A newborn calf being licked off by his mother. Copyright 2010 Link Bar Ranch Life. All rights reserved.
This newborn calf is muddy. The amnionic fluid came out in a puddle before he was delivered. It soaked into the ground and make a muddy receiving blanket for him. His mother is a heifer, meaning she has never had a calf before. Yet she instinctively knows to get up within seconds after delivering her calf and start to lick him off. He shook his head, took his first lung full of sagebrush fragranced air and instantly tried getting up. It took him a little longer because he had to manuever the mud which was slick. The amnionic fluid is a good lubricant so the calf travels through the tight birth canal. It makes for really slick mud. However, he persevered and was nursing within minutes.
A minute old, getting his bearings in a new world. Copyright 2010 Link Bar Ranch Life Photography. All rights reserved.
It always amazes me how quickly these little guys stand and go to nursing. A calf is born with a wider “esophogeal groove” in his gut that allows the big antibodies from the colostrum (first milk from the mother) to be absorbed, giving him extra immediate protection from all the bacteria he is born into. It stays open about 24 hours and then closes. After that time, he can still absorb antibodies from the mother’s milk, but not the same ones that he gets in the first day of life.
- Getting up for those first steps. Copyright 2010 Link Bar Ranch Life Photography. All rights reserved.
Those first steps are always a little wobbly, but they quickly get their sea legs underneath them and can put enough pressure and weight on them to nurse. Sometimes they nuzzle the front end of the cow, but quickly find that the back end of the cow has the faucets! Warm, delicious, nutritious milk.
