last spring also saw two sets of calves born to the ranch. Only about 1 in every 50 cows have twins, so it was a rare treat to see 2 sets born. Some of you already know about one set through our facebook site when we had you name the calves. Mocha and Latte are doing well. The other set came from a first time momma named Mercedes. She has raised 2 very beautiful calves who we called Bambi and Ike. So far we believe she is bred to one of our new Limousin bulls for July. We can’t wait to see what she gives us this year.

We get asked lots of questions regarding bringing the calves in the house. What do the mommas think of this? How do the calves act in the house? Do they pee in the house? Since our mommas know we’re not out to hurt them or their babies, they are pretty understanding about us taking them. We give them a few minutes to lick the calf and get familiar with their scent before taking the baby away. The momma cow will usually lay down where the baby was born and wait for her baby to come back. Once in the house the calf usually doesn’t move around very much since they’re pretty chilled. We put blankets down by the fire for them to start getting warm. I’d like to add that I’m very glad that it’s tile floor and not carpet in the house. After a couple of hours the calf starts feeling pretty good about themselves and starts trying to get up and run around. That’s when Jerry and I have to start holding baby down to keep them by the fire. It takes about 3 hours for a baby to dry off enough to be able to go back outside. As for the pee question, no they don’t go to the bathroom in the house as they haven’t had a chance to drink any milk yet.

After the 3 hour mark and baby is good and dry, we bring them back out to momma and let them start the feeding process. We always hang around for a little bit to make sure baby has the hang of sucking before leaving momma and baby alone to bond.

I’m hoping that this March isn’t going to be as cold as last year, but we’ll see. There will be lots of new baby stories as the little ones start coming, which is going to be any day now.