05/15/2026
Phase 2: Calving ♥️
Calving is ordinary and usual, wild and magical, it will make you run in circles and wake up in the middle of night and coax and fuss and pray and, ironically, it's the one piece of cattling that keeps you sane.
Everything makes sense, any longing you once had flees at the sight of a freshie, dry and clean and full bellied, on the ground with an attentive mother tracking your every move.
In this phase of beef, our goals remain the same: low-stress and encouragement of Nature's way. We step back, intervene and interrupt as little as possible, and create conditions that are as favorable as possible for a healthy cow and calf.
As we get closer to calving, March and April, we keep their yards extra dry and clean so there are clean and warm spaces for cows to calve. A wet, cold, or dirty calf or cow spirals quickly. We make sure the indoor calving pen in our barn is ready. We put cows and calves in here who need less distraction to bond and latch, as well as fresh ones if the night will be too cold or wet. We ensure our hay, dried forage, and mineral is spot on to fill in needs and increased energy demands.
Then when we're real close we begin looking at our cows and heifers for signs of soon calving:
* sitting away from the herd
* raised tail
* big and wide open gate in her walk
* soft or loose or swollen v***a
* full, firm udder
When we see a calf we watch closely to see that mom is close, licking and cleaning it off until it's entirely dry and fluffy. We watch that she's nudging it to stand and drink. Colostrum from Mom in the first 2 hours is imperative to long term health and growth for the calf. Calves can walk and even hop around in the first hour of birth!
The insanity!
The beauty!
We calved our largest crop this year and we had an overwhelming number of bull calves. These will be our beefs in two years. The few heifers, as long as they're calm and have good body scores, will be kept to be bred.
Life, interconnected goes on.🌀
