A new addition!

I went out to the Deer Field on Saturday morning to check on our new cow "Henny". As I came around the corner to where I know she likes to hang out, there was another cow standing there! Imgine my surprise to have a brand new calf standing, shakily and wet, beside his mom. It was a little bull calf...actually, not that little. He was huge compared to her! She is a small, heritage cow a Highlands/Galloway cross and her calf looked immense beside her. She was bred to a Highlands bull. I swear he looks like a Buffalo. We were hoping for a heifer calf so that we could expand our 'herd'. Since this is our first calf, it would have been nice to be able to keep it indefinitely. But, he is a bull calf so he is destined for the processor at some point in time down the road. Fittingly, his name is T-bone and the kids have been forewarned that he is not a pet. Too bad. The birth was obviously uneventful...it had only happened a short time before I arrived. Henny is a great mom and is completely unaggressive to us even though she doesn't really know us all that well. All is well and we are grateful for the beef that will fill our freezer next year. Now I need to learn how to castrate a cow!