We couldn’t believe it!  Another baby calf was born on June 30th to one of our first-time moms.  A nice surprise, it was another bull calf.  We were very excited, until we noticed that the new mom was not keen on letting the calf nurse.  She would step aside or shove him away every time he tried.  We thought maybe it was because we were standing there, so we left and came back later.  Mom and baby were together, but we didn’t know if he had nursed yet.  We waited until the following day and decided to put them both in a corral so they could bond.  It seemed to work, but we still hadn’t seen him eat.  So, the next morning we bottle fed him some colostrum, which he took just fine.  Then he went to mom, and she let him nurse!  Success!!  We let them out of the corral the next day, but noticed that mom wasn’t hanging with the calf.  Again, back to the corral and the calf was considerably weaker than the day before.  OK, that was it!  We got out the bottle and colostrum again and he drank it all, went to Mom, and again, she let him nurse.  So, we are leaving them together for the next few days, but will bottle feed him as long as he’s hungry.  Hopefully mom gets the idea soon.  We really don’t want to bottle feed a calf every day!! But, the little guy is so cute!  We are calling him “JJ” because he has upside down “J” white markings that circle above each eye!  His Mom’s name is Harriet Potter because of the crooked mark on her forehead.  So, we are taking this day by day and hope we can convince mama to do her job.

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