Maggie has been keeping us guessing for weeks, wondering when her calf was going to come. Happy Valentine's Day!

This calf looks brown in this photo, but she is actually dark red. Standing in Maggie's shadow, the calf looks darker than she really is.

This little girl calf was born out in the pasture in the snow when the temperature was 32 degrees and it was raining.

Maggie tried, but couldn't get the calf dried off and warmed up, so we brought them both inside. The calf only weighs about 60 pounds so we could have carried her inside, but she walked in on her own, following mom all the way,

When calves are born out in the freezing rain they usually get a slow start, and this one is no exception. The calf hasn't started nursing yet, so we fed her warm colostrum with natural antibodies using a feeding tube last night and again this morning. We also gave her a shot of the mineral Selenium and Vitamin E to jump start her immune system.

The calf is strong, so she should start nursing in the next day or two. We will keep her inside until we are sure she will be ok.

Highland cattle normally give birth out in the pasture with no help and the calves start nursing immediately, but if they can't get dried off and warmed up within an hour or so, they won't make it unless they get a little help. This calf should be just fine.

Please send us your suggestions for a name. This year all the names start with "A". Last year they started with "Y". The Highland Cattle Association skipped the letter "Z" because when we tattoo their ears it looks too much like the number "2".

YoYo is a red heifer calf born the middle of last January. A heifer is the word that describes a female cow that has not yet had a calf.

She has been featured here in "Hoof Prints" before (see two items below). YoYo is now 9 nonths and growing up to be a big girl. Here she is at the hay feeder with another of our calves, a dun (brown) heifer calf born last spring.

YoYo was an appropritate name for this little red heifer because she had so much energy she bounced around like a yoyo. All of our cow names start with "Y" this year. The American Highland Cattle Association publishes an slphabet where each letter corresponds to a year. By naming our Highland calves with names that start with the letter for a particular year, we always know how old they are when we call their names.

October is traditionally the month when we wean the spring calves from their mothers. It gets really noisy when we separate the calves from the cows. These girls will soon be in the weaning pen where they will need to stay for three weeks while their mothers dry up. It's important that the mothers stop lactating to conserve energy during the coler months so they are in good physical condition for calving again next spring.

Rascal, the blind calf, isn't a calf any more. He is a big boy now as a 1 1/2 year old. He weighs about 750 pounds now.

Rascal still has a sweet personality and gets around the pasture as well as ever. He finds his way nearly as well as the Highlands that can see.

Rascal seems to have no problem finding the hay feeders over on one side of the barnyard and the water tank over on the other side. He seems to navigate by the touch of his feet on the paths. When it rains and the texture of the soil changes Rascal seems to be more unsure of where he is going.

Rascal still likes to sleep in his pen at night even though he is a big boy now. He comes and stands outside the gate to his pen until we let him in. He sleeps best when he knows he isn't going to be bothered by other cows. In the morning Rascal stands inside the gate waiting to be let out.

He can't see light at all, so Rascal doesn't differentiate between night and day visually. We think he goes by the sounds of the other cattle. He can hear when they quit moving around and lie down for the night. Likewise,  Rascal can tell when it's morning by the sounds of the other cattle milling about.

We are always amazed when we watch Rascal find his way through gates and between trees. He is really good at it. Rascal normally only runs into a tree, a fence or a gate when he is distracted by something he did not expect. Raising Rascal has been quite a rewarding experience. We don't know what his future is, but we hope he will be with us for a long time.

October means the grass in the pastures is done growing for the year, so the cows are back to eating hay for the winter.The big round bales of hay are served in round feeders. We have enough feeders so all the cows can get food whenever they want it.

This year we had a wet spring so we put most of our first cutting hay into plastic bags. We bale the hay wet instead of dry and stuff the bales into long plastic tubes using a special machine that we rent.

The cows love bagged hay. Because it is baled wet, it ferments inside the bag producing "Haylage" which resembles saurkraut. It smells sweet and has a slight alcohol content. Happy cows!

January 23, 2011, the temperature reached 18 degrees below zero at our farm between Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Here is a photo of our bull, Osceola Winchester, doing fine after being out in the cold all night. With the ice cycles hanging from his hair, Winchester tinkles when he walks. Reminds us of a Christmas carol.

The new calf, YoYo survived just fine snuggled up next to her mom. The sheep and goats also seemed to make it through the night without any problem.

How do they do it? We are all wrapped up in blankets inside, sipping hot tea.

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!

It's a bit difficult for the cows to eat when the hay feeder is full of bull. This is our bull "VW". He would much rather be inside the feeder than outside.

Several times we have had to tip the feeder up and over the bull with the tractor loader so he can get out. He is well fed and his fat stomach tends to get stuck between the uprights.

Fortunately for the cows, we have three other feeders and the bull can only jump into one at a time, so the cows do have options if they are hungry.

There's never a dull moment around Highland Cattle!

Our blind calf, Rascal, still amazes us at six months old. His blindness doesn’t hold him back at all.

Rascal lives with the herd, eating grass and walking through the pasture like any other calf. His mother keeps an eye on him, but Rascal freely grazes all over the pasture with the other calves. He uses his senses of hearing and touch to navigate the pasture perfectly.

Rascal’s mother taught him where the gates are located. He ran into the electric fence a couple of times at first. Then his mother would go through the gate and turn around to face Rascal. She would call to him and he followed her voice. After doing this a few times, he quickly learned to find his own way through the gates.

Rascal’s sense of touch is amazing. He can tell exactly where he is in the pasture by feeling the ground under his feet. He knows which trail he is on and he knows where the trees are so he can walk around them without bumping his head.

The only times Rascal gets confused are when we run the tractor close to him so he can’t hear the other cows, or when he is startled. When something unexpected happens and Rascal moves quickly out of the way, he sometimes loses his bearings for a couple of minutes. When he gets confused he runs into trees or fences, but it doesn't happen very often.

It’s been amazing to watch Rascal’s development. Many farms would not keep a blind calf. We wouldn’t miss the opportunity. Watching Rascal grow  is an inspiration.

A day on the farm is never dull. You never know what will happen at any given moment, but you can always count on something out of the ordinary.

The other day we looked out the kitchen window to see two cows standing in the driveway. We keep a good eye on the fences around the barn, so it was a surprise to see the cows out. Sometimes calves go through the fence, but not full grown cows.

We went out to the cows and called them to follow us into the pasture. Four more cows came around the corner from behind the barn for a total of six. This was really a surprise.

Surprise turned to shock when we realized these were the cows that had spent the summer on the other side of the farm. The entire herd over there had traveled a full mile through the woods and across the creek to the house.

When we called to the cows in the driveway, they eagerly followed us through the gate into the pasture with the rest of the cows. Our two herds were now one.

Inspecting the fences on the other side of the farm, we found a huge tree lying on the fence making an opening the cows could walk through. We are just glad they decided to walk that mile to the house instead of going the other way into town!

Scottish Highland Cattle are known for their long hair and their long horns. Both males and females have horns.

It’s rare that cattle break their horns, but when a horn is broken it needs to be repaired immediately. If blood vessels inside the horn are ruptured, the broken horn can cause tremendous pain to the animal as well as exposing the animal to serious health issues or even death. With immediate attention, horns sometimes grow back together if the break isn’t too serious.

Whopper is a dun (brown) yearling Scottish Highland bull who broke his horn this week. I went out to the pasture to find his horn bent and bleeding. There was danger that he could bleed to death or get an infection in the break, or that flies attracted by the blood could lay eggs which could enter his blood stream and mature into maggots eating his body from inside out. He needed immediate medical attention.

Doctor Brown, our farm veterinarian said most horn breaks are not serious, but just to be sure, he came out to the farm to check on Whopper. This particular break turned out to be very serious. Doc had to amputate the end of the horn. Blood spurted from the crushed blood vessels. Doc applied antibiotic paste liberally to the wound, then packed it with gauze, wrapped it with ace bandage, and then wrapped the entire horn in duct tape. As you might imagine, this was a tricky task on an 800 pound bull suffering from intense pain and without the benefit of an operating table or even anesthetic.

Whopper was already feeling better the next morning. He was up and eating normally, looking for treats. He looked like he was back to his normal good nature. The bandage should come off in about two weeks. The end of Whopper’s horn will scar over and he should have no ill effects from losing the end of his horn, although he may appear lopsided for awhile.

The core of a cow’s horn is made of bone. The bone grows from the skull through to the tip of the horn. The bone has blood vessels running throughout as well as nerves. The bone is a living part of the cow as with any other bone. With proper nutrition and good health, the horn will continue to grow throughout the life of the cow, although growth slows as the cow ages.

The outer shell of a horn is made of keratin. Keratin is a tough, non-mineralized, structural protein commonly found in fingernails, claws, hair, feathers and hooves.

A thin layer of tissue connects the outer keratin shell of the horn to the bone. This tissue is a living organism of the cow. Upon death of the cow, this tissue dies which will cause the outer shell to slip off the underlying bone.

Horns differ greatly from antlers found on deer, elk, and other species. The anatomy of antlers is simpler--antlers are made only of bone. Antlers die upon maturity each season and are shed annually. Therefore, they are not a permanent part of the animal's anatomy as cow horns are. Unlike antlers, cow horns do not branch out, having just one point at each end.