Finally - It's a bull!

Well, with Ruby over her due date by (to me a record) 5 days, we were all getting just a little frayed around the edges.  It is all well and good to say that the gestation tables are averages, and that as long as she is not in distress things are fine, but I wore a path to the barn, and Harold who is the one to dispense such wisdom got up at 4 AM to check on Ruby for the last week now.

Yesterday Ruby finally decided that it was time to end the madness, and got down to business.  Because she is a sweetheart, she waited for me to come back from walking the dogs, gave me time to put them in, and then her water broke.  About 10 minutes later (I didn't have time to look at the magazine I brought along instead of the camera or the phone or something useful, blame sleep deprivation) we had hooves sticking out, and as far as I could tell they were angled in such a way that it looked good for them being the front ones.  Now about all that could go wrong was for the head to be folded back, but after another push or two, I saw a snout and a tongue, so I relaxed.  Harold came home just between these events, and changed, brought dog towels with him (why didn't I think of that?!), and together we watched the rest of the show.

Ruby makes it look easy, and it didn't take long before the head was out, and a push later the front end.  I waited for the hips to clear, Harold said, "You might as well go in and help," when Ruby got up, and the calf slipped out.  The drop doesn't really do them any harm, I think it is her way of swatting the rump, she did that last year as well.  We moved in with the towels and helped Ruby clean off the calf, a big bull - of course.  I would have loved to have a heifer, but when they get cooked that long, they tend to be bulls.

I was going to lift him by the hind legs to drain the snot, but that sucker was heavier than I thought (at least 55 lbs) and longer too, and he was breathing pretty well, so we just kept wiping him off.  The stupid cat Token picked this time to run through the scenery, and Ruby charged him, but she did not mind her people at all.  Harold finally dunked the cat in the trough to get him to leave us alone, since we didn't need an aggravated cow.  So I guess we had a baptism too.

I cleaned Ruby's teats up, and milked out some colostrum, and before Buster even got to his feet he had a pint of that, which kick-started him nicely.  The big ones can be a bit slow and klutzy, but eventually he figured the whole thing out.  Harold called Natasha (my dairy consultant) to tell her all was well, but the phone messed up, so a half hour later Natasha rushed in, thinking there was trouble.  She gave us the thumbs up, not even mad that she had wasted a trip.  She still gets excited about the calves as well.

We let mom and baby rest and a bit later I milked Ruby again, getting some more colostrum.  By bedtime Buster had had about 2 liters of the stuff, and was good for the night.  Ruby had gotten the afterbirth out, so we could clean up and get rid of that, which should keep the wild things away from the calf.  I don't let the calf nurse if I can avoid it, they get the bottle from the start, that way I can keep the cow clean and there is no shock to the calf, they think the bottle is how it works.  We do let Ruby in the pen with Buster to lick him and see that he is okay.

This morning Buster was bawling and he got another bottle, then he curled up to sleep, and Ruby finally got to go out on pasture again, although she comes charging back to the barn when she thinks Junior is in trouble.  Ruby is still a bit obsessed with him, but soon she'll settle into the routine of milking.  

The dogs?  Oh they are very curious.  This morning they tried hard to get downstairs and SOMEBODY stole some of the colostrum out of the strip cup.