It's a GIRL!

There's a little something I didn't mention in the saying farewell to the goats post.  And that was the reason the kids suddenly decided it was okay to let them go...

On Easter Sunday, we had a little heifer calf born to a wild mama.  And by "wild", I mean this mama (so I've been told) was bonkers.  And by bonkers, I mean she as a history of charging and jumping gates.  Our herd is rather tame, and the last thing we want is for a bi-polar cow stirring up trouble or, worse yet, hurting one of us, so we usually get rid of the nutso ones.  Better being one cow short than laid up in the hospital.  With that being our strategy, Wacko the Cow has to go.  SO.....

Caleb finally had what he'd been waiting all calving season for: his bottle calf for the Open Show at the fair this year!  We'll sell Wacko the Cow and keep the calf for Caleb.

Once he had his bottle calf, he was okay (mostly) with selling his goat.  And as soon as Big Brother was okay (mostly) with it, so was Little Sister Sarah (mostly).  

Now about the "It's a GIRL!" title: Josh and his sister started showing cattle at the county fair almost thirty years ago.  And for those few years they showed, they always got their fair animals one of two ways.  The first way is that a cow has a calf that she can't take care of for some reason.  Usually this is because she had trouble delivering and became feverish or injured, because she doesn't have the milk supply, the calf became sick or she died.  The other reason is if the calf is orphaned, usually because it's a twin or the cow just plain doesn't care. (Just like with people, there are good mamas and then there are not so good mamas.)  So they took the babies that needed adopted and they became their fair animals.

Back to the almost thirty years since beginning to show (and all the years after that no one was showing, for that matter),  Josh's family never had a heifer orphan.  Never.  Isn't that crazy?!  All their orphans for thirty years have been little bulls.  And still even this cow of Caleb's little heifer is a good mama....she's just loony and not safe.  So if it wasn't for her mental status, the legacy of male only orphans would be continued.

But Caleb is tickled pink that the legacy was broken and he has a heifer.  Because he figured it out as soon as Josh told him it was a heifer: Now he could start his herd!  The little heifer will eventually have a baby and another and another and some of those babies are bound to be heifers, so they will have babies and then their babies will have babies....

The kid is eight and he's got his herd strategy figured out already.  

So now starts the work of bottling and caring for the calf, breaking it to lead, and most importantly.... finding a name that fits her!  

Now we just have to arrange for Sarah a bottle calf.  We hate to hope for an orphan because babies really do belong with their mothers.  But hopefully within the next couple of weeks, we'll have a little one for Sarah to show, too.  And then they'll be another post sharing Sarah's exciting news!