Thursday after lunch, Maxim went out to help someone buying milk and ran in to say that the cow was finally calving- so Garry and Victor ran out to pull the calf- using the shiney calf pulling chains I brought back from Canada. By the time I found boots and got to the barn with the camera, the calf was lying behind the cow- another bull calf, of course (bull calves are normally bigger than heifers.) Garry is tickling the inside of his nose with a piece of straw- sometimes it helps the calf get rid of any muscous in the airway, so they breathe easier. Maxim pulled him in front of his mother who happily licked him off- the guys tell me he was standing up about 5 minutes later, and his mother was "milking herself" according to Victor- the cow was leaking milk from her teats.
This was in the middle of the afternoon milking, both Yana (pictured) and Luba were busy milking. Yana is going to buy this bull calf from us to raise also. She traded one of her bulls to someone for a heifer calf- I think it's the little Hereford-looking one at the far end of the row of calves in the photo. The big black one at the front is our biggest heifer calf, born while we were in Canada.
The waterbowls are finally working again, Garry got it going this morning while Maxim was feeding the cows, which should bring milk production back up. The cows were down a little in milk since they had been watered with the hose and bucket method twice a day for the last two days. Hopefully, it will soon be warm enough to keep the water pipes from freezing at night, and they will have all they can drink. Its minus 7 and windy, so it really doesn't feel any warmer outside, today.
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