She's doing great. The report I heard earlier today is that she's eating grass and drinking her water when she gets thirsty. Of course, she takes a half gallon bottle of milk twice a day. Our oldest daughter is taking care of her and is proposing getting started halter training. They grow so fast (both cow and child!)

Indeed they do.

We had a little red and white heifer the other day. She was slow to learn the bottle, but eventually got it figured out. DGD says she isn't so bad.

That's great Dave, glad to hear that shes doing so well. And yes, they sure do grow up fast.

Kathleen, congrats on your new little heifer, hope she does well too.

4H calf! I always tell my 4H "kids" to start halter training early. It makes it easier when the animal is bigger than the kid. Have fun with that calf ~Jan

We disbudded the new calf (whose has been named Frenchy) today. I don't love that job (lots of smoke and an uncomfortable little calf) but I'm relieved it is done!

Aw poor calf.

Dave, if you bred from polled Jerseys you wouldn't need to disbud. I hear they are increasingly available.

Good tip, Porkpal. I will say, though, that disbudding only takes about 15 minutes to do and while it is painful for the calf, the pain lasts only a very short time and then all is well.

If the calf was bawling I'd be bawling as well.

The calf didn't say anything at all, actually. I had all my children there and nobody was traumatized. It's nowhere near as bad as you might imagine it is.

I'm glad to hear that Dave, you said it was painful for the calf, so I think the worst.

It was painful but not agonizing. And the actual job lasted literally about 10 seconds.

That's good to know.

It's better to cause the calf a little pain than to get some one gored later on. Bovine with horns are very dangerous animals.

Yes I figured that was the reason for disbudding.

I remember when I was a kid that a guy used to have a business driving around to all the farmers with his stock. He'd put the calves in the stock and would saw off the horns with a hack saw, taking a bit of the skull with it. There'd be a whole in the larger ones big enough that you could see the brain. He'd just pour on some topical antibiotic like iodine, and cover it with a piece of cheese cloth. They always lived, but I wonder why. lol. I know that you have to hold the disbuding iron on for ten seconds in order to make the horn die. I still remember the smell when I used to do my goats. Don't miss that job at all.

It's not a matter of "10 seconds".........you have to hold it on, rotate it back and forth, and when you take it off, you have to have a visible "copper ring" around the horn base. It is that copper ring that tells you that you have left the iron on long enough. Then flick the horn covering off.........I just used the little base thingie on the bottom of the iron that was used to keep it up off of the floor or wherever you set it. The last few years I had the vet do it, as we started giving each calf lidocane around each horn. More humane for all involved and it was much less of a struggle to get the job done.

Well, I'm learning a lot.

My neighbor used to use some caustic past on the horn button of young calves. It seemd to work ok. Not sure it that stuff is even around any more. Must have been some kind of acid that just at away the horn button.