Cute Overload at the farm

Friday was an exciting day at the farm. Not because I escaped the job of Moving Heavy Crap from one corner of the spidery barn basement to another on account my allergies acting up in there, and not because I got to spend the morning harvesting herbs in the garden where I swam through a sea of mint with a hand sickle and made the air feel like toothpaste that cleaned my lungs, BUT RATHER because we got another baby cow!

Ace, the new Jersey bull calf

He is three days old and arrived lying down in the pickup truck behind the seats. His name is Ace.

can you spy the calf?

Ace could have been a very sad story. He came from another, much larger dairy farm that has no use for bulls because they can't produce milk. At that farm (and most other dairy farms) if the bull calves aren't bought within a few weeks (and they'd be bought mainly for veal), they are killed. Even at three days old it was clear that Ace wasn't very well taken care of at his old farm. He was really skinny and couldn't walk very well because he had no opportunity to. Sally said that the cage he was being kept in was only big enough for him to stand up in.

Lying down behind the seats. Very skinny as you can see!

I think their legs are so cute all folded up

Ace was also eerily subdued, especially when compared to Kip, (the calf that was born two days before I got to the farm) who is quite spirited and strong. Hopefully with a few days of lots of milk and TLC from Sally, Ace will gain some weight and be back on track to be a healthy Jersey cow.

Reina the dog came over to check out this new creature

 Ace had to be lifted out of the truck, and then he kind of wobbled around for a bit on his long thin legs. He sadly seemed very scared.

you can't see in this picture, but he has the longest most beautiful eyelashes. I'm jealous.

 

 We tried to get him to walk to the barn so he could be fed (they seem more likely to take the bottle when they are in a more enclosed space) but he wouldn't go so Sally had to pick him up and take him there.

 

 Now compare this to Kip, the calf that was raised a healthy as can be at our farm. He runs around a lot and he's really fast! We have to switch off handlers because we get tired before he does. The first is Sally's dad, the second two are K.

being pulled along

holding the calf with one hand, and his pants up with the other

Also, new calves suck on everything they can. Like fingers!

Finally, Reina the dog was finally allowed to check out the calf--something she's been wanting to do since it was born but wasn't allowed to. The calf didn't really pay the dog any mind, but Reina was sniffing the calf all over.

And that's it! I think this page will shut down if there are any more pictures of cute calves. Hope you enjoyed them!