New Additions - Part 3

It's been a little while since I posted anything about our beloved new calves and upon reflection on my blog NEW ADDITIONS - PART 2, it sure has been an experience.

There is a lot to learn with calving as there more risk than I thought there would be.  Learnings:

1. All our heifers are fertile (which is good for production). 
2. All our heifers produced good size calves (which is good ... but very bad if you're not prepared).
3. Have a holding area close to the house with all the equipment when the heifer is ready to calf.  Simply pulling the calf to assist won't cut it and it keeps mother and calf safe once its all over.  We lost 2 calves (which is bad .. and sad). Rua was born late at night and fell through the fence into the nearby drain and drowned. Waru was stillborn as she got stuck during birth.
4. 4 out of 6 surviving calves are female (which is good for further production ... and great because males will grow larger).  Now we just need to decide what to do with the 2 males.  Turn them into steers OR keep them as bulls.
5. A heifer that has lost their calf goes through some trauma and still has good milk so there are still some risks.  Decide whether to place another calf with her.  We gained a calf from a local farmer to replace Waru.  We called her Iwa and after covering her with the scent of Waru, mother embraced her as her own - although it was a tough couple of days to begin with.

I managed to capture some early photo's of some of the newborns. All calves were born over a period of 7 weeks.

5 of our 7 calves we have gained.

It has been a few months now adn the calves are growing fast and eating grass and hay.  Now the challenge is to manage the feed for them all over the summer & autumn periods.


All 7 calves, with their mama's

Although this was a whole different experience to calving that I blogged about in  NEW ADDTIONS. The risks were far higher, but in comparison, I still believe that this is the best option. 

I still don't claim to know everything about beef but one thing is for sure - it's great living, loving and learning on the Ponderosa!!

Happy learning people!!