Schmidlin Angus Farms

Cowpies to Treetops

Cattle

Sapphire and Violet

Susan Schmidlin , ,

Black Angus Cow eating grass inside wooden fence.Mike noticed it first when we were getting ready to do the morning chores, Sapphire was acting unusual. She was hanging away from the main herd, had her tail raised a bit, and kept sniffing the ground. All tell-tail signs that she was in labor.

The day had turned blustery during feeding so we moved Sapphire away from the main group and put her into the barnyard. She acted ravenous, and could not stop eating grass even though it was obvious that she was in the first stages of labor. (It was breakfast time, and she was hungry).

We opened up the barn for her to go inside out of the rain if she wanted and fluffed up several armloads of hay into the manger inside. About an hour later she moved under cover and ate her fill of the sweet hay while continuing with contractions.

By mid-day she had delivered Violet, a 78 lb. heifer.

Black Angus newborn with mother laying inside barn.Violet has long legs and it took several attempts before she could figure out how to get those appendages under her in order to be able to stand up.

Once she figured out the legs, she stood up and started walking until she was steady enough to nurse.

Newborn Angus calf taking first steps with mother cow inside barn.Mother and baby are doing well and we moved them out of the barn into the nursery field with the rest of the mothers and babies.