A New Calf!

Welcome back!

We are so excited to show you our new calf!

This is Stumpy!

He was born Friday, March 22 2016

How old is he today?
Did he come sooner than we expected?
How many days early did he come?

This is how a calf drinks milk from his mother.
Echo is a wonderful mother!

Quin came to see Stumpy on the day he was born.
Quin is 3 years old.

My friend's cow had a calf the next day.
She watched it be born.
This is what a calf looks like right after she's born.

When they are born their hooves are covered with a soft covering called eponychium.

It covers with the hoofs to protect the mother while the calf is being born.
It dries quickly so their hooves get hard and they can stand on them.

This is what the calf looks like all dried off, but only a few hours old.

One of the first things we do after a calf is dried off is to measure them and weigh them. Nurses do the measured you when you were born, too!

We measure a calf's cannon bone.
That's the bone that goes from their ankle to their knee.
When Stumpy was born his was 6.5" long.
On Thursday (in the picture) his cannon bone was 7.5" long.
He grew 1" in a week!

We also weighed him the day he was born. He was 60.3 pounds. Most first graders weighs about 50 pounds. Stumpy weighed more than most of you the day he was born!

We also measure the height of his pin bone. He was 27.5" tall at his pin bone. Most 6 year olds are 42" tall, so you are taller than Stumpy.

A cow's pin bone is the top part of the hip on her back leg.

Echo measures 48" at her pin bone.
Would your head be taller than Echo's pin bone measurement?

I'll have more measurements and counting for you next week!

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Here are the egg counts for this week:

• On Friday I collected 5 brown eggs, 2 green eggs, and 1 duck egg.
• On Saturday I collected 6 brown eggs, 2 green eggs, and 0 duck eggs.
• On Sunday I collected 14 brown eggs, 8 green eggs, and 1 duck egg.
• On Monday I collected 7 brown eggs, 7 green eggs, and 1 duck egg.
• On Tuesday I collected 17 brown eggs, 11 green eggs, 0 duck eggs, and 1 little egg.
• On Wednesday I collected 8 brown eggs, 3 green eggs, 0 duck eggs, and 1 little egg.
• On Thursday I collected 10 brown eggs, 5 green eggs, 0 duck eggs, and 2 little eggs.

We have two small, gray chickens. They lay small eggs. They started laying this week! 

Do you remember this friendly chicken who comes to say hi to me each morning?
She lays little eggs!

Next week I'll post more pictures about how we measure cows and goats. I'll also post more pictures of Stumpy and Echo. We're getting milk from Echo so in the next few weeks I'll show you how we milk her.

I hope you have a wonderful week!