Spring

Calving season

My body feels so out of place. Winter never came, after several hard winters and difficult calving seasons. Since adding sheep to the homestead, the baby season starts with lambs. My 3 dairy ewes each had triplets this year, 7 ewe lambs and 2 ram lambs. I love to allow my ewes to raise their own lambs for several reasons. Babies raised by moms are always better, they grow better and are taught by moms where and how to graze. I don’t have time to milk sheep during calving season, and will only milk if a lamb is rejected and needs a bottle. That doesn’t happen often. I will wait until the weather is fairly warm before I shear my sheep, and this year was the earliest I have shorn my sheep. I could see warm days for this week in the forecast last week, above 70 every day, and decided to shear and trim feet last weekend. I do my own, and this year the wool was easy to shear. My cows have nearly shed out their winter coat already, so maybe that is a good indication they are ready as well. I will test that theory in coming years.

Calving season is one of the hardest times on my body physically. First calf heifers, those who have not already calved, need close watching and sometimes need help. I am the calving expert, meaning I check cows and help when needed, and have backup help when I need it. In cold, windy, snowy or rainy conditions, calves need to be monitored to make sure they get up and nurse, otherwise they will need a bottle of colostrum or help nursing mom. Midnight checks are needed in cold weather for the same reason. Usually I am exhausted by the equinox. This year the weather has been lovely. We don’t have any first calf heifers to calve, except for teenage pregnancies at the feedlot, and so things have been drastically easier than in the past 5 years or so. The cows are not in mud, but still being fed in the hayfield where the calves are thriving. We have an extra set of commercial cows to calve this year, doubling our regular registered herd. What a blessing to have such lovely weather for calving.

The flip side to a warm and sunny spring is a lack of moisture in the usual season. Perhaps we will be blessed with a mild rainy summer, but that seems like wishful thinking. I play at gardening, but am really a terrible gardener. My goal is to garden without irrigation. I work toward storing moisture in soil by adding organic matter and mulch, trying to build my cultivated areas up. Some years are good, and most years are not so good. Without mud all winter, I have been able to haul my dairy cow manure up to new garden spots all winter. Usually it is a race to get manure hauled before it disappears to get spread of hayfields.

Spring break is coming to a close with a wonderful week of very spring like weather. I was blessed with a visit from my sister and niece. We played with lambs and visited the local hot springs together mixed with regular calf feeding and milking chores sprinkled in. Sister time grows shorter each year, and I treasure the time we do spend together. There is an international sister trip in the works with summer, something new and exciting.

An added bonus of a sister visit is no time to check on the news. I feel as though the resistance I can offer is by living each day in the here and now. Checking cows and calves while admiring the stunning sunrise resists allowing bad news to control my feelings and actions. Hauling another load of manure to the garden while enjoying the bird song brings me joy body and soul. Watching the “bad babies” lambs terrorize my garden spot makes me laugh out loud, such good medicine.

After the prize sheep Theo pre-lambing drama in the last post, I spent a few weeks of intensive care with Rosie the milk cow. Rosie is special. She seems to be completely blind. Last year she had her first calf, and I was busy milking multiple cows, so she was trained to milk but ended up raising her calf. Trudee is always my milk cow of choice. Last year the young bulls were not tall enough to breed her, so she will be having a summer calf and is currently not milking. I had been waiting for Rosie to calve to dry off Trudee. Rosie calved the day I sheared sheep. She has a lovely bull calf named Ida, born on March 15th. I proactively gave her calcium to prevent milk fever. A few days after calving, she became very depressed and wouldn’t eat. I gave her sweet tea and dandelion wine with a drenching gun, and offered her anything I could think of to tempt her appetite.

As this was happening, I had a newborn calf show up needing care, Patty, born on March 17th. He started nursing Rosie with Ida. He is a little guy and needed some help, but Rosie is always willing to take care of a baby. Then, Sassy calved. Sassy is a half beef half brown swiss nurse cow who flunked the milk cow program. My sister bred her to Trudee’s sire, and Sassy blessed us with Sweet Pea, the most beautiful baby in the baby pen. Sassy had more milk than 2 babies could handle, so Rosie’s calf Ida helped nurse Sassy until my sister brought her calf Bobby to take more milk. Rosie recovered and gave 4 gallons of milk a day even while not feeling well.

This was my first time milking Rosie entirely, and also making butter and cheese. I suspect she is A2/A2, and I know Trudee A1. We can tell the difference in the milk. When making cheese, it is like sheep milk that leaves a greasy feeling when stirring the curds. Very interesting. Rosie is happily calf sharing now with no loss in cream line, and she is such a darling cow. I love her so much and was extremely happy when she started to feel better. I am blessed to know that time and care are the best medicine after many animal emergencies dealt with myself and with veterinarians as well.

My spring bulbs are blooming, and the outside calls. Sorry I only write sporadically, but being outside is my happy place and the self care I practice when the news churns out horrific stories. Peace be with you all, and enjoy some time in the sunshine.