Mid March--Ellie had her baby and it was a heifer. A few days prior to this, I thought she was in labor. She was losing her mucous plug, and was having runny stools. She also seemed to be contracting. We eagerly awaited for labor to progress. She sure looked miserable! By the next morning I was quite concerned that something was wrong so I called the vet. Who came pretty quickly. It ended up that she ate something poisonous. 2 days later we woke up and there was the calf! Milking her was not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. I tied her up to the fence and put a barrel by her rear legs. She did kick some, and I couldn't ever leave the bucket on the ground, but she didn't really kick me. It was more of a kicking of the bucket. Not even really hard. The next week she and her baby were sold.
April 7--woke up to a strange noise. As I went downstairs, we realized it was Elsie, bellowing. Kirk and I went outside and saw that the water bag was broken and hanging down. She was rocking back and forth and seemed really unhappy. I called the vet and left a message, then went into the house to get dressed. Kirk came in a few minutes later to let me know that the calf was born. I was super disappointed that we just missed it, and then he told me that she had had it before we ever went out. She was bellowing at her calf to tell it to get up. The calf--a bull calf--was fine, and eventually nursed. Elsie is super bossy with the calf, who we named Buster. He was sweet the first few days, but is turning out to be quite the stubborn calf.
Elsie has not been easy to milk. She had a very swollen teat, and was constantly kicking me. One day I was head to toe manure from her kicking. I kicked her right back and we had a come to Jesus moment. She got better, but still wasn't great. I needed a stanchion. I made a redneck stanchion, and although it wasn't pretty, it got the job done. I really expected her to be so much better! She was such a sweet cow before calving. Now? Not so much.
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