Early in April, Daryl spent a day at the block putting up some more fencing and hanging gates and while checking on the cattle he noticed one of our heifers had some 'stuff' (for want of a better word) hanging out of her. Now our neighbour said that this could really be one of two things, the first she may have had a calf, the second she may have had a miscarriage. Well, either one was news to us as we hadn't bought the heifers pregnant and they certainly hadn't been in contact with a bull since being on our block! So with hopes raised Daryl had a good look round the paddock but couldn't find a calf anywhere.
However, two weeks later when Daryl went back up to the block, there running around (and into things) was a little calf! It turns out that the heifer had had a calf after all (although who knows when she got pregnant) and had just hidden it somewhere in the paddock as they apparently do when the calf is to small to keep up with the herd.
So we are now the proud owners of a little calf which we are hoping is a male which we can then breed from later which would save us from going down the AI route.
Our next mission is to now keep this calf alive through winter which means making sure it's warm (we've got a calf jacket for it to wear), sheltered (we're getting a shed for it) and fed well (we've got a molasses bucket for it to lick and it has it's mum's milk of course).
So we are now the proud owners of a little calf which we are hoping is a male which we can then breed from later which would save us from going down the AI route.
Our next mission is to now keep this calf alive through winter which means making sure it's warm (we've got a calf jacket for it to wear), sheltered (we're getting a shed for it) and fed well (we've got a molasses bucket for it to lick and it has it's mum's milk of course).