Moo

It's springtime in the country and what better way to celebrate it than buying calves? First, we had to finish getting ready for them to arrive. We cut down a tree that had fallen over the back fence and retightened everything on that section of fence (sorry, no pics). We also had to buy some food for the calves! We bought hay and calf pellets, plus some wood shavings for them to lay in.

Calf pellets. Mmmmmm, delicious!

Our one bale of hay. You don't want to know how much this cost, but we dearly hope prices will go down in the coming months.

Spreading out wood shavings as a bed.
On Wednesday we went and picked up the calves. We then immediately took them to the vet for a couple of quick things before we brought them home. We also decided on names for them: Amelia and Abelard.

Ready to load up. This was the first time we actually used the trailer for its intended purpose!

Even though this was their first time in a trailer, they loaded right up without any problems! Yay for docile calves!

Amelia was first through the squeeze chute. All she needed was a shot. As a side note, our vet's squeeze chute is the fanciest one we have ever seen! It's hydraulic and everything!

Abelard in the chute. You can see why it's called a squeeze chute. It literally squeezes them around the neck so they can't go forwards or backwards. It holds them still so they can be worked on. During his time in the chute, Abelard went from being a bull calf to a steer (sorry, no pics, this is a family blog). That is also why we named him Abelard (if you don't get the joke, read up on it here).

In the new quarters, Abelard checks out his bed.

Amelia giving the calf pellets a try.

Then we brought out the hay. It was a big hit!

Checking out the water trough.

Amelia meeting Cody for the first time.
They have been with us for a few days now. We are currently working on "gentling" them before we turn them out into the pasture. Since we don't have a squeeze chute or anything like that, we need them to trust us enough so that we can work on them freely. Pics of that process will come once we finish it!
David