Oops we did it again…Twins on the Farm
It is a good thing they are cute, because they sure are a lot of work!
Yup, we had another set of twins on the farm! And they have been keeping me busy!
If you have been following for a while, you might remember we had our last set of twins about 3 years ago, I wrote a little bit about it back then. And you can read more about the challenges of raising twins HERE and HERE. Like the latest two they had to be bottle fed because their mother rejected them.
This set of twins came as a surprise. See last summer we had a little bull calf go rogue, he busted through a fence, and soon was in the pasture with a few heifers. He was young, single and ready to mingle, so as you can imagine we had our hands full trying to catch him.
While we were chasing him around the pasture he earned the nickname ‘Burger’, for obvious reasons.
We did get Burger in, and we thought we got to him before he had a chance to get too friendly with the heifers. 9 months later I can positively say, We were wrong.
Hello twins!
And there is absolutely no denying who the twin’s father is. On the left is Burger when he was a calf, and on the right one of the twins. Isn’t the resemblance crazy ?!?
Our 2 newest additions to the farm are doing remarkably well. #43 also known as Buddy is a healthy rambunctious little bull calf, his brother who has yet to get an ear tag had a slower start. He was the smaller of the two, and had problems feeding, so his first two feedings of colostrum had to be administered with an
#43 also known as “Buddy” is a healthy rambunctious little bull calf, his brother who has yet to get an ear tag had a slower start. He was the smaller of the two, and had problems feeding, so his first two feedings of colostrum had to be administered with an esophageal feeder, which we refer to as tube feeding the calf. If a newborn calf cannot nurse, tube feeding ensures the calf receives the essential nutrients and colostrum in a timely manner. But it wasn’t long until he was able to suck on a bottle. You can see the feeder and bottle in my supply bucket —>
Now that the smaller calf is doing well, we need to think of a name for him. Any suggestions?
We are super glad that these two little guys are healthy, and the whole family is enjoying spending time with them and feeding them, but we prefer that our cows never have twins. Twin births can be hard on cows, and both the cow and calves are much more likely to suffer complications.
Not to mention this is a super early start to calving season for us!
