Things That Make You Go Moo

in #ocd4 years ago

Bottle Baby Bonanza!


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As if I didn't have enough occupying my time....

A few weeks ago my manager asked me if I would like a couple bottle calves. Being somewhat of a masochist when it comes to all things homesteading, I of course agreed enthusiastically, and the rest is sleep deprivation history!

Okay, that was the condensed version.

For the last couple of years I have been pondering the picking up of a milk cow initiative. The thing is, milk cows are a ton of work and I spent 15 years tending to dairy and meat goats. I think the goat experience was still a factor in my reluctance to procure a dairy animal over the last couple years. That and I like to travel a bit on occasion. It's hard to travel when you have an animal lactating. Well, it's not hard, it's just expensive, paid animal care is a touch costly.

However, I have been getting progressively more annoyed at myself for buying things when I should be making them, especially as I have the knowledge and physical ability to do so. Kinda like I need to be putting my labor where my principles are or something. That and I have an amazing neighbor who wants to split the labor and the milk with me. You see, that is another reason I haven't kept a milk cow, I don't need THAT much milk.

My neighbor has four boys, she definitely could use some dairy in her life, and the way I milk is only once a day anyway, as I keep the calf on mama, take it off at night, and milk in the morning. It was almost as if the offering of the bottle calves was foretold or something.

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Anyway, as my kids are in the middle and high school part of their lives, so I probably won't be doing too much globe trotting over the next five years or so, and thus I jumped right on the potential milk cow scenario.

That said, it has been a couple years since I had a bottle baby moo, and I had to replenish my bottle baby arsenal. Last week I picked up milk replacer, new bottle nipples, electrolytes, and the most important item of all, pectin. Why pectin you might ask? Well, there's this ugly thing that you usually have to deal with any time you have a bottle calf: scours. Pectin dissolved in warm water administered at the first sign of loose stools does wonders!

Mini moo wellness arsenal ready, I found myself actually a bit excited. It had been years since I had tortured myself with caring for a day old creature. The last time I had one I spent two days in the stall with it cradled in my lap, syringing small bits of milk and gel into the poor little thing to bring it up to speed. That was my Flynn, he was glorious.

Now I have these two under my care: Meet Rick and Morticia


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Morticia, the little heifer, bounced out of the trailer like a space-walking Russian cosmonaut. I knew she would be fine, and she has been a real corker since she hit the barn at a trot.

Rick however, Rick is a bit of a problem child, but that's because he's a Holstein bull calf. Nuf said.

Morticia needed no instruction on how to nurse from the bottle. Rick, well, let's just say I had to straddle him and hold his head up against my chest. His bottle feeding instruction was a little bit more hands on.

And then this morning, well, Rick was super listless when I went out to feed him, and he had a bowel movement that looks like what is squirted out of a unshaken mustard bottle. The thing about bottle calves is they can go south quick, and die even quicker, so I went right into nursemaid Kat mode and got out my syringe.

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I'm happy to say that after operation Solid Poo 4 Moo was enacted that I now have a bouncy, happily eating, much more solid pooping Rick. If I can just get them through the next two weeks without too much drama things will be looking up. Only time will tell.

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Now you'll have to excuse me, I need a nap before the next bottle feeding.


And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's calf snot encrusted and barn rot dusted iPhone.


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Manually curated by goldendawne from the Qurator Team. Keep up the good work!

Thank you!!!!

I'll have to go meet them on game night!

They are pretty cute, you could even help me feed them dinner lol!

You are a glutton for punishment for sure. At least you will have meat and milk with them.

Lol, takes one to know one;)

Tonight when we fed them their bedtime bottle Mortica ran between my legs and almost rammed me off the wall, this is gonna be fun!

Lol!

Why I like sheep. I can man handle them a bit easier. That big mass of meat with a cow is just a whole lot of squish waiting to happen.

I’ll live dangerously for the butter, lol!

That said, I had a katahdin ewe for many years and loved her, they are a touch less pain inducing when they step on you.

Butter is the only dairy that we regularly use in the house. We have gone primarily non-dairy. I would raise a cow for the meat, but there's the thought of the monster squishing me or destroying my fencing that has kept us buying sides or wholes. I like being able to take my ram down, shows him whose boss and keeps him in check a bit better. 🤣

You know what’s hilarious is I’ve always hated milk, and butter and cheese are the only dairy I enjoy, but I have a couple of teenagers who go through, and I kid you not, at least 5 pound of mozzarella a week. That might be because their heathen friends and the neighbor boys are always here eating.

I plan on having Mortica halter broke and completely buffalo’d before she hits 300lbs, but I’m not above a good old fashioned bull dogging, nose turning flip. I understand staying in the realm of ram handling lol.

When feeding even a few teens it takes truck loads, I've seen with the 4 nieces... Ooopfh they demolish food stores, and that's girls, I can only imagine a group of boys. I honestly have no clue how the people have the herds of children, the 6 plus, and feed them regularly, 2 is hard enough. Every meal must just be a buffet line, and cooked to that scale.

The largest thing I have ever had was miniature donkeys as a kid, at least weight wise. The one was part mule part miniature. That taught me at a young age to stay with what I can physically handle. I now have the image of you sweeping the leg of the cow in my head 😂 and then the Karate Kid scene played after it.

Yup, exact reason we don't have a dairy cow....

LOL!!! You mean you aren’t a glutton for punishment?

Nope, he says he is NOT! LOL