Rocket's Baby Pictures

Rocket was a hearty eater (well, milk drinker) from his first morning and perhaps the fastest growing calf I've ever seen. He was eating hay at two weeks old. Luckily, his mama produces a lot of milk and is an excellent mother:

He spent a lot of time sleeping his first week, and Scarlett, his mom, made sure he always had a bed of hay to rest on:

I began carrying a bowl of grain out to him, but he preferred to try and eat Jasmine's bowl. At those times when he figured out the correct procedure, though, he enjoyed eating some grain:

 He was a cutie, right from the beginning:

 He soon learned to sneak into the barn and eat the indoor hay. Sometimes Remy allowed him to stay there, and sometimes Remy chased him back outside:

At two weeks, I lured Scarlett into the barn with grain, then closed the door on her to keep her inside. The neighbors came over and helped me capture Rocket, then tattoo his ears and give him an ear tag. It's wonderful to have such helpful, friendly neighbors:

The next morning, he began to take an interest in grain, but none of the big cows (not even Scarlett) let him have any:

 I tried to bring him out his own bowl, but given the recent tattooing incident, he didn't trust me. Look at that chest he was already growing!:

He was alert and smart enough not to get caught again for another tattoo. He also began running in big circles through the snow, just for fun:

 I checked on him often and learned not to panic if at first I didn't see him, for he was likely to be sleeping behind one of his gigantic aunties:

 Little Rocket is growing rapidly and showing much promise. I am pleased:

A Red Poll Picture Album

We had fewer apples this year than I've ever seen, but still there was enough to give the cows and horses a treat every afternoon for weeks:

Jasmine has a particularly identifiable face and a docile personality:

The cattle make dust baths in their fields, places where they can kick up the dust onto their bellies and drive away the flies:

But they spend much of each day lounging about and chewing their cuds:

 Rosella and Tabitha:

The big girls were eating apples but little Maggie hadn't yet figured out how to eat anything but milk:

 Scarlett, Tabitha and Maggie in the south field:

Another afternoon apple feast:

The trees along the edge of the south field are a favorite place when it is hot and sunny or when it is raining:

Little Tabitha, getting up:

Maggie, feeling abused after getting her ears tattooed and tagged:

Maggie has grown into a happy, healthy calf who races and butts heads with her half sister, Tabitha:

Homegrown Tattooing And Tagging

One of the things which I've found most difficult is tattooing and tagging the ears of the calves. The tattooing is required for registering them as purebred Red Polls and the ear tag is necessary for me (and future owners) to tell them apart. When Rosella was born two years ago, I walked out into the field and tattooed her ears before she was old enough to object. Alas, that has never worked since, either because I couldn't find where the mom had hidden her calf or because the mom wouldn't leave them alone. This year, Rosella's first baby, Tabitha, was three weeks old before I got her locked in the barn and called the neighbors to come over and give me a hand. This is what Tabitha looked like before her tattoo:

Tabitha was a bucking bronco of a calf and I only was able to slip a rope around her neck and tie it to a steel post. She soon dislodged the post so I moved her to another post:

She continued to fight at the new post so I tried to comfort her. But she wanted no part of it and resisted with everything she had. When the neighbors came over, it took three of us to wrestle her onto the ground and hold her steady:

I applied green tattoo ink to the insides of her ears and then squeezed the tattoo pliers shut, poking holes into the skin with ink in them. I then added a red plastic tag to her right ear and sent her out to Rosella, her mother. She immediately wanted to nurse. There was ink around her eyes, making her look a bit like an alien panda:

Rosella nuzzled her, winding up with green ink on her nose, but the job was done - my own private little rodeo:

I wanted to find an easier way for the next calf, so when Maggie was born, I'd already made a "calf catcher" by lining the hay bale feeder with plastic snow fence and hanging it from the tractor's bale spear. I was ready to go:

When Maggie was one day old, I drove the tractor out to where the cattle were lounging and dropped the catcher over her. I'd brought along a ladder to get me in and out of the ring, so I wrestled little Maggie to the ground by myself and tattooed her ears, adding an ear tag when I was finished. Her mom, Scarlett, couldn't get in and Maggie couldn't get out. It worked quite well. When done, I released her and she immediately ran to Scarlett to nurse. That's why there's milk foam in her mouth:

The poor little thing was a bit traumatized, but I think it was less so at one day old than at three weeks:

Red Polls are great mothers and take good care of their babies. They also have an abundance of milk, which surely helps:

Poor little Maggie was covered with green for a week or so but recovered well:

As the excess green slowly faded, she began to look better and better. She had again just finished nursing when I took this picture, and there was milk foam in her mouth and splattered on her side. Now all the wrestling and rodeo is over, the calves are marked in the required manner and they are free to live a happy life with their mother and their herd:

Red Polls Galore

It's been a difficult year for Red Poll calves. This is Rosella and her daughter, Tabitha, with Blue getting out of their way:

The big red girls, napping, with little Tabitha and the horses, sleeping in the shade: The tree is also good for scratching one's back:

Tabitha with her mom, Rosella:

Tabitha is a healthy, smart, athletic little calf - so much so that I still have not been able to catch her to put tattoos and a tag in her ears:

But Tabitha does come into the barn with her mother twice each day, so I am hopeful that I'll get the chance to close the door on her one of these afternoons. Then the neighbors will come over and hold her while I tattoo her ears:

The chow line. My cows are, admittedly, kind of fat but bringing them into the barn twice each day is necessary for keeping them tame and for watching them for when they come into heat. Two of them still need to be artificially inseminated:

Rosella and Tabitha, mother and daughter, by the manure pile. Tabitha loves to climb up on that pile and play:

The herd likes to stay close together:

And they like to eat apples. Apples have been scarce this year but I've been able to feed them a few buckets:

When not eating, the cows like to lounge in the grass and chew their cuds. That's the advantage of being a ruminant, that they get to eat their meals twice:

This is Scarlett, Rosella's mother and Tabitha's grandmother. She's due to calve soon and her udder is already filling up with milk:

Ah, the pastoral life. I wish it was always this scenic and restful:

Red Poll News

The Red Poll girls have been living a fine life, with lots of food, clean water and plenty of sleep. Their only problem is the pesky flies, but the cows run from me when I try to spray them with fly spray:

Tabitha is growing rapidly and I have to get her ears tattooed and tagged soon. Even now it will require three people. The neighbors will help but first I have to trap her inside the barn and then call the neighbors to see if they are available.

Blue and Remy consider themselves to be a regular part of the herd. The cows generally ignore them but the little horses feel quite attached to the big, red bovines:

And most of the time life in the south field is peaceful and happy:

There is a third field, attached to the south field and hidden from sight by a neighbors' house. It was hayed in July and the animals have taken to spending their nights there:

On hot days they come close to the barn to avail themselves of the shade of several Box Elder trees:

Tabitha is still wary of me. She seems to know that I am up to no good:

Jasmine, whose artificial insemination last summer did not result in a pregnancy, has been inseminated again. I am watching more closely this time so I will notice if she is not pregnant. The only way I can tell is if she comes into heat again, but that is not always easily apparent. I'm now giving them grain twice daily so that I can get a close-up look at each cow twice daily:

As for Tabitha, she's so photogenic that I can't resist taking pictures of her:

And Rosella has become my finest cow - a great mother with a well attached udder:

It hasn't been a productive year for calves, but the herd is looking mighty fine and often catch the eyes of passersby:

Little Tabitha looks cute with the big girls and folks passing by on the county road sometimes stop to watch this handsome red herd: