There's been some sadness around the farm lately with some significant losses but I believe that celebrating and being thankful for the good things that come our way keep us focused and help us through the hard times. Today we had cause for celebration. Midnight gave birth to a little bull calf.
Midnight is a Holstein/Angus cross that we got from our friends that run a commercial Holstein dairy. Their neighbors Angus bull jumped the fence and bred one of their heifers and Midnight was the result of that breeding. She was a gorgeous little black calf with just a touch of white on her belly and a couple of white marks right above her hooves. I bottle fed her along with a couple of Holstein steers and kept her here with me for quite a while anticipating possibly milking her someday. However, I ran short of room and decided that her disposition was perhaps a little too high strung for her to be used as a dairy cow. So, we moved her to the beef herd. She was bred to the Angus bull and today, gave birth to a perfect little bull calf. It's almost like being a grandma seeing your "baby" grow up and have a baby of her own. Midnight was actually very calm today while we banded, vaccinated and tagged her little tike. In fact, at one point she came up and sniffed me on the head while I was holding the calf so that Mike could band him. Now I am having second thoughts and wondering how much milk she is going to have and if I can milk her!
(Picture of calf with halter is Midnight as a baby. The other baby photo is her calf that was born today. The final picture is the proud momma with her baby.)