Sunday, May 13, 2012

The best darn "Mama" on the farm...

I was going to post a Mother's Day blog paying homage to my older son's handmade card from a year ago, but in light of the new deliveries at the farm, a very special cow gets Mother's Day billing this year!
I've mentioned Fergie before in an earlier blog, she's our younger son's 4-H cow.  She won grand champion at the 4-H fair last year in the 1-year old heifer class, and she is living up to her champion status!  This past Friday, she gave birth to TWINS!!!! I took the above picture Friday afternoon.  When we first walked out to the pasture, she had one calf hidden in a brush pile while she was feeding the other, smaller calf.  The calf was about 25 yards away from her when we snuck up on it. 
 The little sweetheart let out a little bleat and when mama answered her, she went running right over and nestled up to her side!   It was such a special sight to see; we are so fond of Fergie and to see how good of a mama she's being endears us so much more to her!
The calves were resting a few feet away from Fergie on Saturday afternoon when we checked on them.  As we walked up to them, mama looked up from her grass-munching, nuzzled each one of them on the head, and went back to eating.  One calf got up and started nursing, but the other calf was still sound asleep.  Younger son was able to pet the little guy, he woke up and just layed there and seemed to enjoy the love!  After a while, he'd had enough of younger son's attention and went over to mama. 
This morning, the "experts", aka Dad and Grandpa, thought it would be best if the trio came up closer to the buildings, out of the pasture, to make sure Fergie could get something to eat and drink.  We're going to keep a close eye on them this week.  We know that mama is doing her very best, but a bit of a bottle in the morning and at night will be in everyone's best interest-- that way we know that Fergie's not getting too drained and the calves are getting enough nurishment. 

Oh, and by the way:  Happy Mother's Day to all my two- and four-footed friends :) 

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