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The Rolling Hills Heifer Project

by Melissa Anstey

How the Years Have Gone

After the first baby was born, it was time to name the girls. My dad helped me name two of them. He helped me name 88 and 125. He named 88 Dale after Dale Jarrett, the NASCAR driver. Dad named 125 Bob because her ears were smaller than the others' ears. (Her ear tips were frozen off when she was a little calf we were told.) I named 83, 84, and 133. I named 83 Jerry after Jerry Rice, because her number was close to what Jerry Rice's was when he played football. 84 was named Missy because I couldn't come up with anything, and partially because I wanted one to be named a little after me. 133 I named Mae, because she took so long to have her baby, it felt like she wouldn't give birth until May!

The cows decided to have their babies at strange times. Dale was the first to give birth, on the January 28th. She decided to give birth at almost midnight. My dad called up my cousin Cory Anstey to come pull the calf, just in case. ** The birth was very smooth, with no problems. Her baby was a boy, and we named him Dale Jr., somewhat after the NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.

**When a cow is a first time heifer, occasionally, the birth doesn't go as planned. That's when a vet or other person who knows a lot about cows usually has to pull the calf. They simply help the cow with the birthing process by pulling it out. We had my cousin help because we didn't want anything to go wrong, just to be safe.

The second one to give birth was Missy. Missy gave birth on February 6th, in other words, Superbowl Sunday, right during the game. That wasn't a good time to have a baby! I tried to be out watching her as much as I could, but the baby still had a difficult time. Luckily, the baby was okay. Dad said we should name him Lucky because he was lucky to be alive.

The third one to give birth was Bob. We don't know when she gave birth, but it was sometime over the night of February 24th. I named the baby Bob Jr.

The fourth one to give birth was Jerry, and she didn't have any problems with the birth. She gave birth on March 4th. I named the little boy Rice so then I would have Jerry and Rice for Jerry Rice's show in my group.

The last one to give birth was Mae. She gave birth on March 11, which was one week before our heifer dinner. She was the only one to give birth to a girl, and I named her March. We had been getting anxious about her birth, so when she began, Dad called the vet in Cumberland, Dr. Schmidtt, to come down and pull the calf. It went smoothly.

In late June, the red bulls were put in with the heifers to try to get some red calves the coming year. In December, the calves were weaned off their mothers.

 

The second year, all the cows except for Dale were bred back. Dad and I decided to keep her and attempt to breed her the next year because she raised a good calf the first year.

The four girls that gave birth did okay except for Missy, who had her calf on March 13th in the mud which caused some complications and the calf died. Fortunately, we had been taking care of a bottle calf, so Dad put the bottle calf on Missy. She was a good girl and took care of the calf.

 Jerry gave birth next on March 19th and it was very smooth. Bob gave birth on March 24th to the only heifer of the year. The last one was Mae again, and she had an easy birth on April 11th. She had the only red calf of the bunch

After all the second year heifers had given birth along with mine, Dad moved them onto a different piece of land to spend the summer months raising their calves.

Towards the beginning of calving season, the calves that were in the feedlot were checked by Dr. Schmidtt for pelvic measurements. There were almost 50 kept to be bred, and one was March from the first year group. Some of the 50 were not bred, and they were sold at a later date, but luckily March was bred, so we got to keep her.

In June, we put different red bulls on all the different girls to be bred. In late August, the girls were all checked by the vet to see if they were pregnant, and they all were! I was very happy to hear this information. In December, the four steers from the first year were sold, and the second year calves were weaned off their mothers.

 

Pregnancy Checks and Shots for the Calves

Here are some pictures from the second year when the calves were given their second round of shots and the heifers were checked to see if they were pregnant.

This is Mae's baby in the chute.	Mae's baby in the headgate.	Another of Mae's baby in the headgate.	This is Missy's replacement calf, which had been named Ebenezer.	Another of Ebenezer.
Here's Jerry's baby in the headgate.	Another of Jerry's baby in the headgate.	Bob's big baby in the headgate.	Bob's baby not liking what the vet is doing to him.	This is Missy getting checked if she's pregnant.
Missy again in the headgate.	This is my other cow Sweetie who is not from the Heifer Project but lives with my five other girls.	Dale in the headgate getting checked to see if she is pregnant or not.	Dale again, and she doesn't really like this!	Here's Mae waiting to go through the chute.
Mae again, just a little closer this time.	Mae sniffing around her little area.	Mae finally in the headgate getting pregnancy checked.	Jerry being preg. checked.	Jerry again, still being checked.
Here's Bob being checked as well.	Bob doesn't really like this!

 

The third year I had six heifers that were going to give birth. The first one was March, the first year heifer on March 14th. She didn't have any problems, which was very fortunate.

Out of the five heifers, Missy was the first to give birth on March 15th. She didn't have any problems either.

The very next day, Bob gave birth. She also didn't have any sort of complications.

On the 18th, Jerry gave birth. This year, she hasn't been very nice to Dad, but she never has a problem with me... :)

On the 23rd, Mae and Dale both gave birth. They both were just fine. We almost didn't know that Dale had given birth because she gave birth later at night and we were on our last check of the heifers. Dale was a very good girl because she cooperated very well even though she had just given birth.

March 21st, we pelvic checked the feedlot calves. Dad ended up keeping 36 heifers, and one of them was Bob's second year baby. She is going to be called Bob II if she gets bred.

This year, I was very busy during my Spring Break. I had a whole week off, so I spent almost the whole week working with Dad from early morning to late at night getting cow jobs done.

We had two sets of twins born over Break, one set was born in the mud. We had found one of the twins covered in mud a few hours before we had found the other one. I found the second twin stuck in the mud and pulled it out to a better place until I could get Dad's attention to help me clean it off. We are keeping this twin for a bottle calf. My sister Melodie and I are taking care of three bottle calves right now.

Once again, my girls proved how well they know my voice. Many times, they would stop and look at me when I would talk to them, calmed down, and even came when I called their names. One time, I called Dale to come over to me, and she came right over! They are such smart girls!

 

Spring Break Pictures

Here are some pictures that I took of the cows and calves over Spring Break this year.

Who's your daddy?	Dale getting a sniff of her little girl.	Dale looking my way.
Mae eating some corn.	Mae's baby.	Missy taking a sniff of me.
Bob getting some corn.	Bob eating her corn.	Jerry looking at me.
Missy's baby.	Bob's baby.	Jerry's baby.
Another of Jerry's baby.	Jerry and her baby.	Dale and her baby.
Dale leading her baby off.	March running away from the camera.	March eating some corn.
March's baby.	Bob II on the right with the pink tag.

Well, at the end of year three, we had Dr. Schmidtt preg-check the cows like we do every year. Here are some pictures of the girls.

Jerry's heifer baby getting branded.	Mae's heifer baby getting branded.	Missy's steer baby also getting branded.	Dale's big heifer baby getting her brand.	Bob's heifer baby, not liking the process of getting branded.
Good ol' Dale getting preg-checked. She is about 4 months pregnant at the time.	Jerry getting preg-checked. She was unfortunately open.	Mae in the head gate getting preg-checked. She was about 3 months pregnant at the time.	Missy getting preg-checked. She was about 3 months pregnant at the time.	Another picture of Missy getting preg-checked.
Bob getting preg-checked. She was trying to look back at the voices behind her that were talking. She was about 3 months pregnant at the time.	Another of Bob during her preg-check.

 

As I have said in the captions, Missy, Mae, Dale, and Bob were all pregnant when they were checked. Jerry was the only one not pregnant. We are going to keep her and re-breed her next year. As of March 4th, none of the four have given birth this year. March and Bobette (formerly Bob II) are both pregnant as well. Next year, hopefully I will hopefully have four more heifers to keep!

So begins year 4! Let's hope for good weather this year! Keep coming back for more information as the calving season goes on!