I'd like to introduce you to Calf #413.

He is about 30 hours old and doing great. Yesterday was a cold, miserable day to be born and his mama needed a little help during calving. They have both recovered quickly and the weather cooperated; it was much warmer today. We will keep both of them in the corral for another day, then we will turn them back out with the rest of the herd.

Heifers, particularly those that are having their first calf, sometimes have trouble during calving and need assistance. These heifers are in a field next to the barn making it easy for us to check them throughout the day and night.

This calf's ear tag is #413 simply because that is the number on the heifer's ear tag. We only tag the calves from our first-calf-heifers. Sometimes these heifers have a tough time adjusting to motherhood. They aren't used to taking a calf with them everywhere they go. The matching ear tag numbers allow us to pair up each calf with his mama, just in case they can't find each other.

This heifer is one that we bought last fall and was bred to calve in February or March. The majority of our cows start calving in April, so we are having an extended calving season this year. Although calving heifers is more work than older cows who have more calving experience, it is rewarding when we get good looking calves like #413.