Surprise! A Spring Snowfall And Another Surprise

I went out at 6:00 AM in the darkness, the usual time, to give the cows some grain. One of them did not come in for breakfast, so I went out with a flashlight to look for her. Violet had just given birth to a calf. I left her alone and came back out a few hours later, riding the tractor. The other cows were clustered on one side of the bale feeder:

And Violet had her baby on the other side. She mooed gently to her new heifer calf and moved a little farther away from me. I used the zoom lens, so these pictures are not as clear as I'd have liked:

The new girl, who I quickly named Annie after one of my aunts, was big and strong:

It was snowing continuously and she winced when the snowflakes hit her eyes, but she quickly got used to it:

Little Annie wobbled over to see the other cows:

And eight month old Rosella, now almost grown but still a calf at heart, came forward to touch noses with the new baby:

I climbed up into the bale feeder to take pictures and to gather hay for bedding inside the barn. Rosella came over to see me and Annie lay down to rest. She was only a few hours old and this had been an exhausting morning for her:

The snow continued falling while Annie slept. Violet appeared to have plenty of milk, but then Red Polls are noted for that:

I threw hay into the tractor bucket while Rosella tried to steal it. Stolen hay tastes much better than hay she's supposed to eat, never mind that it's all the same hay:

I cringed when I saw gigantic Violet step over her baby, her hooves narrowly missing her. But she knew what she was doing:

But Violet was a careful mama and never hurt her calf. Then she turned around and nuzzled baby Annie to be sure everything was OK:

I came back a few hours later and found little Annie snoozing on the wet, poopy hay. It's a rugged environment for a little calf to be born into, but cattle evolved to live out on the plain in all sorts of weather: