Switched At Birth

Yesterday was a busy day in the heifer lot.  Those little gals were gettin' busy havin' babies.  An interesting thing happened.  There were two heifers, about 40 yards apart in the exact same stages of labor.  Started  at the same time and everything.  One heifer (number 39) was in the corner, the other (number 40) was up on a little knoll.  Thirty nine laid down and pushed her calf out a little quicker than 40 did, but outside of that, it was like watching everything in tandem.

Now when 39 finished pushing out her little bull calf, two other heifers (already mamas themselves) came over to show her how to take care of Junior.  The bad thing about this was when Junior finally got up, he didn't really know which cow was his mama.  He kind of latched on to one and he wasn't right.  This cow was gently but firmly nudging him away from her udder and he would walk all the way around this cow and wind up back where he started.  All the while, 39 is mooing and following him around, but unsure how to get Junior to follow  and nurse her. 

I watched this go on for a while (until 40 had pushed out her calf and he was standing) when I decided I had better help things along.  In general, it is not a good idea to walk right into three mama cows huddled over a newborn.  Someone (usually me) is bound to either get run over or hurt.  I got on the 4 wheeler and proceeded to very gently push the other cows away from 39 so she and her calf could get things straightened out.  The cows moved away just fine, but for some reason 39 followed and so did Junior.  And they all went right into where 40 was just getting things situated with her little bull calf up on the knoll.

The other cows kept going and then it was a jumble between 39 and 40 and their two little newborn bull calves.  They were both mooing and licking their calf and then turning around and mooing and licking the other one's calf, too.  It looked for a minute or two like they were both going to claim the same calf and I was going to have to intervene again.  But then each one kind of latched on to a calf.  But neither had the one they had given birth to.   And gradually, they started  moving apart with the "new" calf.  Now for me, it does not matter one bit WHO takes care of a calf, just as long as he has a mama and she feeds him and looks him up to care for him.  So as long as each cow is content, so am I.

It's just one of those kind of interesting things you don't see everyday.