Sad News...

Well, I am sorry to report that the baby calf didn't make it. She was doing good yesterday, then developed bad diarrhea yesterday evening. We gave her medicine for it, but she stopped nursing, and died during the night last night. We sort of expected this, they can take a turn for the worst really quick and nothing you can do can save them. Rest in peace little girl.....

Update On the Tiny Calf....

So Far so good..... the calf is doing great this morning, she took nearly a third of the large nurser bottle, and is very alert. I am trying to think of a name for her, any suggestions are welcome...
We are still amazed at how such a tiny calf can be seemingly healthy and fully developed. Terry said in all the years he has raised cattle, he has never seen such a small calf be normal and show no effects of being premature, or seem to be a "dummy" calf. We think she may have been born a little early, but only by a week or two maybe. Anyway, I hope she continues to thrive, she is still not out of the woods yet, though.....

Wow..Maybe the World's smallest calf?

We had a very interesting event today, one of our cows delivered a TINY heifer calf. She seems mature and normal, just very small. She has no characteristics of a premature or dummy calf, she has a normal hair coat, she is alert, nursing, and strong so far. She is the size of a small dog, and weighed in at a whopping 23 pounds!!! A normal sized calf is between 60-70 pounds. She is solid black with not a speck of white on her. Her mother has no milk, so we will be bottle feeding her, so hopefully she will make it. It will be touch and go for a few days, but maybe she will have a strong will to live. I will feed her every 3~4 hours for the first few days....I will update on her tomorrow... it's gonna be a long night....