Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Sad day

Allie lost her calf.

I found a little black heifer calf dead in the corral today. She must have had it either late last night, or very early this morning.

I'm not sure if the little one froze, or had some other trouble. It looked like Allie only cleaned off one side of the calf, and there were no signs the calf had ever nursed. She may have been born dead, or simply very weak.

I wish I'd been more vigilant! We just weren't really expecting her to calve so soon, and she hadn't been showing any new signs of being close to calving.

At least Allie seems to be okay. She kept going over and licking the dead calf, but once I removed it she settled right down and started eating. She's wandering the corral a bit and checking all the corners, but she hasn't been calling. I think she's less bothered than I am.

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