04/16/2026
Looking for one of those curated farm pages where everything is beautiful and perfect and nothing goes wrong? Youāre on the wrong page my friend. š¤£
Our new little heifer calf has quite the first week of life! For the sake of this story Iām gonna call her Moonpie at the suggestion of one of my coworkers. š
New calves sleep a lot so itās not uncommon to not see them with the herd much the first day or two, especially if you have tall grass for them to lay in. But after the third day of not seeing Moonpie, we searched the fields and found her WAY too far from the herd. I prayed with every step of the search that we would find her alive and that it wouldnāt be too late to save her if there was a problem, and I shouted thanks to the Lord with a huge grin on my face when I saw that little head and those ears nestled into the grass.
Her head was up and her ears werenāt droopy but when she stood it was immediately obvious we had a problem - she had a severe limp in her right rear leg and didnāt get far before needing to lay down. While she was weak, she was obviously getting SOME milk, otherwise she would have been dead by day #3.
The question was, was she getting it from her mama but had they abandoned her because she couldnāt walk? Or was it that she couldnāt walk because she hadnāt gotten enough milk to give her the strength needed for those muscles to get straightened out from birth?
We got all the cows rounded up into the holding area to observe Moonpie with her mama, and unfortunately her mama appeared to beā¦rejecting her is not the right word; her mama was just completely ignoring her. She would cry out and the other mama cows would come up to her and nose her, but only one - our white-faced Angus, would really ātalkā to her like a mama cow talks to its baby.
Fortunately, that sweet cow IS letting the baby nurse, but she is not exactly treating Moonpie like her own. She doesnāt stand still for long and she has a 5 month old calf of her own that was close to weaning. I feel sure she did not have another newborn in her life plans at the moment but she is very tolerant. š¤£
Per our vet, since Moonpie does have a surrogate mom, weāre just to continue watching her very closely in case we need to pull her from the herd and bottle feed exclusively. So far Moonpie is getting enough milk to keep her active and as of Wednesday afternoon she is following the herd. šš¼ We tried supplementing with a bottle Tuesday but she was having none of it, so weāre praying that she continues to get plenty of milk from her surrogate so that she can grow stronger. Iām happy to report that since sheās gotten some one-on-one time with her new mama, sheās built up her strength enough that sheās no longer limping and is even running so weāre definitely praising God for that.
This was Moonpieās biological momās first calf and sheās young. While Moonpie isnāt totally out of the woods yet, weāre not going to judge #48 based solely on this event. However, if the next calving goes the same wayā¦bad mama cows make for delicious steaks! š„© š
Ok, maybe Iām still a little mad at her. š¤£
Hereās Moonpie and her new mama, who has certainly earned all the extra feed & treats sheās been getting the last few days. š„° Also a pic of #48 for shaming purposes. š
