Channeling His Inner Milkman

Even though we don't live on a dairy farm, my Farmer has had to channel his inner milkman a couple of times during this calving season. 

Sometimes a heifer needs a little help getting this motherhood thing figured out and a baby needs a nudge after entering the real world from the warm confines of its mama. Such was the case with a heifer and her calf. The baby was having trouble getting up, even after the mama had cleaned it off. So we put the heifer in the head gate and Randy milked it.

Just like with human babies, it's important for the bovine baby to get the colostrum - the first, nutrition-rich milk - from its mother. Once Randy had the milk, we poured it into a calf feeder.

A little teamwork from Randy and Robby got the warm milk into the calf's tummy via a tube.

That's the boost it needed. Mother and baby are doing well.

(Note: This happened earlier this month, but I hadn't gotten it posted yet. All but four of the heifers have calved now, and we are more than halfway through calving out the cows.)