Sunning Winter Cow Family

also, proof that sometimes Daisy is dirty

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Training has commenced!

We started out in a round corral; this was our first haltered walk in the great wide open. She did great! She’s so cute. Can you believe those neck rolls??

Calling for Fiona

Fiona

I can’t believe I haven’t posted a Fiona status report since her birth! This calf is painfully darling. And it looks like she’s going to grow up to be a dairy cow!

I was curious how the genetic mix of dairy (Daisy) and Angus (Sir Baby) would manifest. Dairy cows are taller and bonier than Angus ~ their energy goes to producing enormous quantities of milk (Daisy is considered a “low-producer” at six gallons a day at her peak) while Angus cows are shorter and stockier ~ they produce enough milk to raise a healthy calf but their udders are much smaller and the bulk of their energy goes toward muscle (meat).

Fiona has Sir Baby’s eyes, as mlaiuppa so astutely noticed right off the bat, but everything else about her is Daisy. She is so tall, compared with Angus calves her age, and has the delicate dairy cow face. Her little teats are not so little when compared with an Angus calf, and she has loose, flappy skin where her udder will be, which leads me to believe she will have an udder like Daisy! Hooray!

Behaviorally, Fiona has followed the pattern I noticed with Baby and Frisco when they were young calves. They let me pet and fondle them for about a week after birth, then went through a stage where they were skittish around people and only wanted to interact with other cows. And then, after about a month of that, it was like a switch was flipped and they became pets.

Fiona followed this pattern to the day. She was a cuddly newborn, then seemed to trust only the other bovines (which did not concern me as I’d noticed the same with Baby and Frisco) and then one day about two weeks ago, she trotted up to me and was like, “LET’S BE FRIENDS!!!!”

Now, every morning after I milk Daisy and open the gate to let everyone out to graze, Fiona trots over to me and nuzzles my face and licks my arms and shoulders and neck and as I rub her down.

Her tongue is still small enough that her licks are a gentle exfoliation – a grown cow’s tongue is so rough it will practically take off a layer of skin. I only let Daisy “groom” me when I’m in jeans and a long shirt, otherwise it hurts too much.
But Fiona’s kisses I will take for as long as I can.