It's Another Boy - But With Complications

Amy's udder had been so huge for so long that I was truly worried. One day, I walked out on the back porch to let the dogs out and saw a calf emerge from Amy's behind. I grabbed my camera and went out to see what was happening:

The calf was huge, possibly even bigger than Rosella's white calf and I'd estimate its size to be equivalent to a purebred Red Poll at 2 to 3 weeks old:

Amy is a good mother, and set out to clean her new baby:

So Teddy, the bull, has now produced one white calf and one black calf. He was half Charolais and half Angus, so these colors were not surprising. I was a bit surprised to not have a red calf, but perhaps it's just a matter of random chance:

Amy stopped for a mouthful of hay before she continued working on her new baby:

And then she continued:

I couldn't get a very good look but, from what I saw, this was a heifer calf:

The new calf struggled valiantly to stand up, but kept tumbling back to the ground:

Rosella, a new mom herself, came over to see what all the commotion was about. Amy was not concerned by her presence. They are all part of a herd, kind of like sisters:

The little one finally managed to stand briefly, but then its front legs began sliding out to the side and it went down once again:

The new calf was active and healthy, but I never saw it nurse. Amy's udder grew ever more swollen and sore looking, with gigantic teats, low to the ground. After much thought, research and prayer, I decided not to risk the little calf starving to death. Amy's last calf died mysteriously at the age of 3.5 days and I kept thinking that maybe she couldn't nurse from that giant udder and slowly starved. I didn't want another dead calf. So two neighbors came over and we stole the little thing from the field and put it in a stall in the barn. That's where we learned that it was not a heifer, but a bull calf. I named him Elvis:

I bought powdered colostrum for the first feedings and powdered milk replacer for thereafter (boy, are they expensive!). Elvis wouldn't suckle at first, but once he swallowed the first time, he was hooked. I've been bottle feeding him twice a day ever since, with a bowl of grain and a bucket of water available, just in case he wants to try them. I have a nipple bucket for when his appetite grows bigger than the bottle can handle: