First Calf of the season born last night

Blackberry Bramble and her first calf, a heifer.

I'd been nervously waiting for my little cross bred heifer, Blackberry Bramble, to have her first calf.  I was careful to breed her to CEH In Focus (Bobby) because he should be a calving ease bull (read, small calves that fit the cow well).

Bramble built a nice udder and has shown other signs of calving soon. By my calculations she was due this Tuesday. Still, I've been checking on her every day, sometimes twice a day, for the last week.  This morning, about 8:15  as I drove down the road on my way to church,  I could see her grazing in the pasture. 

As I drove home from church about 10:00 am I could see she had a calf with her. I said a little thank you prayer and hurried home to change my clothes and go for a first visit to mother and calf. Heifers always need to be watched carefully with their first calving. Sometimes they have trouble; sometimes they don't have a clue what to do with the calf.  I had been worried about this little heifer's first calving. I'd lost one of her older sisters to a bad calving. All of  the members of this cow family are keen escape artists and its very hard to keep them confined in a barn for calving or anything else. I wanted to keep her on clean pasture but at the same time didn't want to deal with a difficult birth far from the barn and easy access for the vet.

In this picture Bramble and the calf are on the right. Back in the trees is the proud papa, Bobby, keeping watch. The rest of the herd is keeping a respectful distance. 

I doubt very much that Bobby has any knowledge about the calf being his, but several black buzzards were flying around the field next to this little bit of woods and I think Bobby was being a good bull and looking out for one of his cows. Black buzzards are not just carrion eaters like our normal and very ugly turkey buzzards.  Black buzzards will kill small animals for a meal, including new calves.

Bramble did a good job taking care of her calf. She is clean and dry and has been nursing. I estimate she was born some time last night.  She will have a good twenty four hours before we get rainy weather.  Tomorrow I will find a name for her.

Time to go give mama some high protein feed to help with the milk supply.