Post by DostThouHaveMilk on Jun 30, 2005 20:54:22 GMT -5
Gadget calved last evening (we are fairly certain anyways). Dad saw her straining and going off by herself yesterday afternoon and came and got me. I put her in a goat paddock area I was allowing to grow up. She had beautiful lush grass, shelter, and water. She was in active labor. Straining having contractions the whole bit. I left her because we needed to catch Guri to breed her and I was going to check her after milking. Went back down with my bottle of hot water and a towel to feed the calf I expected to find...only the pen was empty and one of the cattle panels was knocked down. Gadget, a 25 month old, first time heifer was somewhere on around 100 acres, most of which is around 5 feet tall at this point.
Dad did not see her at all last evening, nor this morning. She showed up in the heifer/ dry cow herd sometime this afternoon...with no calf.
We brought her in and milked her this evening. We have a gallon of colostrum going into the freezer in case she hasn't actually calved yet. She is a fairly large gutted creature and I couldn't bump a calf, but would not expect a very large calf out of her.
I am assuming her calf will be listed as lost and the only chance we have of locating it is waiting for the buzzards to show us where. There is a slim possibility Frida may have stolen it, but that isn't likely. Gadget did not go to it after I let her go and stalked her. We will keep our fingers crossed and hope it shows up in the herd in a few days, but I am not too optimistic at this point.
The calf was most likely out of Jason, and not a Jersey as she was AIed to Morgan and would have been due th 18th of July not three weeks earlier...
*Sigh*
Dad did not see her at all last evening, nor this morning. She showed up in the heifer/ dry cow herd sometime this afternoon...with no calf.
We brought her in and milked her this evening. We have a gallon of colostrum going into the freezer in case she hasn't actually calved yet. She is a fairly large gutted creature and I couldn't bump a calf, but would not expect a very large calf out of her.
I am assuming her calf will be listed as lost and the only chance we have of locating it is waiting for the buzzards to show us where. There is a slim possibility Frida may have stolen it, but that isn't likely. Gadget did not go to it after I let her go and stalked her. We will keep our fingers crossed and hope it shows up in the herd in a few days, but I am not too optimistic at this point.
The calf was most likely out of Jason, and not a Jersey as she was AIed to Morgan and would have been due th 18th of July not three weeks earlier...
*Sigh*