I hope it works out with new mama and her adopted baby.

Anxious to hear the updates. Sorry the little calf didn't make it.

So am I heather. It never ceases to amaze me how mother nature seems to balance things out. Two weeks ago we had a set of twins, and the next day a heifer who had a still birth. Split the twins up, both have great mommas. And now Ferdinand, who lost his mother, will have a new one. It always seems to work out in the end for everyone.

I hope everyone winds up healthy. Mother Nature can be a real B... at times and then other times seems to fill those voids. Keep us posted.

Good news for Ferdinand!

Well good for Ferdinand. Hope the transition goes smoothly.

prairie_rose, "It always seems to work out in the end for everyone." I teared up when I read that. Blessings on you and the babies and mommas.

Sue

Kobi and I just said our goodbyes. DBIL just took him to meet his new momma. He will tie the skin from the lost calf to Ferdie, so the cow thinks it's her baby, run her in the squeeze, and teach my "boy" how to latch on to his new mom. I won't go, he needs to do this on his own, not be confused with me there. I'll see him after he is attached to his new mom.

Wonderful news for Ferdinand, but sorry about losing one. Nature is a miracle for sure.

"Run her in the squeeze." Would love to know what this means! (City girl here. . .)

Aww you made me tear up when you said that you and Kobi said your goodbyes. It had to have been hard for you. I know you're a rancher and this is just another day on the farm, but gosh a person still gets attached to the little fellas.

My fingers are crossed that Ferdi and his mom instantly bond.

I think that the 'squeeze' is like a tight pen or chute that keeps the cow gently contained. They are used for vet visits and shots.

Be sure to let us know how your baby does. Really, it's best he has a 4-legged mama and it sounds like you've got plenty to do already without his care too ;)

Pkponder has it right, Cassandra. A squeeze is a "cage" just wide enough for an animal to stand comfortably in, but not able to turn around. The one side will drop away so that we can manipulate a calf in the right direction. We use it as well for other things we may need to do with an animal, like treating it for sickness, semen testing the bulls, preg testing the cows. Keeps the animal and cowboy or vet safe.

Jasdip, DH and DBIL saw me give him a hug, said goodbye, but that is all I am publicly admitting too! When he is good and mothered up, maybe in a day or two, I will take a jaunt out in "Reggie", and see how he is doing. And I won't be admitting that is what I am doing to the guys either.

Isn't it wonderful that you can 'reassign' a calf to another mother who needs one?? That's just terrific and so much better for Ferdinand. I know you'll miss him though!

I hope everything goes as planned! :)

Oh that makes sense about "run her in the squeeze." My thoughts were a bit too visual :)

Hope Ferdi and the cow bond. Reminds me of a lady I was talking to at the mule and donkey show. She was talking about an orphan she bottle raised, but when it came time to wean him, she put him in with some other donkey foals who were being weaned. Then she didn't go to the barn....her husband took over. She said since the others had to learn to get on without their mothers, the orphan had to learn too. It wouldn't have been fair to him to keep seeing her all the time, since he believed she was his mom.

I just talked to DBIL, (they went to a bull sale this afternoon, so it's the first update I have), and it was instant love for the cow, and Ferdinand knew exactly WHERE all the pertinent parts are. He latched on, no problem, and they are away. Didn't even need the squeeze. My "boy" is off and running!!! And in a day or so, I'll go out and see how he's doing, try and get a picture of them for you.

So glad the mama cow and Ferdinand have hit it off so well. I don't think there is anything any sadder than a mama that has lost her baby.

What a wonderful thread!. I enjoyed it so much!. Thanks for sharing and yay for Ferdinand and mom. (what's HER name?)

Yes, a great thread. The beauties of nature are amazing.

redcurls, she doesn't have a name, only a number. Way to many head to have names for them all. Only the very special ones, like Ferdinand, get a name.

Surely she deserves a name now.

Prairie, when my FIL was living and raised Herefords (not as many as you, maybe 10 at a time) - he solved the name issue by naming ALL the cows Rosie, when there were bulls, they were named Joe. He spoke to them in Croatian but gave them American names. Two names total.

Once they have a name they are not farm animals anymore, they are farm pets.

Oh yeah, I guess that's true about not having names in a herd!. LOL. Never thought of that! Another probably stupid question....can you tell them apart as adults?. Will you recognize him when he is an adult? Will Ferdinand remain a bull or will he be "fixed"?. (My aunt lived on a very small farm in Indiana with maybe a dozen cows, and I remember having fun as a youngster chasing after a male one summer so he could be castrated.).. Thanks for all the info.. I've enjoyed learning something quite new to me.

redcurls, to answer your question, Yes you can recognise some because they will have a distinct feature, might be a bobbed tail, or the amount of white on her face, if she has any. IMHO it is way easier to tell the difference in the bulls than the cows. But mostly, we identify them by the number on their ear tags. DH is in charge of the genetics for our herd, and he can tell you the pedigree of most of the cows we have by their number.

As for Ferdi, I will know him until after branding. After that, he and his new mom will be shipped to the community pasture for the summer and I won't see him again until the gather and weaning in October. He is not a purebred, so he will lose the family jewels, and we will ship him in the fall when we sell our calves. If he was a heifer, DH might have kept him in with the replacement heifers, and breed him next year. But that will not be his fate.

And before everyone gets upset at the word "Branding", we do not put a hot iron to our calves! We don't rope them and "hardass" them. We use a branding table, eartag them with all their info and birth registration tags, ( which traces them from then on), fix the bull calves and give them all their shots. The only time we hot iron an animal is any yearling heifers we are keeping. The less stress we put on the calves, the better their weight gain. It takes all of 30 seconds to do all of that for 95% of them. There are the few that need to be treated for navel infection or scours that take a few seconds more. Come the gather in the fall, everything is done off horseback, no quads for us. Again, less stress, better weights, healthier calves for market.

How wonderful that you got him a new momma and that they took to each other so nicely! This sure was fun reading!

OK, you're probably getting tired of all my questions, but I wondered when you said your husband could tell you their "family tree" by their number....does he just have a great memory or is there a "system" to the numbering rather than just in chronologica order?. Thanks for your wonderful replies..