Had To Wait For Company

The impending motherhood for our cow #9, Zion, seemed in the process for the last several weeks. But #9 kept showing up for every meal time and when we moved the main herd to different fields. She simply refused to go into labor, until visitors came to the farm.

The morning feeding at the farm went as usual when we fed hay and moved the herd into the six acre field for grazing. #9 was right in the middle of the pack, eating her fair share and acting contented. By mid-day the herd had dispersed and we noticed a few of the more dominant mothers sneak off for furtive trips around the fruit circuit for dropped plums, apples, blackberries and crab apples before rejoining the herd.

We had guests show up for a short visit on their way back to town after a beach day and they volunteered to help with the evening feeding. We had assumed the whole herd had come back out of the six acres, but when we counted, we were missing both the herd sire and #9. The bunch of us meandered down to the back of the six acres to see if the pair were down in the brush under the big trees but we could not find any more critters. We went back to the main herd to re-count and there was the herd sire right in with the rest of them, he must have taken a trip around the fruit circuit before catching up for dinner. But we were still missing #9.

We drove the Gator load of people over the bridge and one of our guests saw #9 standing in the brush just upstream from the bridge. We drove around to get a better look but the cow was tucked into the thickest brush so we decided to give her a little privacy.

Our guests headed home and we went back out to check on #9 but she had vanished from her hiding spot. Flashlights were needed as the evening got darker and darker. By 9pm we found her hiding/hanging out on the other side of the river from when we first spotted her. I walked behind her and Mike opened gates up at the barn. Once she got close, she walked right in. She was in labor but it was only the first stages. We decided to go to the house to get a bite of dinner for ourselves and went back out to check on her progress around 930pm. Her brand new baby was already standing. We gave them another hour to get things figured out and when we went back to check on the two, the baby had already nursed on two teats and was resting comfortably.

Welcome to the farm, Francie calf (named after our visiting guests) weighing in at 65 lbs born 9/20/2020, her sire is Prowler.