IT IS NOT OUR YEAR

We had some babies in the corral Dusty was feeding and he needed to move them. He told Ridge to push the baby for him down to a dry spot. It was so cute watching him try to move this baby. He couldn't get it to go so he finally said "if they are big enough to walk, they are big enough to follow their moms!" And he was done trying to push them. I think Dusty wanted to add, and they should be big enough to know how to eat from their moms too! This has been just one of our many problems (calves needing fed because they don't feed off their mother) this year! Normally, One of my favorite times of year is when our cows start calving. I love seeing the new babies running around. It is probably because I know spring is coming shortly. This year is different though. We bought some heifers out of Montana that were suppose to "all calve within 10 days of each other and their due date was Feb 15."  Well on Jan 15 in the freezing cold weather, the first one calved. It was a decent size calf so it was crazy it calved so early. Within the next couple days more calved and then a few died. A vet killed one of the heifers, a few of our older cows slipped their calves. Dusty was getting pretty discouraged. It has now been over 45 days since the heifers started calving and about 40 out of 55 have calved. (so much for 10 days apart) So now our older cows have began calving. The nights are to cold for the babies so Stewart or Dusty is up all night checking and bringing babies in to dry them off. The bad part is they are just starting and so far we have lost 15 calves and somehow 4 moms have died. These are terrible numbers. We have never lost any moms to calving and we have had years when because of twins, ever mother has a baby she is feeding. It gets so discouraging, you don't even want to go out there because you know your probably going to find something else dead! This picture of Ridge and the calf is of another calf that died. It had been alive for about 4 days and just literally laid down and died. Our calving record this year is terrible and I think Dusty is ready to pull his hair out! It is 1:15 am and Dusty has been out since 10:00 pm bringing and drying calves off. I am headed outside with towels because another one is about to calve. The weather really needs to warm up and help these babies out! I better get out there with my towels!!!