Calving got off to a great start, with the first cow giving birth to twins (see post here). Now up to 10 calves, and they are a real mix of colours. I knew that some of the cows had been with a Brahman bull, and that is obvious in many of them (the whiter calves, with big ears). Some have clearly been with another bull though, perhaps a Senepol but I don’t know for sure.

Here’s a nice video taken yesterday of all the cows and calves ( minus 1) as they excitedly go into a new paddock. The last, the little red calf being checked on by it’s mum, is the newest – born sometime during the week. Very pleased to see the cows in such good condition (solid and fat) with calves at foot.

The twins are quite inquisitive – here they are having a closer look at me!

And our third calf looks pretty similar to the twins!

Lots of variation after those three though. Grey. Brown. Red. Bright white, with some brown on the head. Hidden by it’s mum in the grass.

We’ve had a couple of hiccups, including a major one. One cow (one of the two black ones) had a very difficult labour and didn’t survive. The calf is not 100% – it has a condition that is called ‘windswept’ with the very rear of it twisted/leaning to one side (like it has been swept by the wind I guess). Not caused by the birth itself, but something going wrong in the latter stages of pregnancy (and likely affecting the birthing process also).

Here’s a nice photo of the calf a few days old, followed by a less nice one where the photo/angle shows the problem.

The good new is that despite not being in great shape initially, the calf did survive (and did get an initial drink from its mum), and now (1.5 weeks later) appears in fairly good shape (still ‘windswept’, but not as obvious). Our neighbour Glenn very kindly took it for a week as he had another cow and calf with troubles – cow with teats too big for the calf to suck and therefore the small calf was also in trouble. So with some intervention and the help of both calves, that cow (which never ‘accepted’ our calf) and his calf are back together in his paddock and we’ve brought home our windswept poddy after it had an unwilling foster mum for a week!

He’s cute, very quiet and not afraid of humans – was like that from the start. John (another neighbour) was surprised at how quiet (tame) he was – must be in the genetics he reckons. Looking good now – almost 2 weeks old.

So yep, we are hand rearing a calf in the suburbs of Brisbane. Will be interesting to see how that goes….!

The farm is looking good. Here’s an area where I sowed a summer mix, obviously including sunflowers, but also grasses, beans, silk sorghum and a whole heap of other stuff (and some weeds still poking up from these ploughed areas too…).