# Look what we found this morning...



## Goatgirl47 (Jun 25, 2016)

Violet, our Dutch Belted cow, had a huge heifer calf sometime early this morning. 
Last year she had a medium-sized (purebred) bull calf six days after her due date, and she had a long hard labor, and couldn't get up right away after he was born.
This year I'm so glad everything went well and we have a healthy calf! The calf has some unique markings on her face. She's half polled Hereford, half Dutch Belted. She is probably our largest calf born here on our farm so far.

Here are the pictures:


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## TAH (Jun 25, 2016)

So glad everything went well for you and her. She is a cutie so is her mom


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## BlessedWithGoats (Jun 25, 2016)

Congratulations!!


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## frustratedearthmother (Jun 25, 2016)

Congrats!  What a cutie.


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## babsbag (Jun 25, 2016)

Calves are so cute. 

In CA everyone calls those cows  "Highway Patrol cows" as the Highway patrol cars are black with white doors.


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## Latestarter (Jun 25, 2016)

Awesome! Very nice looking calf  Mom did great!


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## Mini Horses (Jun 25, 2016)

Luv them!!  Glad she calved easily this time...and the calf's face markings are cute, like she is dressed for a mascaraed party.


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## Goat Whisperer (Jun 26, 2016)

They are BOTH lovely! Beautiful animals! 

Congratulations


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## OneFineAcre (Jun 26, 2016)

Congrats


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## WildRoseBeef (Jun 26, 2016)

Very cute calf, congrats on the new addition!!


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## Hens and Roos (Jun 26, 2016)

Congrats!  Glad to hear it went well!


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## cjc (Jun 27, 2016)

Wow she is a beautiful calf! I would be sooooooo happy with this heifer calf. Will you keep her and breed her? With a face like that I wouldn't able to sell her! Congrats


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## Goatgirl47 (Jun 27, 2016)

Thank you! @cjc, yes, I am definitely going to keep and breed her!  She's a beauty and I hope she has her mama's temperament. Violet is a very calm, laid back cow, and an excellent mommy.


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## cjc (Jun 27, 2016)

That's so great! Keep sharing pictures of her please as she grows! I would love to see how she progresses. Do you have a name for her yet?


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## Goatgirl47 (Jun 27, 2016)

I will! I'll try to get some new pictures of her today or tomorrow.

I am still working on her name LOL. I usually think of a few possible names while they are still gestating, but this time for some reason I was sure Violet would have a bull calf, so I haven't thought of any good heifer names.


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## cjc (Jun 27, 2016)

I always come up with a name and then it evolves into something else haha. I find it doesn't matter what I start out with their name always changes after I get to know them so now I just wait to see what I start calling them. Right now I have one named Girl, because all I just kept calling her was girly.


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## TAH (Jun 27, 2016)

We always wait till there a few weeks old to get to know them. We then take it to family everyone pits out there suggestions and then we pick. I won  on our last to. My dad always picks food names he won on to tasty and goes good with.


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## Goatgirl47 (Jun 28, 2016)

I got some pictures of Violet's calf this morning. Gertrude (that's what I think we have decided to name her) was getting some lessons on halter-training. When she was a day old I started tying her up for 10-15 minutes at a time each day, right next to Violet. I did this same thing last year to Frankie (Violet's first calf) and by the time he was a week old he was leading on a rope.
I have tried so many different ways of halter-training all the calves we've had in the past few years, and this way has been the most successful. Anyway, Gertrude is now three days old!

Here she is doing "the dead calf flop" to try and get me to untie her



After I pushed her up.






She's free!





And after walking around a bit, she nurses on her mama.


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## Goatgirl47 (Jun 28, 2016)

And that white powder on her and Violet is diatomaceous earth (DE). It's supposed to dehydrate the fly larvae and kill them. It's worked well so far!


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## Latestarter (Jun 28, 2016)

Man, wouldn't it be nice to not have to even deal with flys? They are a scourge!


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## TAH (Jun 28, 2016)

Goatgirl47 said:


> And that white powder on her and Violet is diatomaceous earth (DE). It's supposed to dehydrate the fly larvae and kill them. It's worked well so far!


That is what we do.


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## TAH (Jun 28, 2016)

Latestarter said:


> Man, wouldn't it be nice to not have to even deal with flys? They are a scourge!


I can't imagine what this world would be like without them. There would be tons of more garbage everywhere.


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## Kusanar (Jun 28, 2016)

babsbag said:


> Calves are so cute.
> 
> In CA everyone calls those cows  "Highway Patrol cows" as the Highway patrol cars are black with white doors.



I call them "pig cows" because when I was little I had some farm animal toys and all of the pigs were black with a white band, then years later I saw my first cow like that... lol


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## Goatgirl47 (Jul 30, 2016)

Today I took some new pictures of Gertrude. She has been growing like a weed! She's almost as big as George, the 4 1/2 month old Guernsey/Jersey steer. She's 1 month old. I wonder how big she'll be at weaning time - which is 8-12 months. The pictures don't show how thick she is.














George (right) and Gertrude






And here's Lily, Sasha's blue-eyed calf, 2 weeks younger then Gertrude (though a good bit smaller), and they are best buddies.


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## Latestarter (Jul 30, 2016)

They've grown quite a bit! lookin' good


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## TAH (Jul 30, 2016)

Boy have they grown!!
But they will always be cute.


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## Southern by choice (Jul 30, 2016)

They are so stinking cute I can't even stand it... makes me want one. 
I know they will grow though ... so no can do. But golly they are cute!


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## Ferguson K (Jul 31, 2016)

I just love calves. "Our girls " are done for the year and we didn't get anything exciting. 

A few show quality heifers, but, true to form they're solid black. No awesome markings to make them stand out. You can really see the Hereford side of her now.


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## BlessedWithGoats (Aug 1, 2016)

Aww! Very cute!


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## Kusanar (Aug 1, 2016)

What gets me about that little black one is she's only a "pig cow" on one side, the other side doesn't have a stripe!


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## WildRoseBeef (Aug 3, 2016)

Those are what I call "soggy calves." And that's a compliment!!


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