New Life

Today we welcomed two new calves to the herd of cattle. Paul awoke to the screech of a little one and rushed outside to the herd to discover a coyote lurking in the pasture. Evidently the calf born overnight had come close to having a short life, but the herd quickly came to his defense once the coyote wrapped his jaws around him.

Later we went out to castrate and tag the babe.

At the end of the day we began to move the herd to the south pasture for the a new rotation in grazing, and we discovered yet another calf, born probably within 30 minutes of our arrival. The placenta was still on the ground next to the mama, and the little one could barely stand. This time, Paul tried to tag the calf in the pasture with the herd, and in doing so got head butted by mom and surrounded by the rest of the cows (these guys have longer horns...remember?) He walked away saying, "that was intimidating, no?"

An older calf from earlier this spring nursing on mama.

It was pretty cool to see the herd care for the little ones and watch new life learn how to nurse and walk - all within a very short time of their birth. The mama actually eats the placenta to protect the newborn from threatening carnivores (such as this morning's coyote).

Between the time we greeted each of the two new calves, I discovered a new flock of chicks prancing around in the driveway; add another six little fuzzy ones to the mix! We stood there trying to count the chicken total, I asked Paul if he knew how many he had but he said he'd stopped counting. I think he's approaching 100. A few are wreaking havoc on the vegetable garden so he moved them to "the top of his list," and sure enough two were caged tonight. I think Daniel and I will have our hand at ending life for the first time tomorrow. After today it somehow seems fitting.