A Calf is Born- a photo journey

Being raised on a dairy farm and now living on {small} beef farm, I tend to take the birth of a calf for granted. Oh, I’m still in awe of the process and how fast that little calf is up, walking around, and nursing. But, recently on Facebook, I mentioned watching our calves being born and many had never seen anything so miraculous.

Last year, I had the pleasure of being outside when one of our cows was giving birth. They were in our side yard, so I was able to get rather close to the action.

Raising animals is an excellent way to explain the “birds and bees”. One thing that my Honey always uses as a talking point is that while we procreate in similar ways as the animals, the difference is our human-ness. We have feelings and emotions that animals simply do not possess since the Lord did not make them that way. What would be horrible in the human world is quite normal in the animal one.

We make the correlation that we are not animals and therefore should not live like them. We should treat this act of intimacy as humans, not as animals.

But, I digress, now onto the photos!

If you’re squeamish, you may not want to view all of these photos, as the miracle of birth can be a bit messy.

I thought I’d start off with a cute photo of calves just lounging around. Next to them is a cow in the process of giving birth. 

If you look closely, you can see calf hooves starting to emerge!

You can see a little better the calf starting to emerge.

One thing that I love about animal births is that they move into whatever position they need in order to give birth. If only women would do the same. 

Isn’t it interesting how the other cows just lay there and seem unfazed by the miracle of life happening right next to them?!

And back to the ground again…

Almost there….

LOOK! The calf is born!!!

And Mama is up, ready to take care of her newborn.

I love this little face! It seems to say, “Hello, world!”

Mama’s next task is to clean her babe. Now, this is one task I am ever so thankful I did not have to perform with my births!

All of our cows are good Mamas. They take care of their babes. South Poll cows are, after all, called the Mama cow breed!

Within 30 minutes of birth, the calf takes his first wobbly steps. 

And, that my friends, is how a calf is born!