Monday, May 12, 2014

First calf! And your chance to see more

The first calf of the year was born today!

She's early ... she was in a pasture by my parents' house so my mom saw her first and called Kris. He picked her up, cleaned her belly button, fed her colostrum, and bedded her down with tons of straw in the calf barn. He found her mother so we can start milking her tomorrow morning.

He came home to tell us and of course we all wanted to go to the barn to see her.

She was like most newborn calves - sleepy, all cuddled up, and cute.


She's the first one in the barn, and it seems huge ... just waiting for more calves!  Soon all 152 calf pens will be filled.  


As Kris' shirt says - Clinton County has a great event called 'Family Fun at the Farm.'  It's FREE and super entertaining.  On June 14, two farms (Cook Dairy Farm and Sonrise Farms) will host visitors.  You can see cows being milked, learn about grazing, feed a calf, and take part in many other activities!  

There aren't any tickets or anything - just show up.  You can find out more about it here.  Kris is volunteering at it, as are many other farmers, so you can get any of your questions answered.  

You're welcome here, you're welcome there - and if you're not close, just look at that calf picture.  151 more cuties to come!  

2 comments:

Darleen said...

Do you all seasonally calve?

Carla said...

Hello Darleen,

We seasonally calve, but no, not all farms do this. We do it because we have our cows out on pasture all summer/fall and use bulls to impregnate them. We'll actually have way more than 152 calves - we only keep the females and sell the males.