This was a typical Sunday morning in the middle of January. We started early with our grandsons’ hockey game at Wings Stadium in Kalamazoo, followed by church, then a visit from Joe and Natalie Muma from Beaverton, Michigan, who came to see our herd of Scottish Highland cattle.
As Joe and Natalie were looking at the cows lying around the hay feeder calmly chewing their cuds, Natalie noticed a tiny red calf lying between Maggie and Winnie. Maggie had her calf two months earlier than expected. Last year she had the first calf of the season in the middle of March.
The calf was tiny and the temperature was very cold, so we carried her to the run-in shed where she could snuggle in dry, warm hay and wouldn’t get stepped on. As we carried the calf, her mother walked with us, nose to nose with the calf. Maggie trusts us, but she is also a very protective mother.
The little red heifer calf (a heifer is a girl calf) was obviously not strong enough to get up and nurse, so we started her on a feeding tube filled with colustrum from the veterinary supply house. We keep several packages of dried colustrum in our first aid box, ready to mix with warm water and put in a feeding tube. We never know when a calf might need it, like this one.
After three days on the feeding tube, the little heifer graduated to a bottle. The first time on the bottle she drank one pint. The next time she drank two pints. The third time she drank three pints. Then she backed off to two pints. Her little tummy can only hold about two pints.
On the fifth day after she was born, when we went out to give the calf her bottle, we found her nursing like a champ. She had graduated from feeding tube to bottle to nursing in just five days. That is great progress for a calf born so early.
Once the heifer calf started nursing she had so much energy she was bouncing around the pen like she had springs in her feet. There is nothing cuter than a newborn calf when they discover how to use their legs. We named her YoYo as we observed her bouncing up and down around her mother.
Fortunately, calving problems are rare with Highland Cattle. 99% of the calves are born out in the pasture without incident. YoYo took a bit of extra work for a few days, but she is definitely worth the extra trouble. What a sweetie!
