Old Cow had Twins!

[rtimgray]

Just had to pass on some good news-

I had put one of my old cows up at the barn a couple of weeks ago because I knew that she was close to calving and that way I could keep an eye on here in case she had trouble.
The cow (named "Ditto") is about 15 years old and was the first calf that was born at our farm (and the daughter of my first cow "Baby It").

Anyway, about 10:00 on Saturday morning I drove by and saw that she had a bag of water hanging out and went to check and saw that she already had given birth to a calf. I thought that was odd, so I checked her and sure enough there was another calf this in there. Unfortunately, it was breach.

I called our local vet (and it can't get much more local - he lives a 1/2 mile up the road and just built a new clinic). He was able to come over in a few minutes and pulled the second calf, which turned out to be fine. I've only every successfully pulled on breach calf before, so I thought it was best to get pro help, especially since he was very accessible and the cow is so old (and a pet, if I hadn't mentioned that).

Anyway, Mama and both babies are fine. We got two bull calves - one solid black and one black with white face and belly. Names are Beavis and Butthead.

I'll be bottle feeding them - but I usually have to bottle feed Ditto's babies for a few weeks because her bag gets so large (like a holstein's bag) and the calves have trouble getting onto it for a while. Ditto is a small angus mix - she's only about 4' tall and about 800 lbs.

I don't know how many more calves I'll get from Ditto, but she did good this weekend.

 

[MossRoad]

Congratulations! :thumbsup:

 

[Bird]

I don't know how many more calves I'll get from Ditto, but she did good this weekend.

Yep, I'd say she did.

 

[TBDonnelly]

Hey, A 'twoforone' special.:thumbsup: A double Ditto. That's a lot of bull.

Congrats and good luck with the newborns!

Don

 

[schmism]

Names are Beavis and Butthead.

classic!

 

[Mousefield]

Glad mom and the little ones are doing fine. Nice story on a Monday morning. :thumbsup:

 

[jayste]

Hey, A 'twoforone' special.:thumbsup: A double Ditto. That's a lot of bull.

Congrats and good luck with the newborns!

Don

Hahaha! DITTO!

 

[rtimgray]

Thanks for the kind words. A lot of times we post when we have problems, so I thought it would be good to post with just some good news.

Both babies are adapting to their bottles well - I was able to feed them both at the same time this morning. And I'm a morning person, but I've gotta be at work at 6:00 AM, so I've now gotta get up a 1/2 hour earlier to feed the boys. I'm really glad I ran electricity to the barn so that I've at least got lights!

Take care.

 

[RoyJackson]

Good for you, the old girl and her two offspring!!!
Now we need pics of the happy mom and her two kids!

So, a cow as a pet? How does she act as a pet? Does she come to you when you call her or anything like that?

 

[Bird]

So, a cow as a pet? How does she act as a pet? Does she come to you when you call her or anything like that?

Roy, those cows have different personalities just as humans do. I was 5 years old when my Dad bought a Jersey milk cow named Popeye. A very gentle cow . . except . . she wanted to fight my mother and mother was scared of her. Dad talked to the previous owner and the only thing they could figure out was that the cow had never seen a woman in a dress, and in those days, my mother did not own or wear slacks. Dad was gone overnight on his job one night a week, so that night, and the next morning, I'd take Popeye into the barn, put out her feed, then stand there and pet her where she couldn't turn her head and see, then mother would come in, sit down, milk her, and get up and leave. I could put a rope on her horns and lead her anywhere. Then when I was in the first grade of school, Popeye got out of the pasture and was grazing along the highway one day. Mother and her best friend (also in a dress) went to try to drive her up to the house, but Popeye chased them through the fence. When I got home from school, I went and put a rope on her horns and led her home.

So Dad got her bred to a Jersey bull, got lucky and got a heifer that we named Sweetpea, and when she was old enough to have a calf and we started milking her, Dad sold Popeye and mother couldn't have been happier. Of course Sweetpea was a family pet from the time she was born, and yes she'd not only come when called, but would come to be petted and follow us around if we went into the pasture.