For me, raising calves is like the icing on the cake. I love my cows and I certainly love their sweet milk. But raising calves brings joy to my heart and laughter to my soul like no other living creature on the farm. From the moment they are born, my heart is filled with love for them.
We have now birthed five calves on our farm: Hershey (born 7/19/15, son of Heidi, the first calf born on the farm and the first male), Cocoa (born 9/14/15, first daughter of Mocha and side-kick to Hershey), Caramel (born 9/4/16, second daughter of Mocha), Oreo (born 8/30/17, son of Jersey, brother of Mocha, second male to be born on the farm) and Truffle (born 9/22/17, third daughter of Mocha and side-kick to Oreo). Each of these precious calves has had their own personality and birth story. One was born breech and without the help of a farmer friend, he might not have lived. One was born under a tree during the wee hours of an autumn morning by a first time mom and was discovered by me when her mama stood their mooing at me trying to show me what she had done! One was born in the pasture on a late summer afternoon while we were away and when we got home and I saw him, I thought there was a black dog in our pasture! One was born on Labor Day after I made a joke about wondering whether her mom would go into labor on Labor Day!
Some of the things I love about the calves is how hard they work to stand up within a few minutes of being born. Their legs are so spindly and weak, but they just keep trying to get up on all fours until finally they succeed. Soon after they can stand, they find mama’s milk and begin getting nourishment. Some of our calves have taken to nursing more quickly than others, but eventually they all have become masterful at getting their mama’s milk to let down. They don’t seem to understand that I worry about how quickly they latch on, how long they nurse, how much they are getting, and when their first waste appears! I count the hours between seeing them nurse and watching for the signs that they are getting enough.
Something else I love about the calves is when they are a couple of days old and they go from toddling around on tipsy legs to literally running around the stall. Sometimes they fall, or their legs carry them faster than they should go, but it’s such a sweet sound to be somewhere else in the barn and hear those quick little footsteps running around the stall. I always run over to the stall to watch them. It’s like they are children trying to run on women’s high-heeled shoes…not very graceful but oh, so cute!
There is a sound that a mama cow makes only to her baby, a sound I had never heard until Hershey was born but it is a precious low sound that reminds me of the phrase “the cattle are lowing” in Away in a Manger. It is a low, soft and soothing sound that they use to draw their calf near to them, as if to say “Come a little closer, sweet one! I want you nearer me.” Oh! How I love that sound.
When a calf is born, they already have their bottom row of teeth. Sometimes they will stick out their chin so that their teeth show. *NOTE: Did you know that cattle do not have a top row of teeth? They have a bottom row of incisors, and molars top and bottom for chewing but instead of a top row of teeth, they have a tough pad of skin. Anyway, when the calves are being stubborn, they stick out their chin with their bottom teeth showing and it is absolutely adorable!
Something else the calves do when they are being stubborn is put their feet together and just fall over on the ground. It happens most often if we are leading them somewhere they don’t want to go, and once they go down it’s not easy to get them back up. We have learned though that to rub on their backs near their tail simulates what their moms do to get them to nurse, so we have found that if we rub on their lower back, usually they will instinctively get up.
Usually after about a day or so in the barn stall with their baby, the mama is ready for some time away, fresh air and grass and to reunite with her buddy (the other mama). During that mother’s time out, I get to calf-sit! Oh how I love sitting on a bucket in the barn stall with nothing to do but to love on that sweet calf and get acquainted with each other.
Calves are very smart. They are trained by repetition but they are very perceptive and attentive as well. For instance, they know that when I make the sound of opening my little cooler, it is just moments until they are allowed to finish nursing on mama. They even have learned that an “ok” from me means it’s time! I have had to code my words so that they wouldn’t lunge at their mom before we were ready.
Someone said our newest calves are trained like puppies. I can head from the barn to the pasture where they have spent the day and call their names. They come running from wherever they are to the gate. It is there that we put the lead ropes on them to lead them back to the barn. During the fall, we would take them into the barn separately and I always took Truffle first. She is now in the habit of stepping forward to have her lead rope put on first and Oreo know she gets to go first, so he kind of stands back and lets her go. If we don’t come back for him soon enough, he starts yelling as if he think we have forgotten him. A couple of times they have tried to fool us by Oreo stepping forward instead of Truffle…and once they DID fool us. We tried to take Oreo in to nurse off of Mocha! We quickly discovered our mistake and corrected the situation!
Hershey was always very playful, even when he was 1100 pounds! I don’t think he realized his size made a difference in how safely we could play with him. He would romp with us even when he was big, even coming up behind us and pushing us trying to entice us to play. Cocoa and Caramel aren’t very playful but Truffle and Oreo love to play with us. All I have to do is playfully give them a push and they get all giddy and excited thinking it’s time to play. I have to be careful not to turn my back on them because if I stop playing too soon, they will run up behind me and try to push back at me to let the play continue. They love to have their faces near mine and more than once my eye or mouth has been licked by them! They love to interact with us and the feeling is definitely mutual!
Before I close this post, I would like to share the personalities of our calves with you:
Hershey – He was playful, inquisitive and loving, but he could be a bully when he wanted to! When he was first born, Mocha was jealous of the time Heidi spent with him so when they were in the pasture together, she would push him around. As he got bigger, I don’t think he ever forgot. Once we were moving cattle from pasture to pasture and Mocha was trying to mess with him even though he was now as big as she was. He surprised her by pushing back! He literally backed her up several feet. I’m sure she didn’t expect that!
Cocoa – She is reserved and aloof. When I spent time in the barn with her every day while she was nursing, she was pretty friendly but once she was no longer nursing and spent most of her time with Hershey in the pasture, she became more timid and aloof. Hershey seemed to enjoy having her with him and they were buddies, but he was definitely the boss of the pasture and if he wanted hay or minerals or water, he went first and was big enough to push whoever was there out of the way, including Cocoa. Cocoa is very affectionate and will be a great mom someday if we can get her pregnant. She took over the care of her little sister when Caramel was weaned and they became very close.
Caramel – She was a very loving and smart calf, again, while we were interacting with her several times a day in the barn. When she was weaned from Mocha, we put her with her big sister, Cocoa, in the pasture. Cocoa took on the “mom” role with Caramel, cleaning her and spending time with her. However, Caramel found out who WASN’T her mama when she tried to nurse off of Cocoa! She is reserved like Cocoa. They really are two peas in a pod.
Oreo – He is so sweet and playful. He is very inquisitive but also very cautious. When we lead him from one place to another, if there is anything different or out of place that isn’t usually there, he will just stop dead in his tracks until the item (or person) is removed. He is very interactive and affectionate with us, seeming to need our love and attention as well as his mama’s.
Truffle – She has no fear! She is sweet and loving and very inquisitive but she has no hesitation when she wants to go somewhere she goes there! Nothing stands in her way, even if she has to knock stuff over in the process of getting where she is going! She loves to kiss my face and often gets my eyelid (thankfully, my eye shuts before that little sandpaper tongue gets there). She is very much like her mama, Mocha.
Well, time to go for now. Hope you have enjoyed reading about our calves and why I love them so much! Hope you join me again soon!
Very interesting. They sound like puppies but with more responsibilities around the place. You know them well when you can differentiate their personalities so keenly.