Ewwww!!!

Okay, so I haven't posted for awhile. I've been busy cleaning and doing PTO stuff. (You know, the calm after the storm(s)! BUT, this post is special. Just for my city friends! My good ol' hubby, you gotta love him, is in the middle of calving season. Now for the gross! I went to take the garbage out about ten minutes ago, and when I lifted the lid, I about threw up! He had to graft a calf on Friday, and the skin was in our garbage! Okay gag for a minute, and then I'll explain what all that means!
When you lose a calf (we had one still born), then you try to get a replacement calf (usually from a dairy who doesn't usually need calfs!) They are pretty cheap- around ten dollars, so Luke went to a neighbor and got a calf. The reason you get a replacement calf is so that the mom can be a mom to the calf -get it? She has to learn mothering skills for next year, and other mothering things. Anywhoo, she doesn't just let any calf come and drink her milk, so you have to take the skin off of the dead calf and tie it around the new calf so the mom smells it and will start to mother it. It doesn't take long for the mom to get used to her new calf, but you still need that fur or skin or whatever it is called for a while. Why not just throw the skin away in Downey where the calf is, you say? I can't believe how smart I am. I can answer this one, too! (I've been married to a farmer for eight years now!) Okay, so if you just throw out a dead calf's body or skin, an animal might smell it and come looking for food (like a mountain lion, coyote, or anything in this neck of the woods--who knows, maybe a bear!) Well, if all they find is one dead, small calf or a skin, they'll keep looking. With cows having babies every day, they could go get a new one (especially if they smell the placenta and stuff), so we make sure not to leave anything lying around for the larger animals to be drawn to the area! No, cows are NOT the smarted animals, so they wont defend their young! Side note- two years ago we had the cows across the street from our house, and our neighbor heard a mountain lion (cougar). We had to check cows every hour--scary! Not a lot of fun! If you have any other calving questions, which I'm sure none of you are interested in, just ask! We might even get Luke, the expert to fill in on some of this issue! I just got a cool idea, I'm going to take pictures of some new babies! Keep watching for updates!