The Birth of Haas!!

...this post may contain details too graphic for the weak stomach....contains information regarding calves being born....


All I have to say is, "If I were completely up to date with the technology era I would have a blackberry and instant access to the internet via phone. Then you all would have had some fabulous pictures from the very wee hours of Monday morning." When I say wee, I mean very wee. This all started Sunday night about 11:30 pm and ended the next morning at 2:00 am.

Right now is calving season for our fall calving cattle; meaning they are bred so they will have babies in the fall...right now. My dad watches those fat ladies like a hawk. Usually if he's checking cattle and I'm around he'll stop and get me because I love seeing those baby calves. Plus, I love watching them be born. So every chance I get to see that happen is great!!!

Well, we've been keeping our eye on them pretty close lately; just in case they need a little extra help bringing that baby into the world. And we had some excitement during the wee hours of this such occasion. Sunday night (like I said, around 11:30 pm) dad stopped by on the 4-wheeler to pick me up and away we went. When we got to the pasture and saw the gray cow we've been watching for several days we could see she was sick and trying to calve. So, we sat there...and sat there...and sat there...finally the water bag was out and a foot...so we sat there....and sat there.....and sat there...she'd get up and down, up and down, but we continued to sit there. Nothing happened. After about an hour dad got to thinking she was having trouble and needed some help. So away we went getting gates closed and others opened so we could drive her to the barn. When I say 'drive' I don't mean drive in a trailer...I mean herd her to the barn as in walking. She was a little testy about getting in the other field that leads to the barn. But, wouldn't you be if you had a 100-pound calf that wanted out, but couldn't get there?! After a few attempts we got her in the other field and off to the barn we went. She was no trouble at all and went right in the corral; the corral by the way is about 1/2 mile from the gate where we brought her out of the original field she was in.

Ok, she's in the corral. She wants help!!! She didn't fuss at all. Went right in the corral pen and waited on us patiently to get that baby out! Dad went to get mom for assistance. You see in the dark you've got to have that extra person to hold the light; that would be mom in this instance. Dad got to do the dirty work, but I'm the tail holder! Wew wee. I also am the one to pull back the skin of the cow off the calf's nose and try and spread it out a bit more to get the calf while dad is pulling it. He has a small chain that is looped around each front foot and then he pulls.

As he was pulling we could see why she needed help...he was a haas. After a few minutes of pulling the haas just hung there while being suspended in air; part of him being held by dad and the chains the other still in his mama....that is the point where hip-lock can be a problem. But, luckily he didn't hip lock and he hit the ground with a thud! As soon as he hit the ground he was named, "Haas!" What a thooster he is. Big gray bull calf! Mama and baby are doing quite lovely.

I said as we was being pulled I wish I'd had a fancy phone because I would be tweeting the process on twitter. Finally something of interest and importance to tweet about and no technology to do it. But, the phone would have gotten nasty anyway because my hands, well lets just say they needed a good scrubbing!!!!

What a nice Labor Day morning that was.

Until next time . . .