# PQVT Calving Thread



## purplequeenvt (Feb 26, 2017)

Calving is just around the corner here! We have 3 girls expecting babies this spring.

1st up is Fern. She's a Jersey that we purchased from a dairy a few years ago. This will be her 4th calf (3rd for us). She's a sweet girl that enjoys butt scratches a little too much.




Her "due date" is 3/17, but she seems like she may go a lot sooner than that. She's gotten all soft "back there" and has been leaking goo for a while. She's bred AI to a Red Angus. She's our milk cow.

The other 2 girls, both heifers born in 2015, are due around 5/19. We tried to AI them, but we kept missing the key point in their cycle. We have a neighbor with a fancy registered Hereford bull who offered stud service (for FREE no less) so we dropped the girls off when one came into heat. I probably won't milk them, but I may try fostering calves onto them.

Carly is Fern's daughter. She's Jersey/Red Angus (I call her a Jangus).




Cricket is a heifer that we bought from a nearby farm that raises registered Angus. She could be registered, but is not. They were selling her as a bottle calf because she was blind, born that way they assumed. We got a good price on her ($125 at a week or less old) and took her home. She didn't seem completely blind to me so I decided to try treating her as if she had an infection in her eyes. A week later, her vision was back.

As you can tell by her notched ears, she doesn't believe in ear tags.




Cricket ended up being raised by Fern and another Jersey that we had at the time.


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## Goat Whisperer (Feb 26, 2017)




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## luvmypets (Feb 26, 2017)

Beautiful cows


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## cjc (Feb 27, 2017)

Beauties! Can't wait to see what the calves look like! Best of luck with your calving this spring I hope it is a smooth one.


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## Goatgirl47 (Feb 28, 2017)

Great looking cows! I can't wait to see the little Hereford cross calves...


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## Latestarter (Mar 1, 2017)

waiting and watching along with everyone else.


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## purplequeenvt (Mar 4, 2017)

Fern might make it to her due date. Only 2 weeks to go. Her udder has doubled in size this past week, but isn't quite ready yet. 

We've been having some lovely 50-60 degree days for a while, but yesterday the weather changed we are at -10 with the wind chills. Fern was cold yesterday so I put her blanket on (a horse blanket that I got her last winter when she was too skinny) and it barely fit!


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## purplequeenvt (Mar 12, 2017)

She's getting closer. Her udder is full to bursting today and she is pretty "zoned out". She acts like her hips are hurting. Everyone else is stuffing their faces and she's off by herself standing in the sun. 

Maybe not today, but soon!


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## Latestarter (Mar 12, 2017)




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## samssimonsays (Mar 12, 2017)




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## purplequeenvt (Mar 12, 2017)

She's in labor!!


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## NH homesteader (Mar 12, 2017)




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## TAH (Mar 12, 2017)




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## Latestarter (Mar 12, 2017)




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## purplequeenvt (Mar 12, 2017)

She had a big ol' bull calf at 10:30.


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## animalmom (Mar 13, 2017)

.... and where's the pictures?  Please and thank you.


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## Goatgirl47 (Mar 13, 2017)

I agree with Animalmom - where are the pictures?!
And congratulations on the new calf!


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## Hens and Roos (Mar 13, 2017)

Congrats!


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## Bruce (Mar 13, 2017)

Congrats on the calf @purplequeenvt !!!!!


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## luvmypets (Mar 13, 2017)

Congrats!


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## purplequeenvt (Mar 13, 2017)

Still working on a name for him. This year is "D" names. Trying to decide between between Douglas (Dougie) and Duncan.

He's cute, but not very bright. Hasn't figured out the whole nursing thing yet so I've had to bring him bottles.


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## Latestarter (Mar 13, 2017)

Congrats! Looks like 2019's freezer beef is on the hoof!


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## TAH (Mar 13, 2017)

Cute! 

I like Duncan


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## animalmom (Mar 14, 2017)

Dougie!   Got to be Dougie!  When he grows up he can be "Doug Man", or just Doug, or the Dougerino you know for those not into the brevity thing.

Super cute little guy you got there.


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## Bruce (Mar 14, 2017)

I think someone is GLAD he hasn't figure out the nursing thing, WAY too close to the nose there!


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## cjc (Mar 15, 2017)

How cute!

My jersey calf couldn't figure out nursing so I just grabbed his head, straddled him and put his mouth on the teat. Sometimes I would have to let him suckle my finger a bit and coax him to his mama but he got it after a day. I just made sure I did it every few hours the first few days until I saw him frothing from the mouth when nursing. But raising bottle calves one thing I have learnt is sometimes once I get them on a bottle I cant get them off! Push him on mama.


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## purplequeenvt (Mar 15, 2017)

cjc said:


> How cute!
> 
> My jersey calf couldn't figure out nursing so I just grabbed his head, straddled him and put his mouth on the teat. Sometimes I would have to let him suckle my finger a bit and coax him to his mama but he got it after a day. I just made sure I did it every few hours the first few days until I saw him frothing from the mouth when nursing. But raising bottle calves one thing I have learnt is sometimes once I get them on a bottle I cant get them off! Push him on mama.



Having raised lots of calves and lambs both on bottle and on mom, I know all the tricks, but easier said then done with Dougie. Good news though, he figured it out sometime yesterday and refused the bottle I brought out to top him off at 9pm. With the blizzard we were in the middle of, I wasn't taking any risks of him not getting enough to eat.


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## Bruce (Mar 15, 2017)

Blizzard? What blizzard, I don't seen anything outside (I think I'm snow blind from moving way too much snow).


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## purplequeenvt (Mar 16, 2017)




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## Bruce (Mar 16, 2017)

What a beautiful little calf @purplequeenvt !!


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## Latestarter (Mar 16, 2017)

Wow... he's a handsome devil!


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## Ferguson K (Mar 16, 2017)

What a cutie


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## babsbag (Mar 17, 2017)

It's not fair that "dinner" is so cute. Those eyes...


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## purplequeenvt (Mar 23, 2017)

Dougie is doing well. It would appear that he is naturally polled which I'm very happy about. I hate horns, but I also hate disbudding. Fern's heifer from 2015 (she's due in May) was also polled. 

Fern is giving around 3 gallons a day. That's milking only once a day while also raising Dougie.


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## purplequeenvt (Apr 19, 2017)

Dougie is a chunky guy. He's been castrated and he's growing well. I separated him from Fern for about 8 hours so we'd get more milk, not doing that again anytime soon. Her normal 2.5-3 gallons turned into 5. We don't need that much milk so for now they are together 24/7. If he starts taking more than his "fair share" we will need to start separating them.

We are about a month out from the heifers due date. They're both growing cute udders.


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## purplequeenvt (May 6, 2017)

Fern and Carly, her 2 year old daughter (due soon)




Carly's udder!




Mr. Dougie


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## Goatgirl47 (May 7, 2017)

Mr. Dougie is getting big!  Dam-raised calves are always so much fatter and healthier looking than bottle raised ones. How old is Dougie now?


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## purplequeenvt (May 7, 2017)

Goatgirl47 said:


> Mr. Dougie is getting big!  Dam-raised calves are always so much fatter and healthier looking than bottle raised ones. How old is Dougie now?



8 weeks, I believe.


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## animalmom (May 8, 2017)

Good looking boy, that Dougie!


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## purplequeenvt (May 13, 2017)

Cricket had a present for me when I got home from work this afternoon......it's a girl!!

















She'd only been born a few minutes when I found her. She was up, but hadn't nursed and Cricket hadn't dropped the afterbirth.

She weighs somewhere around 60-70lbs (my arms weren't quite long enough to lift the baby in the sling off the ground to get a weight). Nice size for a first calf heifer. Cricket is being a lovely mother and doesn't have any problems with me handling her calf.


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## Latestarter (May 13, 2017)

WOW! What a surprise! How awesome is that?! Congrats!


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## Hens and Roos (May 13, 2017)

Congrats!  What an arm full


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## animalmom (May 14, 2017)

Such a pretty little girl!


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## Goatgirl47 (May 14, 2017)

Cute!


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## purplequeenvt (May 16, 2017)

Baby Moo Two arrived this morning. It's a boy and he is not very bright. I was at work (out the door by 4:15am) and the rest of the humans at home able to deal with dumb calves were all late for work. So by the time I got home, it was unclear if he'd nursed or not. Carly (mom) is touchy about her udder and he was parked out in the field in the sun and seemed to be overheated.

I spent a long time trying to get him to nurse. Between Carly's stupidity about her udder and his stubbornness, we didn't get anywhere. I hand milked about 3 pints (which is quite an amazing feat considering she kept trying to take my head off with her foot). He took a bit from the bottle, but mostly let the milk dribble down his chin. 

Finally I decided to put Carly on the machine and milk her out so I could tube the calf. After a very long time of avoiding kicks, etc... we weren't getting anywhere. She wasn't milking out at all. Talked to my dairy farmer friend and she said to try oxytocin, but when that didn't work, we decided that her milk probably just hasn't fully come in yet. I did get a full bottle worth though so we decided to tube him. I was shutting everyone in for the night as I was waiting for my friend to come with tubing kit and just as she pulled in, what do you think happened? Yeah, the dumbo finally started nursing. 

Anyway, here he is. His name might be Duncan, but I haven't spent a lot time thinking about it yet. Still haven't named Cricket's girl.


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## animalmom (May 17, 2017)

He's a sweet looking boy.


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## Bruce (May 24, 2017)

purplequeenvt said:


> His name might be Duncan, but I haven't spent a lot time thinking about it yet.


Or Dumbcan?


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