Hand fed

We penned up one of our cows on Sunday. She is our best looking cow, all burly and black with a nice set of horns. She is on her third calf with us. The first one died a few weeks after birth, not sure why. It was as if it was stunted and just woudl not eat. We speculated that she had been accidentally bred by a sibling before we got her. Her second calf came out fine but then also did not grow. We still have the calf and think it could pass for a miniture. She has since had her third calf. A nice black heifer calf. We had been worried about it's growth and thought that maybe it was not getting enough milk. So we penned the two of them up in order to supplement bottle feed the calf. This was no easy task for she is one fierce momma. Last year when I attempted to inspect her calf she came after me. It was not a very funny sight. I used the calf as a shield between she and I but as soon as that calf wiggled free she came right after me. I did my best judo defense as she backed me into a corner with horns a shaking and snot a flying out of her nose. All I could do was throw my feet up between she and I. The only thing behind me was the water tank which she quickly pushed me into and through and over. When it was all said and done I ended up about six feet further back then when it started!

Well, we tried to feed the calf, with her trying to maime me the whole time. Luckiily for me we had an extra corral panel to protect me from her. For three days we tried force feeding the calf, the calf was having none of it. So much for it not getting enough milk. After a few chewed on fingers and most of the milk down my pant leg I am about ready to give up on the idea. Let's hope this one grows up otherwise we will have our start on a herd of mini's!