Checking Out the New Calves

 The heifers have been calving for over a month, and I've been wanting to take a closer look. Finally we had an opportunity on President's Day. Cousin Clay took the kids and me out to look at them.

I think one of the reasons I like looking at the new calves is that they seem to have a lot of fun, running around and playing.

And they look a little funny, but in a cute way.

The calves spend a lot of time nursing, which means mom needs good food.

Our next task was to take some hay to the pasture that's in between the Circle Field, where the heifers give birth, and the Lane Pasture, which is where they go when they're about a week old. In between they spend a night, and they need some extra food. Clay backed up the truck to a pile of hay and lifted the heavy bales on board.

The human kids are always playing games, too, in this case hide-n-seek.

Almost done!

The kids had discovered some old hay and couldn't resist playing on it.

Then it was time to load up.

I drove in circles in the pasture while the kids helped Clay push off the hay.

The fun wasn't over yet. One heifer had gotten sick and wasn't producing enough milk, so her calf needed extra milk. Clay mixed up some milk supplement and the kids happily fed the little one.

They needed a little guidance on how to hold the bottle correctly so the nipple would stay on.

What fun!

And the calf was certainly happy.

What a wonderful couple of hours. Thanks, Clay!