It's A Boy

Of all my cows, it had been clear for many weeks that Amy, because of her full udder, would be the first to calve. But one day I walked out into the field and found a different cow, Rosella, cleaning off her newborn:

 Rocket, being young and curious, was right in the middle of everything - but Rosella didn't seem to mind. All her focus was on cleaning off her new baby:

 I'd joked that with a red mother and a white father, I might get pink calves. To my surprise, it looked green. Yes, green. The green turned out to be birth fluids, and the baby began looking grayish white as it got cleaner:

 Rosella didn't seem to mind my presence and I was careful not to be intrusive:

 Yes, the baby had its tongue out for quite awhile. Once clean, it stood up and wobbled as it tried to walk and maybe even find a teat:

 Hi, Mommy. I will follow you if you'll feed me. Of course the calf must find the teats on its own, and if they are healthy like this one, their instincts tell them where to find the milk:

 Ah, there's the feeding station!

 The new calf, besides being white, was much bigger than I was used to. Red Polls are known for small calves but this calf's father was half Angus and half Charolais. This view from behind informed me that we had a bull calf, and I named him Lucky:

 I walked back out to the field a short time later and found the baby asleep in the ditch and Rosella eating the afterbirth as it emerged. It looks disgusting to us, but such behaviors have evolved for a useful purpose:

 Being almost white, the multitude of flies were plainly visible but there was nothing I could do about it. It's just part of being bovine:

 A couple of hours later, the little one was up on his feet and traveling with the herd. I'd estimate that he was born the size of a pure Red Poll calf at two weeks old:

 The next morning, I found Lucky lying down by a fence corner. Rosella was watching him closely, so I turned off the electric fence and went to the outside of it, where I reached in between the wires and snapped an ear tag on him. He never even flinched. Lucky is now number 11: