Calves –
A cow is a calf-making machine. Every year cows watch rain turn into grass, and then they turn the grass into a calf. Ranchers and cowboys love watching baby calves run and play in the spring.
When a calf is born the mother immediately begins licking and cleaning her calf. She talks to it in low moans. Within hours the calf is up and finds the udder tight with milk. The first milk is full of colostrum which is antibodies that keep the calf nourished. For the first couple months of a calf’s life it totally depends on its mother and her milk.
Sometimes in the middle of giving birth the calf gets stuck in the cow’s pelvis. Either because the cow’s pelvic opening is too small or the calf is too big, which can result in death for the cow and calf. Most of the time you can cinch a pair of chains around the calf’s front legs and pull it out pretty easily.
That’s why cow people love seeing calves – it’s a wonderful but dangerous process.
