Banana had her second calf for us this morning. It’s a girl!!! {Click here to read about her calf last year.} Michael named her Harriet.❤️ (Her dad’s name is Harry, lol…) 

  
  
Michael got a halter on Banana, too, so he was able to lead her out of Mordor a little easier than it would have been otherwise. (She’s kinda stubborn, but she cooperates pretty well for Michael.😉) Harriet followed well and made it the whole way down.👍🏼  

  
  
  
  
  
  
To see some old posts featuring Banana over the years, click here and here and here.

The other nosey mamas waiting to see who is joining their group, lol…🐮 

  
Natasha welcoming Harriet…🤗  

Today is a little bittersweet. Banana has been special to Michael, and he’s spent a lot of time showering her with extra attention over the past 4 years. He really wanted her to make the cut and remain one of our dairy girls, but that’s just not gonna happen. Last year, her rumen stopped working and we needed the emergency vet out to help her. Her appetite recovered, but we couldn’t use her milk for our dairy, and we actually dried her up in July. We decided to give her another chance for 2016, but it appears she is the same… Rats.😕 Culling a cow from your herd that you are emotionally attached to can be hard, and I’m grateful for the time we’ve all had to prepare for this possibility. It’s just how farming goes sometimes. We are thankful for everything she has taught us, the wonderful memories of watching Michael take care of her, and for the two calves she’s had for us.❤️

Lord, use this experience to grow each one of us closer to You… Amen🙏🏼

It’s that time of year again: babies and baseball, lol.🐮⚾️
This morning OreoCookie started our milking season out with a beautiful heifer calf. {Click here to see her calf from last year.} Here is the pic Mike txted me after he entered the field this morning:

The boys have named her Barbara.

[This year there is no theme – they just want to name them as they come. Apparently “Barbara” comes from a character from the 1970 movie: Kelly’s Heroes. They will be calling her Babra (which I guess only makes sense if you’ve seen the movie.) Whatever.🙄 I just want her to have a name…😉]

Boys and I got the gates ready, found the halter, and up we all headed to bring them down to the barn.

This pic is kinda cool. The heifer closest to me is actually Barbara’s big sister: Coco. {click here to see the post when she was born in 2014}

Cookie knew the routine and led Barbara all the way down to the barn. It was a great way to start this calving season!

Mama and calf parted at the barn.

And with that, our 2016 calves have officially begun to arrive. Lord willing, 9 more should be here over the next 8 weeks.❤️

Lord, thank You for today’s calf. She is beautiful, and we are grateful. We lift up the rest of the mamas as they prepare to have their calves. Grant us the wisdom we need to assess each case, and prepare our hands to help when needed. May we honor You in all we do. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.🙏🏼

Got home at dusk last evening from a baseball game, and noticed a small speck in the field… Yep – our last calf had finally arrived!! We headed across the field to see if it was a boy or a girl…

{SIDE NOTE: This picture warms my heart. Paul is walking in front of me. He looks just like my Dad with his hands in his back pockets like that…❤️}

 
We had moved Disco to this field by herself so there wouldn’t be as much chaos as the other day.

 It’s a boy! His name is Luke… And he got to have a nice and quiet night with his mama.👍

  This morning, Disco brought Luke right to us, and he had a pretty uneventful walk to the barn.😊
   
              

Ahsoka was serenading Luke’s arrival, and he was less than impressed, lol…😏

So there we are – all done with calving for 2015! Final tally is 3 girls and 6 boys.👍

Thank You, Lord, for all the new life here on this farm…❤️

FINALLY! Got to meet our last calf of the season this morning… Here is Suezy, and her son, JamesMadison:

Click here to read about her calf last year.

Click here to read about our method for naming bulls this year.

His birth tied up the tally for 2014: 4 bulls and 4 heifers. 🙂

He walked down to the barnyard like a champ. Had to dodge some pretty big puddles and his mama ran him into the electric fence a couple times, but he was able to complete the journey… 🙂

Was so funny watching last year’s calves follow along the fenceline! 🙂

The end is near – almost there… 🙂

Made it! 🙂

A well-deserved rest… 🙂

Since we are done milking for today, JamesMadison will stay with his mama until tomorrow morning. With there being a little over 5 weeks between him and the last calf, it creates some challenges with our type of setup.

For instance, the first seven calves are already trained & adjusted to once-a-day feedings, but this little guy won’t be ready for that for a couple weeks… Makes it tricky for afternoon baseball and far-away double headers…

And we need his mama’s milk to help feed all the other calves, so she needs to be able to come into the barn for morning milking… But our barn setup isn’t the best for having a calf running loose in it, nor do we feel comfortable having a calf joining the dairy mamas in a single-wire electric fence as they are rotationally grazed…

So every year we think about experimenting with a “nurse cow” in the field with all the calves, but that isn’t as easy as it sounds either! Hmmmm – not sure what we’ll decide on, so I guess that’ll have to be a future post! 🙂

Thank You, Lord, for all these beautiful, healthy calves!