An Unexpected Calf

We were in the middle of repairing our perimeter fence for the two weaned calves we have coming at the end of the week when we got a call from a farmer Judy knows who wanted to know if we wanted a free Simmental 3 day old calf that had been orphaned. WE got the weaned calves because we didnt want to mess with bottle babies but its hard to turn down "free" and its hard to face Judy's sad face.

So we hurridly re-directed our energies and prepped the barnyard corral, built a stall in the barn, layed in some hay, bought 50lbs of milk replacer and a couple of 2 quart bottles, a water trough and then went to pick her up. Once we caught her we hogtied her and Judy rode with her back to our farm in the back of the pickup. So we now have a Simmental and two Angus calves...all heifers. We dont know if the Simmental will be able to breed because she was an orphaned twin but she is red and the other twin is black so we are hoping she is not a freemartin.

Just a couple of pics for now. She took a bottle and nestled in the hay for the night.

She has scours but we gave her a Scours Bolus and we will check her again in a couple days and give her another one if needed.

last time I did this I was in High School.

She is very friendly and once she got over the trauma of getting caught, transported, hogtied etc. she calmed down and seems to be fine.

She is a good looking claf and well porportioned. I didnt find any issues with her joints.

We have her in the barn because after a week of 70 and 80 degree temps we had snow last night and expect more in the next two days. Then back to the 70s for the weeked. We also have a lot of coyotes around right now.

It took a bit of effort but she finally took to the bottle.