On the way home from school today we, as ususal, passed our neighbor's cow pasture. Claire said as we passed, "Was that a dead buffalo in the field?" Not a buffalo, I responded. "Well, do buffalo lie down to sleep?" asked Claire. "Don't know about buffalo, but cows sometimes do," I replied. So we decided to drive around the circle and see if the "dead buffalo" was a cow resting. On the way, we saw several very young calves in the field. When we got back to the "dead buffalo" we discovered that she (Angus, not buffalo) was in the process of birthing a calf. She was about 100 ft from the road. We stopped to watch. She was obviously in labor, but not distressed. After a few minutes, and after a strong push, she stood up and turned around so that she was facing us. Next thing we saw was a little black bundle on the ground. She started licking it clean and it wiggled it's ears. What a blessing to witness the birth of a calf. We watching for 15-20 min longer, until the newborn calf was on its feet and finding mom's teat. Slowing down to watch paid off! Claire and I both used our phones to take a few pics. She messaged "everybody" and I'm posting the first and last photo of the birth. Priceless!
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| Just Born |
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| about 20 min later |
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