I moved the start of calving back a month this spring, from 3rd week in March to the 3rd week of April, after last years weather debacle.  I've been checking on them every day and quite a few look like they are ready to calve.

Checking this afternoon I found this one first calf heifer away from the herd and resting in a sheltered spot out of the wind near an oak log with her nice, hours-old heifer calf. This heifer just passed her 2nd birthday and calved like a champ.  A nice heifer calf that got cleaned off, stood up and nursed colostrum.  I snapped a phone pic of calf and dam resting together a couple hours after calving.

I hope the others saw that this is the way it is done... we'll see. She looks like a good, healthy, alert calf. I don't weigh them but I would say she is in the 70 lb range.  Looks like the continued feeding of silage along with a mix of wrapped baleage and dry hay didn't cause a monster calf. Dam is in good condition to nurse and hopefully breed back quickly.

Here's is a pic of the first calf of the year and her dam a couple hours after calving.  This sight makes the hours of loading silage or hay in a blizzard fade away.  This is the first calf from my Huth Z072 bull and I hope an indication that his calving ease EPD numbers are also reality.

It feels a little late to be having first calf but if they all go like this it will be worth the month shift. Sure beats calving on an ice rink like last year. Ground is really wet yet and over an inch of rain forecast for next day or two but sure beats snow and ice.

Jim 

(IMG_1971_Heifer 14 and first calf of 2014 042314 easy.jpg)

IMG_1971_Heifer 14 and first calf of 2014 042314 easy.jpg (100KB - 102 downloads)