Baby calves will be here soon!

I am getting excited for calving season! January and February are notoriously nasty weather months in Kansas, so we chose to start calving in late February this year. For the past 20 years, we've been beginning calving in early January, but when snow falls then, it stays until spring! Or if it does melt, it freezes into mud and ruts that are hard to negotiate when helping a cow with her calf. Cows are tough--as long as they have plenty of feed to keep up their energy, and they stay dry, they can handle bitter cold weather.

But a calf arrives sopping wet! If the cow can lick him clean immediately and he has enough strength to get up and nurse, he will be fine in nearly any weather. But the cold can make him less energetic and the cow might not lick him completely dry, so if calves arrive in the deep cold, we try to be there to help make sure they will be okay.

This year, the Kansas winter has been very mild, though! This would have been a perfect year to calve in January and early February! I guess I just can't outsmart Mother Nature. So we are approximately 3 weeks away from having our first calf. This weekend we will gather up all the cows and sort them into groups based on their projected calving date. They receive a vaccination that will protect the calf by passing on immunity through the colostrum (or first milk) and then they will be kept closer to the barns so we will be ready when the calves begin to arrive.

In the meantime, if you are interested in seeing pictures of baby calves, check out some of my previous blog posts:

• A Calf is Born -- pictures of the process of birth!
• Wordless Wednesday--Baby Calves are Here -- pictures of babies
• The First Calves Arrive -- the first calves of 2011
• First Baby of 2010 -- the first calf arrives in 2010 and the whole cow herd celebrates!