Stormy And Triple Trouble

My Complainer Cow, is so dubbed by me because of her language skills. Her real name is Stormy, but when I am feeding in the show barn, and especially if I am chopping up fruit or vegetables to add to their meal of hay, I call her Complainer Cow. She keeps a constant patter of insistent moos just in case I accidently forget her treats or if she believes that one of the other animals in the barn had received a larger portion than her.

We knew Stormy/Complainer Cow was nearing her due date when we cleaned the barns last week and felt good about getting fresh bedding in the loafing area for her delivery needs if she so wished. I had fed both sides of the barn for the evening meal and Complainer Cow did not come up from the woods to eat. This was highly unlike her and I knew that something was going on. While the rest of the barn critters dined, I walked down into the woods to see what she was up to.

Really nothing spectacular was going on. She was not birthing at the moment, but was sniffing the ground while walking in circles. Occasionally she would pause her pacing and I could tell that there were labor pains but they were not super strong as of yet. I walked her up to the barn where she decided that since everyone else was eating, she may as well join them and the next hour was spent chewing up as much hay with chopped apples as she could manage.

I locked her away from her pen mates Quiet with her calf Uproar, Complainer Cow had half of one side of the barn plus the acre of pasture behind the house all to herself so she could deliver her little one in peace. The event still looked several hours away. After a very good meal, she meandered through the pasture finding fresh grass to munch on between contractions. I checked on her a couple of times after the human dinner time but she looked not farther along than she did at 4pm.

I did a final check at 9pm where I could see that she had just a beginning of the calf’s feet beginning to emerge while she was in a laying position in the field. As soon as she stood up when I walked into the pasture, the feet sucked right back in. Complainer Cow is an old hand at this calving thing so I felt comfortable letting matters go so she could take care of business and I went to bed.

At 10:30 I could hear her in the pasture outside the bedroom window moaning in her typical Complainer voice. The bulls in the bull pen took notice of the complaining and were standing as close as they could to their fence line to call out to the female that was making such a racket about 100 yards and three electric fences away. Getting dressed and going out to the pasture it was easy to see that Stormy had a brand new calf, was in the process of licking it clean and it was trying to stand up. Not a whole lot for the farmers to do but go back to bed and assess things in the morning.

At 11:30 Complainer Cow was making a terrible racket making loud exasperated bellows. The bulls who had walked away from the fence after the birth excitement were back and bellowing right back at her. It brought us humans up out of bed to investigate. Half dressed with boots and layers of coats, I grabbed the flashlight and headed outside. Standing in the middle of the driveway was the calf, it was very confused about all the noise and my light. Complainer Cow was right at the electric fence and bellowing like crazy. I walked the calf by gently nudging it with my legs as I steered it with one hand while holding the light with the other. We got to the gate, opened the latch and nudged the baby back into the pasture with his mother. Somehow he must of rolled under the electric fence and ended up on the wrong side.

Nothing for me to do now but go back to bed. The cold night air and the excitement had me all pepped up and I knew that I had to wait for the adrenaline to work its way out of my system before I could rest even though bulls, cows and calves were all quiet. Finally by 3am I felt drowsy enough to try sleep and hunkered down beneath a comfy blanket.

At 3:30 the commotion began again. Complainer Cow was bellowing, the bulls were calling back, even the animals way out in the barn were making noise. This time, Mike scrambled outside to find out what was going on. He heard that all I had to do was move the calf back into the pasture so he only wore slippers rather than boots. Sure enough when he went out and I rolled over to sleep, he saw the calf had done the same as before and rolled under a high spot of the fence and was sleeping on the wrong side according to his mother.

Mike was able to get the calf to wake up and scooted the loose-limbed newborn back under the fence so the Complainer Cow could take care of it properly. Mike made it back into the house but left the slippers in the garage because of well, you know, farm stuff. He was able to get back to bed and nearly asleep when the bellowing cacophony started up again.

This time when I went out, the calf was sleeping peacefully on the lawn. It was all tucked into a ball and not moving even when the Complainer Cow was leaning over the fence and roaring, and the bulls were making as much noise as her. I woke the calf again, it seemed to be tiring of all the commotion, and got it back to the pasture side of the fence. This time I walked the pair out to the barn where the new calf plopped down onto the fresh chips for a good snooze.

After finally getting some rest, I came upon the name for the little one as Triple Trouble or just 3T for short.

Welcome to the farm bull calf 3T, born 10/29/2021 and weighing in at 78 lbs. We have yet to hear a peep out of the newest member of our farm even though there was a lot of noise signaling his arrival and  nocturnal antics.