Having Twin Bull Calves

 

This morning I came up to the farm and dad already had the 784 started and warming up. The snow was coming down and the wind blowed like crazy all day long. I went into the barn and fed the cows what was on the ground and then I got on the tractor and brought it home. It still had the sap wagon on it, so I began to fill it with warm water. Melanie stitched up my coat and then we got ready when I got enough water. I put 200 gallons into it and after that finished we brought it up to the farm. We got it unloaded into the two inside tanks, and I walked behind the cows which were all eating hay, and I saw that cow 002, Margie, had signs she was close to calving. Mel helped me get the one small pen ready by throwing down some square bales of straw. We got the pen bedded and then I tossed a square bale of hay into the trough to eat. I set up a small water tank in the trough as well and got it propped up. We then had to separate the cow from the others which ended up not be very hard. She must have known the drill because she went right outside. Another cow did follow along, so I had to shoo her away from the small pen. After we got her in there, we got the rest of the water that was in the hoses and tote drained and put it in her tank. I put away the tractor and sap wagon after everything was taken care of, and Mel came home with the side by side to get Paige. I fed the group of cows a few square bales of hay and then put a plywood board on the outside of the west door to stop blowing snow through and around the door. When they got back, I aired the tire up on the side by side and then we drove down the road and delivered a quart of syrup to someone. We came back home and then took a little break inside. Oesch's were having an open house back at their sugar shack for their last boil of the season, so my sisters and I headed over there. They had some delicious Swiss pancakes to eat, so we had some. I talked with Jeff, Tom, Fred, and Donna for a while and then we left after a while. The snow was still blowing, and it was white-out conditions. We came right up to the farm to check on Margie, and we saw she had calved. To our surprise she had twins, and they were both bull calves. I helped get one of the calves unstuck from the gate where it had put its head under it. It was not harmed from that. After watching them for a while, we came home and told mom and dad about the news. I went back up with dad later and after watching the calves for a little bit, we noticed one of the calves was not getting up and milking. It is normal with twins to have one "dumb" calf that is a little behind on things. I kept the cow fed with corn while dad carefully got the calf up and got it milking. We iodined the navels of the calves, and measured the calves which converts to their birth weight. They were both around 70 lbs. We came back home later and mom and dad left, so I brought my other sister, Paige, up there to help me with some stuff. We began to clean the rest of the other small pen up and we threw out any trash. While Paige swept up dirt and stuff, I went upstairs and broke open the last round bale of first cutting hay. I also threw down 3 bales of straw to bed the small pen with. I got the tractor warming up again and then we broke open the bales of straw and then made a path with boards and plywood from the one small pen they were in, to the other bigger small pen. I drove the tractor up to the house and we got 100 gallons of hot water into the tote. I put 25 pieces of wood on the fire and then we came back up and got a water tank into the small pen. The gate to get in no longer locks shut, so I am going to use the water tank to block off the access. Once we had everything ready to go, I carried the calves over one at a time to the new pen. Margie heard them start mooing, so she tried to find them. I had to get one of the calves to show her it, and then she followed me. Paige followed behind her with a skid so she would not back up or turn around. Once they were in, we got the gate shut and the filled the water tank up with warm water. I fed the cows hay for the night and then we made sure everything was good before I put the tractor away and came home. We had dinner after 10:00 and then got my things done.